Choosing Your Institutional Legacy

UW Inclusion in Chemical Sciences (INCS) Annual Talk 2023

Late Caltech President Robert A. Millikan sat on the board of the Human Betterment Foundation, a eugenics advocacy group which modeled forced sterilization practices throughout the world. Millikan and other prominent leaders of the eugenics movement of the 1900s built their academic careers on the foundation of scientific racism and white supremacy. Today, these legacies continue to harm and exclude the marginalized groups they sought to eradicate. We scientists have an obligation to examine our own biases, dismantle racist ideologies, and actively decide the institutional values we continue to uphold.