Time to boycott Oxford Global meetings due to blatant sexism

I don't even know what to say or do about this it is so stunningly pathetic.  I saw this Tweet earlier in the day:

Oxford Global’s Pharmaceutical IT Congress: All 38 speakers male! (it seems)
http://t.co/ctu18mKLAw
@phylogenomics @GenderAvenger #YAMMM

— Elisabeth Bik (@MicrobiomDigest) May 13, 2015

I figured even in an era of blatant sexism in science, this must be a mistake right?  How could there be a conference with 38 male speakers and 0 female speakers.  So I went to the site: Who is Speaking – Oxford Global's 13th Pharmaceutical IT Congress, September 2015.  And, well, as far as I can tell Elisabeth Bik has the numbers right.  (See a list at the end of this post).  They even have a running slideshow of the speakers faces.

This is even worse than the 25:1 ratio of the qBio meeting I lost it over a few years ago.  I have never seen anything like this. I note - a 38:0 ratio is nearly impossible by chance in any field and I think pretty clearly an indication of massive bias of some kind.

I note - this is not the first case of a mostly male meeting from Oxford Global.  See for example:
Oxford Global Sequencing Meetings: Where MEN Tell You About Sequencing #YAMMM

I think it is time to just boycott meetings meetings from Oxford Global.  The only way they will change is if people stop speaking at or going to their meetings.  So please - stop going to their meetings.  Stop speaking at their meetings.

Speakers 2015:

• Sebastien Lefebvre 
  Director Data Engineering and Technology – Global Data Office, Biogen Idec
• Uwe Barlage
  EDC Project Leader, Bayer Healthcare
• Marc Berger
  Vice President, Real World Data and Analytics, Pfizer
• Michael Braxenthaler
  Pharma Research and Early Development Informatics, Global Head Strategic Alliances, Roche, & President, Pistoia Alliance
• Arnaub Chatterjee
  Associate Director - Data Science, Insights and Partnerships, Merck
• James Connelly
  Global Head, Research Data Management, Sanofi
• Jos Echelpoels
  Director IT, Regional Initiatives, Janssen
• Brian Ellerman
  ‎Head of Technology Scouting and Information Science Innovation, Sanofi
• Peter Elsig Raun
  Director & Head Business Analysis, Lundbeck
• Dimitrios Georgiopoulos
  Chief Scientific Officer UK, Novartis
• Charles Gerrits
  Vice President, Innovative Patient-Centric Endpoints and Solutions, Sanofi
• Yike Guo
  Professor of Computing Science, Imperial College London and Chief Technology Officer, tranSMART Foundation
• Sergio H. Rotstein
  Director, Research Business Technology, Pfizer
• Juergen Hammer
  Global Head Data Science, Center Head Pharma Research and Early Development Informatics, Roche
• Jan Hauss
  Head Central Analytics Informatics, Merck
• Athula Herath
  Statistical Director, Translational Sciences, MedImmune
• Nigel Hughes
  Director Integrative Healthcare Informatics, Janssen Research and Development
• Michael Hvalsøe Brinkløv
  BI Architect, IT Platforms & Infrastructure, Lundbeck
• Robert J. Boland
  Senior Manager, Translational Informatics & External Innovation R&D IT, Janssen
• Adrian Jones
  Associate Director, Business Intelligence Systems, Astellas
• Srivatsan Krishnan
  Director and Head of R&D Operations and IT, Bristol-Myers Squibb
• Philippe Marc
  Global Head of Preclinical Informatics, Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research
• Dermot McCaul
  Director, Preclinical Development and Biologics IT, Merck
• Pantaleo Nacci
  Head Statistical Safety & Epidemiology/PV, Novartis Vaccine and Diagnostics Srl (a GSK company)
• Gerhard Noelken
  Global Business IT Lead for Pharmaceutical Science, Pfizer WRD
• Emmanuel Pham
  VP Biométrie, Ipsen 
• Andrew Porter
  Director, Enterprise Architecture, Merck
• Gabriele Ricci
  Vice President of TechOpps IT, Shire
• Anthony Rowe
  Director, Translational Informatics and External Innovation, Johnson & Johnson
• Martin Ryzl
  Director, GIC Analytics Platform Engineering, Merck
• Wolfgang Seemann
  Senior Project Manager, Bayer Business Services
• Aziz Sheikh
  Professor of Primary Care Research & Development and Co-Director Center for Population Health Sciences, The University of Edinburgh
• Yan Song
  Associate Director, Bioanalysis Operations, AbbVie
• Devry Spreitzer
  Director, Global Electronic Systems Quality Assurance, Astellas
• Jason Swift
  Head R&D Information UK, AstraZeneca
• Kevin Teburi
  Director – iMed Team Leader, R&D Information, AstraZeneca
• Simon Thornber
  Director, Data Analytics, Informatics and Innovation, GlaxoSmithKline
• Tjeerd Van Staa
  Professor of Health eResearch, University of Manchester

