Issue of January 31, 2014
eds. Michele M. Montgomery, Daryl Haggard, Nick Murphy, & Nicolle Zellner
This week's issues:
1. Use of the GRE in Graduate Admissions
2. How to Increase the Numbers of Female Speakers
3. Faculty Search Committee II
5. Gabriela Gonzalez is the January CSWP Woman Physicist of the Month
6. Women Crystallographers in History
7. Host a Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics
8. APS/IBM Research Internships for Undergraduate Women and Underrepresented Minorities
9. NASA History Program Office Student Internships
10. 2014 BU Summer School in Plasma Processes
11. APS April Meeting Child Care Grants
12. Women's Institute For A Secure Retirement
14. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter
15. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter
16. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter
1. Use of the GRE in Graduate Admissions
From: Nancy Morrison [NMorris_at_utnet.utoledo.edu]
On Wednesday, January 8, at the 223rd AAS meeting, was held special session 337, which was organized by Keivan Stassun of the AAS Committee on the Status of Minorities and was entitled, "The Proper Use of GRE Scores and Noncognitive Measures for Enhancing Diversity and Excellence in Astronomy Graduate Programs." Here is what I took away from the session.
* The GRE general and subject tests primarily measure preparation for graduate school, not potential for success as a graduate student or as a scientist. The Educational Testing Service cautions that GRE scores do not predict graduate GPA beyond the first year. In the session, Prof. Casey Miller (Univ. of S. Florida) illustrated this point with some good scatter plots.
* Social scientists have developed objective, research-verified "noncognitive" measures of such personality traits as motivation, initiative, creativity, and persistence, which are much better predictors of success in graduate school for students with a sufficient level of preparation and math ability. Details were presented by Prof. William Sedlacek (Univ. of Maryland).
* Minority and women students have lower mean GRE scores than white males. Yet, programs that give weight to noncognitive measures in admissions, such as the highly successful Fisk-Vanderbilt Bridge Program (presented in Prof. Stassun's absence by Dr. Jillian Bellovary), find that minorities and women are successful at earning the Ph.D. and in their subsequent careers.
* Graduate programs that adopt "hard" cutoffs in GRE scores as criteria for admission or otherwise give excessive weight to the GRE in evaluating applications are rejecting many students who have the potential to succeed.
The three formal presentations in the session, or similar ones, have previously been given at the 2013 APS Physics Bridge Program Conference and can be found on the web site of that conference:
http://www.apsbridgeprogram.org/conferences/summer13/abstracts.cfm
Miller: http://www.apsbridgeprogram.org/conferences/summer13/miller.pdf
Sedlacek: http://www.apsbridgeprogram.org/conferences/summer13/sedlacek.pdf
Stassun/Bellovary: http://www.apsbridgeprogram.org/conferences/summer13/stassun.pdf
Back to top.2. How to Increase the Numbers of Female Speakers
From: Michele M. Montgomery [montgomery_at_physics.ucf.edu]
Having at least one woman on the science organizing committee of conferences boosts the number of female speakers. The study focused on 1856 speakers at two annual American Society for Microbiology meetings (2011-2013), 104 all-male convener teams, and 112 teams that had at least one female. When at least one female is on the team, the percentage of female speakers increased from 25% to 43%.
To read more on this study by Casadevall and Handelsman, please see Nature 505, 445 (2014)
http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/articles/10.1038/nj7483-445a
Back to top.3. Faculty Search Committee II
From: Joan Schmelz via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
Last month’s post on Unconscious Bias focused on the formation and initial job of the faculty search committee. Once the applications are in, however, the committee’s job continues. What typically happens next? (1) search committee picks the ‘best’ candidates; (2) applications sit in a file drawer in chair’s office; (3) faculty are invited to browse through the files; (4) ‘best’ candidates are then invited to campus. This is the easiest, least painful way to go through this process. Efforts may be made to avoid conscious bias and prejudice, but opportunities abound for unconscious bias to dominate the selection.
To read more, please see
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2014/01/faculty-search-committee-ii.html
Back to top.4. It's that time of year!
From: Ed Bertschinger via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
January means many things to many people. For some readers it's application season (grad school, jobs) or the end of the letter-writing blitz. It's also a time to reflect on the year ahead. For me and my local university colleagues, it is a time to celebrate diversity through our annual campus Summit, an exciting time of hope and shared commitment to advancing our vision of a community where everyone learns, grows, and is respected.
To read more, please see
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2014/01/its-that-time-of-year.html
Back to top.5. Gabriela Gonzalez is the January CSWP Woman Physicist of the Month
From: WIPHYS Posting for Jan 13, 2014
Gabriela Gonzalez, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Louisiana State University, is currently serving her second term as the Spokesperson for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. In this position, she oversees the work of over 900 scientists from 86 institutions and 17 countries, representing the Collaboration professionally to the scientific community and to the public.
