History

Professor Stacey Brydges approached graduate students Alissa Sasayama and Jane Henderson during their first year in the Kubiak group at UC San Diego with her ideas for starting a women’s group in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department. The ladies ran with the idea and created SWIGS in spring of 2011.

Thanks in large part to the women who have come before us, SWIGS has grown over the last 9 years to reach over 50 members and over 270 mailing list subscribers. In the last year alone, SWIGS hosted over 20 events with discussion topics  averaging 12 attendees with discussion topics such as “Investigating Implicit Biases,” professional development seminars counting “Leadership Lessons From Traveling to Antarctica with 100 Women in STEM,” outreach activities including Expanding Your Horizons San Diego, and a number of coffee meetups outside of the lab.

SWIGS recently received the UC San Diego Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action & Diversity Award in 2017.