Latino engineering faculty in the United States

The latest US census data (from 2016) indicate that 17.8% of the total US population is Hispanic or Latino.1However, Hispanics only represent 4.9% of engineering doctoral graduates and 9.8% of engineering bachelor's graduates, according to the 2016 S&T (Science & Technology) Indicators published by the National Science Foundation (see Figure 1).2Figure 1. Number and percentage of US-born (a) doctoral graduates and (b) bachelor's graduates in engineering for 2013.2 Additional data reveal that Hispanics hold approximately 3.6% of faculty appointments in engineering.3However, scant attention is given to Latino faculty members' birth country and other demographic characteristics. [...]we decided to investigate characteristics, including academic rank, gender, and country of origin, of Latino engineering faculty at universities within the United States. For our analysis, we collected information on Latino engineering faculty from all universities that have a College of Engineering or School of Engineering listed by the US News & World Report National Universities Ranking. A previous analysis13showed that 67% of bachelor's degrees awarded in the United States belong to the big four disciplines: civil, computer, electrical, and mechanical engineering; 20% belong to aerospace, biomedical, chemical, and industrial engineering; and 10% belong to the smaller 10 disciplines of materials, agricultural, architectural, engineering management, engineering physics/engineering science, environmental, general engineering studies, mining, nuclear, and petroleum engineering.