November 07, 2020

Sigma Xi is pleased to announce that the Millicent (Mimi) E. Goldschmidt Quarterly Seminar series, hosted by the Rice University-Texas Medical Center Chapter, will be presented at the 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting and Student Research Conference. The first event of the series will feature two Rice University junior faculty: Adrienne Correa and Carolyn Nichol. The event will take place Saturday November 7 at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

This seminar series was established to honor Mimi’s contributions to science and to women in STEM by highlighting both the accomplishments of the next generation of investigators and their unique path to starting their scientific career in the Texas Medical Center. The series will offer an opportunity for newly appointed assistant professors at institutions in the Texas Medical Center to share their research journey. 

Goldschmidt, a Sigma Xi Fellow and professor emerita in the Department of Diagnostic and Biomedical Sciences in the School of Dentistry at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, spent her life and career mentoring and advocating for women in STEM, even in the days that “it wasn’t very popular to be a woman, a scientist, and a mother.” 

Adrienne Correa will give a talk entitled Thank You for Biting. She is an assistant professor of biosciences at Rice University. Adrienne earned her bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Michigan, followed by a master’s degree in conservation biology and then a PhD in ecology and evolutionary biology from Columbia University. She began her career at Rice University in 2012. She was a National Academy of Science Gulf Research Program Early Career Fellow and is currently an NAS Fellow of the Kavli Frontiers of Science and serves on the Advisory Council for the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, home to Texas’s own coral reefs.

Carolyn Nichol will give the second talk in the session, entitled Turning Your Passion into Your Profession. Dr. Nichol is the Director of the Rice University Office of STEM Engagement, an assistant research professor in chemistry, and the education director for the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center entitled NanoEnabled Water Treatment. She is working to improve STEM education by creating high quality learning experiences for K-12 teachers and students and university students with the goal of developing diverse STEM graduates who are creative, ethical leaders in a globally connected, innovation driven economy.