What is WISE+?

Women in Science Endeavour+, also known as WISE+, is committed to increasing diversity in mathematics, physics, computer science and information science. WISE+ is a diversity initiative for female and gender-diverse students, the women+, enrolled in Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes in the natural sciences at Utrecht University.

What is our goal?

Women and gender-diverse individuals are underrepresented in the exact sciences and among student. WISE+ is committed to changing this. We do this by, among other things, offering these individuals a community. We organise a diverse range of activities that focus on community building. We also offer educational activities that are open to people outside our community. These include lunch lectures and panel discussions about the place of women+ in science. To bridge the gap between people inside and outside our target group, Julius joined our board in September 2025.

How was WISE+ founded?

WISE+ started in 2018 as a community for female mathematics students, founded to unite these students. The community has since grown to include students from the bachelor’s programmes in physics, computer science and information science. We are also in the process of including the corresponding master’s programmes.

Originally, WISE+ activities were funded by the Johanna Westerdijk Award, won by Valentijn Karemaker. Since 2024, they have been funded by the departments of Mathematics, Physics and Information and Computing Science at Utrecht University.