2017 Symposium

Fall 2017: The 4th Annual SWMS Symposium

Swimming in Confidence- Declaring your Scientific Authority

When: Friday, November 3, 2017, 8:30 am to 5:30 pm.

Where: Redfield Auditorium at WHOI in Woods Hole, MA (see our Getting There page for more info.)

Who: Anyone interested in advancing women in marine science (all genders welcome!)

Watch the keynote speech here.


Tentative schedule, subject to change

2017 Theme: Swimming in Confidence: Declaring your Scientific Authority

8:30 – Check in, Breakfast

9:00 – Welcoming remarks by Dr. Larry Madin, Vice President for Research at WHOI

9:15 – Keynote by Dr. Amala Mahadevan, senior scientist at WHOI – live streamed by WHOI

10:15 – Coffee break

10:30 – Panel discussion: Interrogating the “Leaky Pipeline”

Dr. Meg Tivey, Dr. Paula Bontempi, Dr. Heather Benway, Dr. Pam Neubert

12:00 – Lunch and small group discussions

13:30 – Research Spotlights

Dr. Elsie Sunderland, Dr. Isla Castaneda, Dr. Susanne Menden-Deuer, Dr. Kate Lowry

15:00 – Coffee/snack break

15:15 – The Journey to Confidence

Dr. Caroline Solomon, Dr. Andone Lavery, Alexa Dayton, Dr. Sucharita Gopal

17:00 – Evaluation and Closing remarks

17:30 – The end

Printer friendly schedule

SWMS 2017 full program, including speaker bios


We would like to acknowledge that we are gathering on the traditional and unceded territory of Wampanoag and Massachusett people.

Learn more about land acknowledgements here.


Thank you to our sponsors!

Women in Course XII (WiXII) at MIT

WHOI Women’s Committee

MIT Title IX Office

Woods Hole Sea Grant

McLane Research Labs

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution