Chen Institute Diversity and Inclusion Awards 2024

The Chen Institute is delighted to announce the recipients of this year's Chen Institute Diversity and Inclusion Awards. These awards, for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars in neuroscience at Caltech, are intended to recognize active individuals for the uncompensated time and effort they are dedicating to achieve diversity and inclusion at Caltech, the wider community and in STEM education. Each recipient is highly deserving of this award, they are all committed leaders bringing awareness to diversity and inclusion, and promoting equal opportunities.

Surya Narayanan Hari
Graduate Student, Thomson lab
Surya has a proven record of working to improve DEI at Caltech, the wider community and in STEM. Surya participates in programs that provide STEM education to local middle schools as well as mentoring Caltech students. On campus Surya is involved in a number of organizations. During his time on the Everhart Lecture series committee he recognized the underrepresentation of female scientists and successfully advocated for an additional award to be made to a female identifying scientist. As a member of Caltech's Organization of the Associated Students of the Indian Subcontinent (OASIS) club Surya has raised funds and organized religious festivals like Holi, Diwali and Ramadan. In his capacity as president of the Caltech Sovereignty club, Surya has been working to enriched Caltech's intellectual landscape by inviting speakers from diverse disciplines.

Thomas Henning
Graduate Student, Camerer lab
Thomas is a leader in working to improve DEI at Caltech, STEM and the wider community. In 2022 Thomas became the co-president of Caltech's Black Scientists and Engineers (BSEC). In 2023, he set up the inaugural Conference for Emerging Black Academics in STEM (CEBAS) at Caltech. CEBAS invites Black scientists from across the country for talks and poster presentations, putting Caltech in the spotlight nationally as a place where Black academics in STEM are celebrated. CEBAS 2024 took place April 5 - 6. Thomas secured over $40,000 in internal as well as external industry funding to support the conference. He is currently working with President Rosenbaum to set up a permanent endowment to secure financial support for the conference in the future. CEBAS will long outlive Thomas' tenure at Caltech, reflecting the permanent impact he has had on the community, as well as Caltech's national standing in the light of DEI.

Sophie Miller
Graduate Student, Tirrell lab
Sophie is actively involved in promoting diversity, inclusion and equity at Caltech. She participates in a number of outreach programs to encourage students from underrepresented minority backgrounds to succeed in STEM from elementary school through to graduate school. She has been instrumental in providing a space and support for the Jewish community at Caltech. Sophie leads Caltech's two Jewish organizations, Caltech Hillel and Chabad of Caltech. She has organized countless lunches and Shabbat dinners. Sophie has been the person to respond to antisemitic incidents at Caltech, including talking to administrators in response to an antisemitic article published in the Tech newspaper. She worked with the Caltech Center for Diversity and Inclusion to sponsor their first ever event on antisemitism. She has also been responsible for organizing events to discuss tragic events affecting the Jewish community, such as the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018 and the recent October 7 massacre in Israel.

Mark Zhang
Graduate Student, Sternberg lab
Mark has been involved in leading a number of initiatives and programs to improve DEI at Caltech. He is a key member of the BBE DEI committee. He was invited to join the committee in 2023 after his efforts to promote DEI issues at Caltech came to the attention of committee members. He compiled data concerning recent years' graduate student recruitment of URMs and suggestions for ways that Caltech can address the underrepresentation of Black, Latinx, and Native American student populations in upcoming years. He highlighted three important areas for increasing the numbers of underrepresented scientists in STEM: 1) Recruitment, 2) Retainment, and 3) Graduation and Career Placement. He has worked tirelessly to improve each of these areas for recruitment into BBE grad programs. In addition, he has overhauled the BBE DEI representatives' program (in which each lab has 1-2 representatives who initiate DEI-related activities in their lab) to institute a formal procedure in which researchers apply to be a representative.