The evolving diversity of the geodynamics community: Ada Lovelace Workshop participants from 1987 to 2024

Abstract. Having a representative, diverse scientific community is a catalyst for impactful and innovative science, and opens new long-term research directions. Here, we present the first diversity study of the computational geodynamics community, by analysing the participants of the Ada Lovelace Workshop over almost 40 years, from its inception in 1987 to 2024. We collected the year of highest degree obtained, the primary country and institution affiliation, and the organisational and scientific contributions of all attendees and infer their genders. We then analysed gender, career stage, and geographical diversity.

The data shows that over the last four decades, (1) the percentage of women participants at the Ada Lovelace Workshop has increased from 10 % to approximately 35 % (across all career stages); (2) the current percentage of women attending the workshop is similar to that of other geosciences conferences; (3) the geographic diversity has increased, with nearly double the amount of countries represented in recent years compared to the late 1980s and consistently over triple the amount of institutions represented in the last decade compared to 1987; (4) the percentage of participants with affiliations from countries in the Global South has remained low (≪ 5 %) throughout the workshop's history; and (5) student participation has increased to over 38 %. We further find that lower attendance costs coincide with a more diverse group of participants, indicating that removing financial barriers could promote a greater diversity in attendees. A gender-balanced scientific organising committee (SOC) could also be conducive to more diversity, as the percentage of women on the SOC correlates with the percentage of women attendees. Given the rate of increase over the past four decades, we project that gender balance will be reached within the next couple of workshops.