Anne J. MacLachlan is a retired senior researcher at CSHE who continues to be devoted to increasing access, persistence, and success in postsecondary education for underrepresented groups (URM) including domestic minorities, women, and those from uneducated/poor families with an emphasis on those in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Her research areas cover the spectrum of postsecondary populations including community college and transfer students, undergraduates in general, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty. Among these, doctoral student success, academic and professional preparation and employment has been a particular focus of several projects past and present, including the historical development of doctoral education in the United States and in Germany.
In 2020 Dr. MacLachlan is working on several projects: The 150 year celebration of women at Berkeley as member of the history advisory committee; Creation of a UCB “German Connection” for present and past fellows of the German Academic Exchange Service; Organizing a monthly workshop for higher education researchers at CSHE; continuing her research and writing on US and German Elite Universities, developing a model for international comparisons of doctoral education, and her book “Federal Policy and Institutional Change Shaping Minority Attainment of STEM Doctorates and Careers, 1947-2016.”
Throughout her career Dr. MacLachlan has also conducted research, created programs and evaluated for the NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates Program in Molecular and Cellular Biology in the UCB Department of Molecular and Cell Biology (2006-2017); a STEM program at San Francisco City College for URM Asian Pacific Islanders (2009-2011). She has also reviewed for NSF ADVANCE and other NSF programs, NIH, Hispanic Policy Institute, Sloan Foundation and FIPSE. She has created many programs for graduate students, the last one in the UCB Physics Department (2017) [Link: https://physics.berkeley.edu/news-events/events/20160330/entering-the-academic-profession-of-physics-a-two-part-workshop ]
Trained as a German historian, she actively follows developments in German higher education and has given several talks at German universities and at several international conferences on women in science in Korea, Belgium, Canada, and Germany. She has been a fellow at the Max Planck Institute for History, and held fellowships from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and the Institut für Europäische Geschichte, and other grants from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), American Institute of Physics, Korean Ministry of Science and many others. At CSHE she coordinates the largely international visiting scholars’ program.
Select Publications/Presentations:
“Developing Indicators for a Comparative Framework of Doctoral Education in Germany and the United States.” 32nd Conference of the Consortium of Higher Education Researchers, University of Kassel. August 28, 2019. Abstract, Powerpoint
“Elite U.S. Universities and Why Germany Does Not Need Them.” Leibniz Center for Science and Society (LCSS), Leibniz Universität Hannover (LUH), October 9, 2018. Also scheduled at Zentrum für HochschulBildung, University of Dortmund, October 24, 2018. Abstract, Powerpoint
“Understanding the Network of Interventions Shaping Successful Scientists Through to the Doctorate in Biology Before and After the REU." Understanding Interventions Conference, Baltimore, March 2018. Abstract, Powerpoint
“Preservation of Inequality in Doctoral Education: Tacit Knowledge, Implicit Bias and University Faculty." Berkeley: CSHE Research and Occasional Paper Series, January 2017 Abstract and Article
“Alligators and Implicit Bias: Building Your Career Without Getting Bitten.” Expanding Potential: A workshop on navigating the hurdles faced by women in STEM fields. Organized by SYNBERC, UC Berkeley, November 15, 2014. Presentation
“Hochschulforschung und Geschichtswissenschaft, Eine schwierige Geschichte.” Chair of a discussion on historians’ views on contemporary German history and the relationship of history to empirical higher education research. International Center for Higher Education Research (INCHER), University of Kassel, October 14, 2014. Abstract
“Unequal Access to Doctoral Training in Germany and the United States: Comparing Defining Parameters.” Paper, European Association for Institutional Research Conference, Higher Education Diversity and Excellence for Society, University of Essen-Duisburg, August 30, 2014. Also presented at the Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences, University of Bamberg, October 16, 2014. Abstract, Article
Lost in Translation: The Flow of Graduate Education Models Between Germany and the United States. pp. 79-90. In: Isolde von Bülow, ed. Nachwuchsförderung in der Wissenschaft. Best-Practice-Modelle zum Promotionsgeschehen—Strategien, Konzepte, Strukturen. [Supporting the Next Generation of Scholars. Best Practice Models of Doctoral Education—Strategies, Concepts, Structures] Heidelberg, SpringerMedizin, 2014. Full Article
“German Graduate Education Reforms and their Implication for US Doctoral Education.” Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE), January 30, 2014. Powerpoint, audio, synopsis in University World News, March 2014. Powerpoint
Minority Undergraduate Programs Intended to Increase Participation in Biomedical Careers. Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine: A Journal of Translational and Personalized Medicine. Volume 79, Issue 6, pages 769–781, November/December 2012. Article
“Institutional and Cultural Parameters Affecting Women’s Participation in the Fields of Chemistry, Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science Around the World.” National Academies of Science, Committee on Status and Participation of Women in STEM Disciplines and Careers. Catherine Didion, Lisa Frehill and Willie Pearson, Jr. Rapporteurs, Blueprint for the Future: Framing issues of Women in Science in a Global Context. Summary of a Workshop. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press, 2012. Article
“Women and Students of Color as Non-traditional Students: The Difficulties of Inclusion in the United States.” Tamsin Hinton-Smith, ed. Issues in Higher Education: Widening Participation and Non-traditional Students. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2012. Abstract and Article
“Economic Growth in the United States and the Rise of the Modern Research University.” Chinese Cross Cultural Exchange, UC Berkeley June 27, 2012. Powerpoint
“Federal Support for Science in the Research University: The Social Consequences Between1947 and the present.” Presentation Office of the History of Science and Technology, UC Berkeley, March 28, 2011. Powerpoint
“The STEM Pathway for URM Students in California Community Colleges: A Reality Check.” American Association for the Advancement of Science Conference, February 21, 2010. Powerpoint
“Developing Graduate Students of Color for the Professoriate in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).” Research and Occasional Paper Series, CSHE, UC Berkeley. Paper originally presented at Keeping Our Faculties of Color Conference, 11/2004.
2006. Abstract and Article
University in Transition: Research Mission, Interdisciplinarity and Governance by Anne MacLachlan, Detlef Müller-Böling, Evelies Mayer, and Jutta Fedrowitz (1998) Book