Responsible Committees

The Schools Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee (EDIC) is the proactive committee established to monitor, implement, and promote E&D in the School of Chemistry. The EDIC gathers the information required to renew our Athena SWAN Award and meets monthly to discuss projects and take actions to benefit our community. The EDIC presents all E&D data to the School Committees so that actions are implemented efficiently.

EDIC Members

The EDIC is a diverse committee of staff and students, currently chaired by Professor Ai-Lan Lee.

The committee members cover a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. These include dual-career families and partnerships (the partner does not necessarily have a STEMM background), balancing home responsibilities and work (part-time or flexible working hours), experience in the promotions process within the School of Chemistry, experience in other academic institutions and industries in the UK and internationally, and covers all levels and responsibilities in the department (undergraduate to senior levels).

Diversity in the committee is key to fair representation in the School. All new members are welcome to join.

Member Profiles

To give you an idea of who currently sits on the committee, a few of our members have written a brief introduction to who they are and why it is important to them to be involved.

Hi, I’m Ai-Lan and I am a Professor at the School of Chemistry, working in organic chemistry. As the School’s Director of EDI, I’m passionate about supporting both students and staff through initiatives that make a real difference to equity, diversity, and inclusion. I joined the EDI team to help build a welcoming and inclusive community—one where everyone feels they belong and has the opportunity to thrive.


Ai-Lan Lee

I am a Lecturer in Chemical Education at the School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh. I am a member of the School's EDI committee due to my interests in promoting inclusion in all areas of chemistry education. However, my primary role is as a dad to three young boys, so I also rely on flexible working policies to fit around my caring responsibilities.


David August

Hi, my name is Jean and I’m the Head of Student Experience in the School of Chemistry. I became part of the EDI committee as I want our School to be welcoming and accessible to as many different folk as possible. I believe we are stronger as a diverse community – but there are lots of barriers in the way of people feeling like they belong here. My mission is to try and break down as many of those barriers as I can – whether that be by supporting individual staff and students in the department, or by using students and staff experiences to inform pro-active change.


Jean O'Donoghue

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