Martha Chiscon: A beacon for women
Name: Martha Chiscon
Current position: Professor Emerita of Biological Sciences
Hometown: Chicago
Year graduated from College of Science: Received a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences in 1971.
Years teaching at Purdue: At Purdue for 36 years as an instructor, professor and administrator in the College of Science before retiring in 2000.
Why science? "Growing up, I was always interested in chemistry sets over beautiful dolls. I enjoyed and excelled in science and math. Also, my mother was a very technical person, always fixing electrical things, and my father insisted that his children go to college. I had a lot of parental support to pursue my interests."
Perseverance: Chiscon was one of only a handful of women to have earned a Ph.D. in biological sciences by 1971. "A decade earlier Biology typically didn't accept women into a Ph.D. program. The thought then was, 'Why waste Ph.D. support and training on women who are not likely to remain in science?' The climate was a little chilly then."
An advocate for women: Chiscon was the first female administrator in the College of Science, serving both as associate and assistant dean and was instrumental in starting the current Women in Science Programs. She also was a faculty athletic representative to the Big Ten Athletic Conference and the NCAA, where she helped develop the policies that resulted in bringing women's varsity sports under the umbrella of these once male-only organizations.
No stranger to technology: Chiscon, a resident of Westminster Village in West Lafayette, calls herself "the neighborhood geek." She volunteers in the Village to install and program televisions as well as fix electronic gadgets. She also uses some of the latest technology, including a MacBook Pro, an iPhone, a Flip video camera and an iPad.
The perfect match: Chiscon met her husband of 41 years, Al Chiscon, while on staff and pursuing a Ph.D. at Purdue. Al and Martha taught biology classes both together and separately. Between them, they taught more than 65,000 students in their 70 years of combined teaching.
Honors: Among her many honors are a Distinguished Science Alumni Award in 2009 and Purdue's Violet Haas Award in 1999. She and her husband Al are also in Purdue's Book of Great Teachers, and the Department of Biological Sciences named its undergraduate teaching award after Al and Martha.