The Right Chemistry: Nationally Recognized Barnard Scientist and Professor Helps Build Leading Department
 Talking to Professor Sally Chapman, chair of Barnard's Chemistry Department, about her teaching and research, it is easy to understand why the college has earned a national reputation in the sciences.
For the past 30 years, Chapman's enthusiasm for her field, along with her teaching and leadership, has helped launch the careers of numerous young women in the sciences and medicine. As a result, Barnard ranks first among liberal arts colleges in the number of women alumnae listed in the American Chemistry Society's Directory of Graduate Research; this means more Barnard women hold chemistry faculty positions at leading institutions than graduates of any other undergraduate college program.
"It's always been such a privilege to work with the motivated and talented students Barnard draws," says Chapman, a physical chemist whose primary research focus is on the role of energy in chemical reactions. "We really have the best of all possible worlds for them with a small but dedicated teaching faculty that provides a one on one student/teacher interaction as well as the resources of a major research university across the street."
Chapman believes such a combination is exactly why so many graduates succeed: not only do Barnard students develop the research skills and scientific knowledge essential for their fields, they also gain the necessary confidence that comes from learning in the freedom of a women's college, a confidence she says they'll need to enter what remains "very much a man's profession."
"Sometimes, it's the small things that make a difference for our students," Chapman says. "In coed institutions, young women in science courses are often more reticent to speak up in male-dominated classes, or, in extreme cases, not encouraged to touch the equipment. Here, we try to create a supportive environment that both prepares them for a competitive future and allows them the opportunities to apply their talents now."
For instance, Chapman sometimes takes apart equipment before class just so her students will learn how to put it back together before conducting their experiments. She's also been known to keep her office door open to guide her seniors in their research projects while keeping her excitement fresh by teaching introductory courses for first year students.
The alumnae tell the success story. Nearly 90 percent, Chapman says, earn advanced degrees in diverse professions: medicine, pharmaceutical and health research, education, law and journalism.
The combination has long paid off. Specifically, this past February in Washington, D.C., Chapman was honored as one of only nine 2005 Fellows by the Association for Women In Science (AWIS) for her "significant contributions to the promotion of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and commitment to recruitment, retention and advancement of women in these fields." AWIS is the premiere professional association and largest multi-disciplinary scientific organization for women in the U.S., working for 34 years in its goal of achieving equity and full participation of women in all fields of science and technology.
And for nearly as long, Sally Chapman has pursued the same goals because, as she says, "It's a great pleasure to teach people who care about science and learning as much as you do!"
—Jo Kadlecek
For more information on Barnard's chemistry programs, please visit: www.barnard.edu/chem/
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