2 CAREER ADVICE FOR LIFE SCIENTISTS
WICB members as providing the most help-
ful career advice for life scientists. We trust
that the compilation will prove even more
helpful than the sum of its parts.
At risk of inadvertently excluding deserv-
ing colleagues, we can’t let the presses roll
without acknowledging the many people
who together have conspired to make the
American Society for Cell Biology Women in
Cell Biology Committee and its column wide-
ly imitated and praised. Virginia Walbot,
Mary Clutter and Mary Lake Polan were that
small critical mass from Yale that lighted the
spark in 1971; Susan Goldhor and Elizabeth
Harris were early editors of the “Women in
Cell Biology Newsletter,” whose job included
gathering $1 and $5 contributions from col-
leagues to keep it going; chairs before the
WICB became an official ASCB Committee
were Ellen Dirksen, Nina Allen, Kathryn
Vogel, Patricia Calarco, Mina Bissell, JanePeterson, Susan Gerbi, Mary Lou King and
Ursula Goodenough (33% of whom—Gerbi,
Goodenough and Bissell—were later elected
President of the ASCB); Dorothy Skinner,
who served as the conscience of the ASCB
Council in the early years; Laura Williams
and Maureen Brandon, dedicated editors of
the ASCB NewsletterWICB column (Laura
did much of the research that contributed to
this history); Emma Shelton, Dorothea
Wilson and Elizabeth Marincola, ASCB
Executive Directors who helped nurture
women’s activities through the Society, and
Rosemary Simpson and Trina Armstrong,
ASCB executive staff whose passion for the
goals of the women in cell biology has been
critical in turning ideas into action. Finally,
but not least, we thank Joyce Rudick and
Vivian Pinn from the NIH Office of Research
on Women’s Health for the ORWH’s spon-
sorship of this publication. ■