Some past meetings from Oxford Global to consider

http://www.bmsystems.net/download/BioMarkers-BMsystems-conferenceprogramme.pdf

https://web.archive.org/web/20120514151415/http://www.ngsasia-congress.com/

Oxford Global Sequencing Meetings: Where MEN Tell You About Sequencing #YAMMM

Well, got an email invite to one of these Oxford Global Meetings. Sadly the gender ratio of listed speakers is awful. I highlighted the list below (men in yellow, women in green).  Ratio of 17:3.  (See below).  No thanks Oxford Global.

Dear Professor Jonathan Eisen ,
 We hope you are well and we would like to invite you to speak at our forthcoming Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) USA congress (www.nextgenerationsequencingusa-congress.com) or co-located  Single Cell Analysis USA congress (www.singlecellusa-congress.com) to be held on 27th -28th October 2015 at Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
 Over the two days, the NGS USA congress aims to cover updates and application of NGS technologies in genomics and genetics research in the US and UK, Europe. Topics are comprised of NGS & NGS Data Analysis Technologies and Platforms, NGS for Cancer Drug Development, Microbiology and Immunotherapy as well as Clinical Applications & Diagnostics. Novel updates in Gene Synthesis, Protein Sequencing and Targeted Sequencing will also be explored The Single Cell Analysis USA congress looks at new methods in DNA sequencing, epigenomic DNA sequencing and RNA sequencing, informatics, data handling as well as application of single cell genomics in understanding cancer  other areas of cancer research such as cancer stem cells and immunotherapy. The presentations are also comprised of novel techniques in imaging and cytometry, isolation and processing of single cells. The congress also covers the applications in translational medicine and the clinic for therapeutic targeting.
 The combination of carefully researched topics and high-level networking opportunities creates a unique discussion platform for over 250 senior scientists we are expecting in attendance from research institutions and pharmaceutical companies. Confirmed Speakers for 2015 include:NGS·          Sreekumar Kodangattil, Senior Principal Scientist, Pfizer       
·          Shrikant M. Mane, Senior Research Scientist in Genetics; Director, MBB Keck Biotech laboratory; Director, Yale Center for Genome Analysis
·          Stephan Schuster, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Penn State University
·          Richard  McCombie, Professor, Human Genetics, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
·          Jingyue  Ju, Director, Center for Genome Technology and Biomolecular Engineering, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Pharmacology, Columbia University            
·          Christopher Mason, Chair, ABRF NGS Consortium, Assistant Professor, Weill Cornell Medical College. Dept. of Physiology & Biophysics; The Brain & Mind Research Institute
·          Michaela Bowden, Associate Director, Center for Molecular Oncologic Pathology, Dana Farber Cancer Institute      
·          Yuan Gao, Director, Associate Professor, Lieber Institute/Johns Hopkins University
·          Sheng Li, Instructor in Bioinformatics, Department of Neurological Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
·          Michael  Fraser, Associate Director, CPC-GENE Prostate Cancer Genomics Program, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre    
 Single Cell·          Daniel Chiu, Professor, University of Washington    
·          Steve Potter, Professor, Division of Developmental Biology, Cincinnati Children's Medical Center
·          Norman Dovichi, Professor, University Notre Dame 
·          Zaida Luthey-Schulten, Professor of Chemistry, University of Illinois
·          Paul Bohn, Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Notre Dame       
·          Navin Varadarajan, Assistant Professor, University of Houston
·          Alexander R., Ivanov, Director of the HSPH Proteomics Resource, Research Scientist
Harvard School of Public Health·          Viktor Adalsteinsson, Researcher, Researcher, Koch Institute at MIT, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Medical School
·          Xinghua Victor Pan, Research Scientist, Single Cell Genomics Group, Sherman Weissman Laboratory, Department of Genetics, Yale University School of Medicine
·          Cheng-Zhong Zhang, Computational Biologist, Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute