Beryl Lieff Benderly

Hyun “Michel” Koo grew up in what he calls a “poor section” of Sao Paulo, Brazil, witnessing—and sometimes experiencing—what happens when people can’t get oral health care. Children suffering painful cavities and adults ashamed of missing teeth…

A sugar pill could reduce the risk of deadly pain killer addiction. When a 60-year-old runner fell, broke his hip, and injured his knee in a bad spill during a 2019 marathon, he had no idea that his painful injuries would produce a research landmark…

Open-label placebos may defy logic, but scientists explore promising new treatment possibilities. “You are the active ingredient.” So proclaims the chic, sleek website of Zeebo Effect, a South Burlington, Vermont, company that sells elegant light…

The wisdom of former Freedom Rider Theresa Ann Walker would greatly benefit today’s generation of social justice campaigners. Trained in and devoted to the physical and spiritual discipline and tactics of nonviolence, which the Rev. Martin Luther…

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Female science and engineering faculty have borne a disproportionate share of COVID-19’s career side effects. By Beryl Lieff Benderly The pork tomatillo stew dinner was supposed to be a treat amid the pandemic blahs for the family of Pamela Kreeger,…

For years now, leaders from President Barack Obama on down have been touting science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers to young people as a key to their future success. A report on the employment experience of college graduates…

The large presence of Asian graduate students and postdocs in Western science departments is a constant theme in reporting about the international research scene. The Asian countries' attitudes and policies regarding foreign study, though, have…

Hostile federal policies and a global pandemic have hammered international student enrollment. Biden administration changes could offer relief, but the long-term effects remain unclear. By Beryl Lieff Benderly When University of Pittsburgh postdoc…

Regarding the Sept. 12 front-page article “Biden’s pandemic plan utilizes past expertise”: This past spring, tens of thousands of ordinary citizens across the country spontaneously organized volunteer networks that distributed, and that continue to…

Letter from the President The Mirror Image To create the future of engineering education, we must start with a look at ourselves. This letter is excerpted from the incoming President’s speech at ASEE’s Virtual Conference in June. Let me start by…

A U.S. national security crackdown puts universities and faculty on notice about risks in global research collaborations. By Beryl Lieff Benderly It could have been a scene from an over-the-top spy movie. But in February, when federal agents arrested…

I can certainly sympathize with Kenneth Caban Gonzalez, who moved from Puerto Rico to Georgia only to find that state officials rejected his legitimate identity documents even though he, like fellow residents of the island, is a U.S. citizen…

For institutions ostensibly in the business of amassing knowledge, universities know remarkably little about what happens to their Ph.D. alumni once they leave graduate school. In an effort to fill that gap and help universities improve the career…

Openness, intellectual freedom, and international collaboration are traditional hallmarks of university science in the United States. Recently, however, federal funding and law enforcement agencies—as well as universities themselves—have been taking…

Over the years countless articles, reports, studies, and white papers have decried the systematic exploitation of adjunct and contingent faculty members. Working on temporary appointments, often with disgracefully low pay and widespread lack of job…

Until recently, I thought I knew pretty much all the ways postdocs and graduate students are exploited. That was before I encountered an apparently common form of peonage that I had not even imagined: trainees ghostwriting peer-review reports that…