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As NexMed's director of human resources, Linda Burns often sends flowers to hospitalized employees. But she has learned that what is a sincere, feel-good gesture in one culture, can be an affront in another. When Burns recently ordered a get-well bouquet, she didn't realize that the floral arrangement's white color was an insult in the employee's culture. It took several phone calls and some explaining, but Burns was finally able to smooth over the social blunder.

"There are many cultural differences," says Burns, who oversees 50 employees, including five scientists, at the pharmaceutical and medical device company's New Jersey headquarters. "Diversity training is something [that everyone] needs at every level, even managers."

As the global marketplace erases geographical boundaries, it becomes increasingly important to have diversity in the workplace. "If you don't have diversity in the lab, then you probably don't have enough perspective from the people who have a vested interest in asking some of the questions to get the answers," says Harry Gibbs, vice president for Institutional Diversity and associate professor of medicine at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

The life sciences laboratory is still a relatively skewed workplace, however, with more men than women, and more whites and Asians than other ethnic groups. A number of universities, companies, and other science-related organizations are trying to make laboratories a more diverse place to work, using incentive programs, grants, and executive search firms. They are also finding ways to make it easier for employees who might not match the dominant gender, cultural background, or color of their coworkers.

While men account for only 49% of the total US population, a 2001 study by the National Science Foundation found that about 70% of life scientists employed full and part time were men. Of those, a little more than 75% were white. The next closest group, Asian/Pacific Islanders, make up 4% of the country's population and 16% of all life scientists. Hispanics and African Americans comprise roughly 13% to 14% of the population and about 3% and 2% of life scientists, respectively. Native American/Alaskan Natives constitute 1% of the population and 0.3% of life scientists.

These numbers may be changing. Women accounted for 30% of all part- and full-time life scientists in the 2001 survey, yet they received 46% of the biological science doctorates awarded in the US in 2002, according to a recently released study by the Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology. African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans received 7.4%,of all biological science doctorates in 2002, down from 7.8% in 1999, a historic high. Asian/Pacific Islanders were awarded 10.3% of the doctorates in biological sciences in 2002. An all time high.

WHAT DOES DIVERSITY LOOK LIKE? While there is no set diversity formula, Burns says the ideal pharmaceutical or biotech company would reflect the country as a whole. For universities, the goal is to mirror the school's graduate student population because it represents the pool of future faculty members, according to Martha Pollack, a professor of engineering and member of the Diversity in Science Committee at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

"At a minimum you'd like to see the representation of faculty to be proportional to the representation of the graduate student body," says Pollack. "I want to see different perspectives all brought to the table when it comes time to solve problems. We're not trying to counsel people to lower their standards to hire more women. We are saying work harder to find more qualified women."

NexMed's five scientists are mostly women and Asian/Pacific Islanders, making the company the exception to the rule. But there are no African Americans or Hispanics on staff. "My guess is there just aren't that many African Americans or Hispanic scientists available as candidates for jobs," Burns says. And while Burns would like a more diverse group, the bottom line is, well, the bottom line. "We are really looking first and foremost to find someone who can get what we need done," she says.

Kenneth Arroyo Roldan challenges the argument that there just aren't enough highly qualified women and minority life scientists. As CEO of Wesley, Brown & Bartle Company, a diversity search firm in New York, Roldan says minorities tend to gravitate toward government and university labs, which he says make a greater effort to recruit them. Minorities are still underrepresented in pharmaceutical and biotech laboratories, he says.

Gibbs believes that students self-select out of the sciences for economic reasons. "It's not an attractive field for minorities because of money," he says. "Research doesn't pay well. And science is probably one of the last true apprenticeships in the world. If you are going to be a good scientist, you have to get in the lab and work for somebody." Another reason minority students aren't choosing science, he says, is a lack of role models. The science community, Gibbs says, must reach out to kids at an early age. "I think you have to start making kids understand that science and math are great fields and you can be successful and make a difference," Gibbs says.

In its 2000 report, the Congressional Committee on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering, and Technology Development noted that girls and underrepresented minorities tend to be discouraged from pursuing careers in science. It supported a call for higher-quality math and science classes and equal access to technology for all students. The report also acknowledges that bringing more women and minorities into science will not be easy and will require an influx of cash to do so.

INCREASING DIVERSITY Many universities and academic institutions have management teams and task forces that focus on diversity. At M.D. Anderson, Gibbs and others encourage department chairs to review hiring practices, search new talent pools, and conduct objective interviews. Gibbs' team also visits labs to educate team leaders about diversity and how to help minority, female, and foreign postdocs to assimilate.

In addition, M.D. Anderson established a partnership with the University of Puerto Rico in 2002. The program promotes faculty and student exchanges and aims to increase the number of Hispanic science students who become oncologists and cancer researchers. "The long-term goal is to develop a bond and get graduates to come and be on our faculty," says Gibbs. Developing a road map is a sound way to approach diversity. Once the policy is set and the definitions clear, it should be made public.

Companies interested in increasing diversity can use executive search firms or establish programs to help locate qualified candidates. In July, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals selected Wesley, Brown & Bartle Company to aid in increasing the diversity of employees at the PhD and MD level.

Beverly, Mass.-based Agencourt Bioscience, the country's largest genomic sequencing facility, launched a minority-training program for undergraduate students in 2004. The program arose from a grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute, which launched an action plan in 2001 to increase underrepresented minorities in genomics. In addition, the Department of Energy's "Diversity Best Practices" award was presented to Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2004 for an online calendar that promotes diversity awareness.

EASING MISUNDERSTANDINGS Adding a diverse perspective is good for both business and science, says Myrtle P. Bell, associate professor of management at the University of Texas, Arlington. Bell cites studies showing that diversity leads to unique and creative solutions to difficult problems. A 1993 study of cultural diversity's impact on interaction process and performance1 showed that heterogeneous groups performed better and developed more creative solutions to problems than did homogeneous groups.

"Diverse teams look at problems differently," says Bell, the incoming program chairman of the Academy of Gender and Diversity for the Academy of Management. "They see whatever problem they are trying to resolve from a different lens."

Companies can help ease the transition for employees who might not look or sound exactly like their co-workers. Bell suggests employers make it clear to their staff that an employee was hired for the quality of their work and nothing else. "There is still a lot of resistance to diversity because people think it is white versus black, men versus women, white versus Hispanic," she says. "People think other people are hired because of their diversity and not because they are qualified."

Providing a mentor who can help new employees understand the social dynamics inside the lab is equally important. "If they are not trained or socialized or don't know the ropes and don't know how the organization works, they will fail," Bell warns.

Language barriers can be a source of problems, adds Gibbs. If two people are speaking a language in front of a third person who doesn't understand what is being said, it can lead to misunderstandings. "The two things that come out is, 'They might be talking about me,'" Gibbs reports. "The other thing is, 'If I don't know what they are saying, I don't know if they are doing a good job.' We try to sit down with both sides and just bring out that it is not a question of belittling their culture, but under a certain set of circumstances you should speak a common language."

Research scientists across the world can expect to find themselves working side-by-side with people from different cultures, which can occasionally lead to misunderstandings. And while diversity will surely enhance scientific discovery, it is bound to also cause a few socially awkward, even litigious, moments. Nevertheless, universities and companies anxious to remain competitive are trekking toward diversity in the lab.

"It's not just a sociological thing," says Gibbs. "If you are going to do good science, you need to have good scientists who understand the issues and come at it from every angle you can think of."

Bob Calandra (bcalandra@the-scientist.com)
1. W.E. Watson et al., "Cultural diversity's impact on interaction process and performance: Comparing homogeneous and diverse task groups," Acad Manage J, 36:590-602, 1993.

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