Anne MacLachlan

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Anne MacLachlan's research focuses on graduate education, graduate student professional development, graduate education in science and engineering and subsequent professional employment, and conditions of  faculty employment and careers. Her interests also include the role of community colleges in training first generation and underrepresented students to transfer to four year institutions in science, and research on undergraduate summer research students. In all these areas her focus is on underrepresented groups and women. A related research interest is the historical development of graduate education in the United States and evaluating the extent of German influences on it.

Prior to joining CSHE, Dr. MacLachlan worked at the UC Berkeley Graduate Division, served as Assistant Dean of the UC Santa Barbara Graduate Division, and coordinated academic placement at the UC Berkeley Career Planning and Placement Center. She has also taught at UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, and the University of Maryland's overseas campus; she lived in Germany for three years and in Holland for five. Her Ph.D. is in German Economic History.

In addition to her research at the Center, Dr. MacLachlan currently works with the Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity, and Diversity at Boalt Hall School of Law, evaluating the diversity of the Berkeley campus and the impact of California's Proposition 209, and with the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology developing and evaluating programs for professional development and student diversity support. Dr. MacLachlan has been a fellow at the Max Planck Institute for History and at the International Conference on Women in Engineering and Science in Korea. She has reviewed for NSF, NIH, FIPSE, and foundations and consulted for AAAS and the Center for Advancing Science and Engineering Capacity.

She is currently involved with three research projects:

• "Beyond the Double Bind," research on underrepresented women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) as undergraduates, in graduate school and academic positions. (Co-P.I.; part of "Project SEED" of the Harvard Civil Rights Project)
• "The Long and Crooked Path to a Bachelor’s Degree in STEM for Underrepresented Students in California: What is the Role of  Community Colleges?" An investigation of how underrepresented minority students get into a science major at a community college, whether they take remedial mathematics classes, and how many finish the lower division requirements for transfer to a four year institution and why. (P.I.; affiliated with the California Higher Education Equity Working Group, Center for Latino Policy Research).
• "The Impact of Summer Research Programs in Biology on Career Outcomes." Research on effectiveness of different kinds of summer research programs in biology on shaping students’ interest in earning a Ph.D. and a research career. (Funded by NSF and the Biology Dean’s Office).

Dr. MacLachlan recently completed the multi-year project, "A Longitudinal Study of Minority Ph.D.s from 1980-1990: Progress and Outcomes in Science and Engineering at the University of Califoria during Graduate School and Professional Life" (funded by the Spencer Foundation, the Berkeley Graduate Division, and UCOP); she is currently working on a book manuscript based on that research.

Recent Publications and Presentations

"The Graduate Experience of Women in SMET Fields and How it Could Be Improved." Anne MacLachlan. In Removing Barriers: Women in Academic Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, Jill M. Bystydzienski and Sharon R. Bird, eds. University of Indiana Press, March 2006.

Developing Graduate Students of Color for the Professoriate in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Anne J. MacLachlan. CSHE.6.06, March 2006.

"Developing Graduate Students of Color for the Professoriate in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)." Anne MacLachlan. Keeping Our Faculties of Color Conference, November 2004.

"Career Choices, Promotion, and Retention of Ph.D. Women Scientists in the Scientific Workforce." Anne MacLachlan. In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists: Women in a Knowledge-based Society, Ottawa, July 27-31, 2002.

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