ISCB News and Announcements

In principle and in practice, ISCB values and seeks diverse and inclusive participation within the field of computational biology and bioinformatics. ISCB promotes involvement and access to leadership opportunities regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, sexual orientation, nationality, disability, appearance, geographic location, or professional level. As a leading organization in the field of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, we understand that we have a responsibility to ensure we are promoting diversity within all our programs. ISCB recently conducted an audit (lead by the ISCB Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee) of our leadership, awards, Fellows and keynotes, focusing on the time period 2016 – 2021. This time period was selected because it was after the Fellows election in 2015 where ISCB found problems with adequate representation of the diversity of our scientific community in appropriate the election process that the leadership was determined to address. The EDI report is in its final stages and will be released soon.

The Society continues to make progress. We can see that the gender balance in our governance and awards reflect the professional membership of our society. However, problems exist as regards broader diversity. Furthermore, a major finding in the report is the bias that exists within the nomination stage of the ISCB awards and Fellows process. For example, for gender, whereas the M:F ratio for the professional membership is 3:1, the M:F ratio for nominations is 6:1 in some categories. We are determined to address these issues with diversity.

ISCB reminds the community of members that awards and Fellows are selected from nominated candidates.

Without the submission of nominations (or self-nominations starting for awards and Fellows consideration for 2022), the organization cannot improve its diversity among awardees and Fellows.

ISCB strongly encourages this community to read the recently accepted article by ISCB member Casey Greene about our award weaknesses and submit a candidate for consideration that helps us address this weakness.

Thank you in advance for celebrating a colleague of diversity with a nomination.