Traditionally, Colombia celebrates Chemist’s Day (El día del Químico) every year on October 31^st. The Colombian Council of Professional Chemists organizes events or meetings to help celebrate the day (https://cpqcol.gov.co/eventos/dia-del-quimico/). In short, today is certainly a big day for chemists around the world, but especially in my home country, Colombia. On account of this day, and given my role not only as a chemist but also as the Associate Provost for Diversity and Inclusion at DePaul University, I feel very motivated to write this short blog post wherein I attempt to link chemistry and diversity, at least symbolically.

Although I imagine so many ways to do this, what seems to come to my mind with great force is the chemical reaction below:

I think that most of us have been exposed in one way or another to the notion that hydrogen (H₂) and oxygen can combine to form water (H₂O). There are, however, certain conditions that need to be met for the reaction to occur. In general, every molecular chemical compound contains fixed and constant proportions of its constituent elements. In the case of water, there are two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen. Thus, there is a sort of “critical mass” requirement. This requirement also goes along with the need to fulfill the law of conservation of mass which helps explains the relationships of the chemical amounts of hydrogen and oxygen to balance the reaction. These chemical amounts are expressed as coefficients in the equation above.

When looking at the reaction, I see a stark connection with the term diversity (understanding diversity as the characteristics that make one individual or group unique and thus different from another). Indeed, although hydrogen and oxygen are not individuals in the human sense, they still have their own identities (determined by their chemical and physical properties) that make them unique and different from each other. These elements do, however, share some properties. For example, they both can be found in their gaseous states as diatomic molecules in our planet’s atmosphere. Yet, it is through their differences that hydrogen and oxygen complement each other in such a way as to bring about a “new being” or “new individual” into existence. Water, the “new being,” is itself imbued with its own identity exhibiting distinct properties that distinguish it fundamentally from its progenitors. For example, in contrast to hydrogen and oxygen, water is liquid rather than a gas under typical ambient conditions. Thanks to its unique properties, water has played an enormously important and essential role in the appearance and further evolution of life on our planet.

Nevertheless, this wonderful “new being” would not necessarily come into existence by simply bringing together its progenitors (H₂ and O₂). As mentioned previously, there are certain conditions that need to be met for the reaction to occur. In many chemical reactions, including the one considered here, there are barriers that need to be overcome for the reaction to move forward. Chemists continuously work to find creative ways to ensure that barriers standing in the way of a desired chemical reaction are overcome and in some cases minimized or even removed. One such barrier is known as the activation energy barrier as illustrated in the figure below:

Inspection of this figure shows that unless the required energy of activation is provided, the system will most likely remain a diverse system made up by a mixture of distinct identities (H₂ and O₂) without any meaningful interaction between them. In practical terms, we may say that in the absence of the required activation energy, the reaction would proceed too slowly to be of any significance. Interestingly, similar results can be expected in a social setting like that of a university campus. Despite achieving diversity in the sense of having diverse groups of people (representational kind of diversity), the university may still fall short in creating or fostering a meaningful engagement among these diverse groups so as to yield a truly inclusive campus (transformational kind of diversity).

In the formation of water, the activation energy is required to break the bonds holding together the atoms in H₂ and O_2, respectively. Once dissociated, the atoms may recombine to form back the reactant diatomic species or may react with each other to form water. The latter is energetically preferred on account of the chemical differences of the reactants (for example, their great electronegativity difference) resulting in a product that is much lower in energy. Consequently, a spark or enough initial heat would be sufficient to get the reaction started, and the energy released in the reaction (DH in the figure above) can then be used to keep the reaction going until a state of equilibrium is reached.

In the social context of a university campus, it is not difficult to imagine that before any meaningful intergroup relations or engagement occur there are barriers to be overcome. That is, some sort of “activation energy” may be required to break people away from their strongly held prejudices, biases, racism, and other beliefs and behaviors that stand in the way of a successful intergroup engagement. In addition to barriers due to individual behaviors, there are structural barriers that must be removed as well such as those limiting or preventing the access and success of certain groups into the campus community.  In the university context, a “critical mass” of people from different groups is required to have quality and productive intergroup interactions.

Like a well-trained chemist when working on facilitating chemical reactions, an Associate Provost for Diversity and Inclusion should work creatively to find efficient and effective ways to facilitate, promote, and sustain productive intergroup interactions, leveraging the differences among the various groups, and bringing about the best possible contribution from each individual to yield the most inclusive and welcoming campus environment that there can be. At DePaul University, for example, increasing the number of people from different groups in the university is certainly necessary but not sufficient to achieve our Grounded in Mission goal “Ensure a welcoming, engaging, diverse, and inclusive campus environment”. It certainly is good work but as Saint Vincent used to say “It is not enough to do good, it must be done well”.

 To do good well, we need to foster the conditions for an active, intentional, and ongoing engagement with diversity where all individuals feel appreciated for their uniqueness and their contributions are seriously considered and respected. Just like water may result from intentionally leveraging the differences of H₂ and O₂, a most welcoming and inclusive campus may result from intentionally leveraging the differences of our diverse community. And like water which supports and sustains life as we know it, a welcoming and inclusive campus environment supports our institution viability and vitality as we strive to have a “community in which every member is empowered to express themselves fully and supported to realize their full potential.”

It may be argued that upon water formation, both H₂ and O₂ lose their identities, and that we do not really want to completely lose our identities. I would say this is a fair enough argument and it shows that the metaphor presented here can only go so far. Although I am still tempted to say that even in the H₂O molecule, we may still see the hydrogen and the oxygen atomic identities, although certainly in a different context. It is perhaps reasonable to expect that upon interacting with other groups in a social context we are all transformed in such manner that we all can benefit from this transformative experience and yet retain our core self.

With this, I would like to end my reflection with a pertinent quote from Saint Vincent DePaul, “What a benefit to be in a community where each single person participates in the good done by all members.”