The Dudman Lab cares to make our work accessible to a broad collection of people so that other individuals understand and/or appreciate the scientific contributions of our group, past and present. Our goal is to influence the thinking of ourselves and others through reasoned argument and careful empiricism - and to engage others in a collective endeavor as we strive for understanding.
As one example, our lab cares deeply about progressing the treatment of neurological disease. As a basic science lab we depend upon our ability to receive insight from other disciplines and individuals and to pass on our insights that ultimately convert knowledge and techniques from basic science into collective progress. As a mentor I want to see people in the group go on to take their work along new avenues of thinking after our time working together. I believe a corollary of this perspective is that we should seek to be as inclusive as possible with the scientists we directly work with, and the community that we engage with our work.
I want to be clear that as the head of our group I believe we are all susceptible to bias in its many forms - biases on the basis of assumed racial or gender categorization being the most pernicious in American society. I do not believe myself to be free of bias. I, we, do try hard to acknowledge and actively repudiate bias we detect in our behavior or our beliefs or our science. It is unethical when we fail to acknowledge bias and thus choose not to act.
We believe that diversity in the lab is a goal that we all share because it is good and right and just. An appreciation of diversity is a sign of a healthy scientific mind and this directly extends to ethnic and/or cultural backgrounds, not just technical or disciplinary backgrounds.
I am delighted by the diversity of people that I have had the chance to work with, and proud of the outreach that many in the lab have done in the past. Going forward we will continue to use our good fortune to extend opportunities and exposure to science to those who may not otherwise have the opportunity. We will continue to strive for and get better at sharing and communicating our science broadly.