WAA honors physicist Durand

The Wisconsin Alumni Association (WAA) will honor physics professor Bernice Durand with the Faculty and Staff Recognition Award at its Cabinet 99 Symposium of Nov. 8-9. Criteria for the award include outstanding contributions to the university in research, teaching, outreach or service; a commitment to increasing opportunities for women; and a reputation for leadership, tenacity and courage.

Durand has been a pioneer for women in science since her youth. At age four, she started “inventing” math not taught until the college level. By age 15, she was employed at the Synchrotron in Ames, Iowa, and she entered Harvard as a physics major at age 16. Durand later returned to Ames and, in 1971, became only the second woman to earn a Ph.D. in physics from Iowa State University.

Her experience as a role model at UW–Madison began in 1970, when she was the only female lecturer in the physics department, and now includes her involvement in the Women Faculty Mentoring Program and the National Science Foundation-sponsored Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Institute.

Durand feels strongly about encouraging women to pursue science as a profession. “It’s extremely rewarding intellectually and very exciting,” she explains. “However, women in science need to be prepared to be role models and take on extra responsibilities because there are still so few of us.”

“Professor Durand exemplifies the ideals that Cabinet 99 endeavors to achieve,” says Paula Bonner, WAA’s president and CEO. “Not only has she made outstanding contributions to the university in her field, but also to women in science through her mentoring, teaching and advocacy on campus.”

During the past 30 years, Durand has helped shape the campus climate at UW–Madison. She championed the fight against hate speech on campus and helped to develop an ethnic studies requirement as a member of various university committees. In the last three years, she chaired the chancellor search and screen committee, the executive committee of the faculty and the Plan 2008 committee. Today, she chairs the athletic board. During the summers, Durand stays up-to-date in her research field of theoretical particle physics at the Aspen Center for Physics.

Cabinet 99, a WAA initiative, strives to create a network of women to support leadership development, mentoring, and advocacy policies and programs affecting women at the university. It gives out its Faculty and Staff Recognition Award at its biennial fall meeting. For more information and to register for the Nov. 8 program, visit http://uwalumni.com/cabinet99.