I disagree with you: you absolutely look like you belong there. You don't look like the token female or Asian because scientists don't create token positions. I think science is pretty gender-blind and color-blind. On the downside, that means that a lot of (white, male) scientists don't recognize that the under-representation of women and minorities is a problem; but on the upside, it means that your audience will accept you and give you their respect and attention as long as you know what you're talking about. And you look like you know what you're talking about. You're definitely not there to be a box ticker.
By the way, are Asian scientists under-represented in the UK? I just ask out of curiosity. In the US, Asians make up nearly half of young physicists and are growing in number in the senior ranks. I'll admit we don't have many Filipinos, but we have lots of Japanese, Koreans, Thais, Indians and especially Chinese. When I got my PhD, I was the only one of the four grad students in my group who wasn't Chinese. I would never think of an Asian as a box ticker for race because here, Asians are the new majority.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-06-01 02:41 am (UTC)By the way, are Asian scientists under-represented in the UK? I just ask out of curiosity. In the US, Asians make up nearly half of young physicists and are growing in number in the senior ranks. I'll admit we don't have many Filipinos, but we have lots of Japanese, Koreans, Thais, Indians and especially Chinese. When I got my PhD, I was the only one of the four grad students in my group who wasn't Chinese. I would never think of an Asian as a box ticker for race because here, Asians are the new majority.