Claudia Rawn is used to talking about science, so when asked to speak about women in the STEM disciplines, she was a bit out of her comfort zone.

The speaking invitation came from organizers with the University of Tennessee’s inaugural Women in STEM Research Symposium, held in April.

“My research has an introduction, discussion about the methodologies and results, and I feel very sure of it,” explains Rawn, a senior research staff member in the Diffraction and Thermophysical Properties Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and an assistant professor in the University of Tennessee’s Materials Science and Engineering Department.

“I’ve done a talk on women in STEM before and have really enjoyed it, but it’s a much more difficult problem than I usually work on because there are so many different factors.

“It’s not a controlled laboratory experiment.”

The National Science Foundation developed the acronym STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – in the 1990s to represent the need for integration of scientific disciplines and a push towards science in order to maintain the United States’ ability to be competitive in the global marketplace.

Since then, educational institutions have worked to increase student engagement in science; specifically in grades K-12.

“We are banking a lot on STEM disciplines in the future, so it needs talented, creative people. The focus of my talk [was] two-fold: why STEM fields need women and why women need to be in STEM fields,” Rawn says.

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