To learn more, please see
http://www.aps.org/programs/women/scholarships/womanmonth/2014.cfm
Back to top.6. Women Crystallographers in History
From: John Mather [john.c.mather_at_nasa.gov]
Georgina Ferry celebrates the egalitarian, collaborative culture that has so far produced two female Nobel prizewinners.
"It takes a very special breed of scientist to do this work ... it is an area of science in which women dominate." So said the professor introducing distinguished British crystallographer Judith Howard in 2004 as she received an honorary degree from the University of Bristol, UK.
To read more, please see
http://www.nature.com/news/history-women-in-crystallography-1.14588?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20140130
Back to top.7. Host a Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics
From: WIPHYS Posting for Jan 23, 2014
Deadline: February 15, 2014
Applications for future host institutions open in January each year for conferences to be hosted over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend in mid-January of following years. If you are interested in applying to host a conference, please read this information carefully; if you have questions, please direct them to women@aps.org.
To learn more, please see
http://www.aps.org/programs/women/workshops/cuwip-host.cfm
Back to top.8. APS/IBM Research Internships for Undergraduate Women and Underrepresented Minorities
From: WIPHYS Posting for Jan 23, 2014
Deadline: February 1, 2014
APS and IBM co-sponsor two undergraduate research internship programs; one for undergraduate women and one for underrepresented minorities. The goals of the programs are to encourage women and underrepresented minority undergraduate students to pursue graduate studies in science and engineering. Both internship programs feature salaried positions at IBM research locations that are typically 10 weeks long and provide an opportunity for interns to work closely with an IBM mentor. The undergraduate women internships are at one of three IBM research locations (San Jose, CA, Austin, TX, or Yorktown Heights, NY). The research internships for underrepresented minorities are at IBM Almaden in San Jose, CA.
Learn more:
* Women's Internships
http://www.aps.org/programs/women/scholarships/ibm/index.cfm
* Underrepresented Minorities Internships
http://researcher.ibm.com/researcher/view_project.php?id=4281
Back to top.9. NASA History Program Office Student Internships
From: WIPHYS Posting for Jan 13, 2014
Undergraduate and graduate students of all majors are encouraged to apply for a summer or fall 2014 internship at the NASA History Program Office. Students would answer research questions from NASA personnel, journalists, educators, scholars, students, and others from around the world about the archival materials maintained at the History Program Office.
Applications are due Feb. 4 for summer internships and June 1 for fall internships.
To learn more, please see
http://history.nasa.gov/interncall.htm
Back to top.10. 2014 BU Summer School in Plasma Processes
From: Merav Opher [mopher_at_bu.edu]
Applications are invited for the 2014 BU Summer School in Plasma Processes, to be held at the Boston University during July 28-August 1, 2014. The summer school will offer an intensive one-week course in the most challenging plasma processes in space physics.
To learn more, please see
http://people.bu.edu/mopher/PlasmaSummerSchool2014/Welcome.html
Back to top.11. APS April Meeting Child Care Grants
From: WIPHYS Posting for Jan 23, 2014
Deadline: January 31, 2014 (APS April Meeting)
Small grants of up to $400 are available to assist meeting attendees who are bringing small children or who incur extra expenses in leaving them at home (i.e., extra daycare or babysitting services).
More information and the online application can be found here
http://www.aps.org/programs/women/workshops/childcare.cfm
Back to top.12. Women's Institute For A Secure Retirement
From: Harley Thronson [harley.a.thronson_at_nasa.gov]
This site was recommended by the retirement planning newsletter from Government Executive Magazine.
The non-profit Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement:
https://www.wiserwomen.org/index.php?id=1&page=Home
Back to top.13. Job Opportunities
For those interested in increasing excellence and diversity in their organizations, a list of resources and advice is here:
http://www.aas.org/cswa/diversity.html#howtoincrease
* AURA Job Postings: - Telescope and Site Project Scientist, NOAO/LSST, Tucson, AZ - Software Engineer, NSO, Tucson, AZ - Optics Engineer, NOAO, La Serena, Chile - Director, Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope, La Serena, Chile - ATST Data Center Development Project Manager, NSO, Boulder, CO
To apply for open positions or to see a list of current AURA employment opportunities: http://www.aura-astronomy.org/hr/joblist.asp
* Lecturer Positions at University of Wisconsin – Platteville
http://www.uwplatt.edu/pers/employ/Lec-Physics.htm
* Two Visiting Professor Positions at The College of Wooster
http://wooster.edu/offices/hr/opportunities/faculty/physics-1year
Back to top.14. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
To submit an item to the AASWOMEN newsletter, including replies to topics, send email to aaswomen_at_aas.org
All material will be posted unless you tell us otherwise, including your email address.
When submitting a job posting for inclusion in the newsletter, please include a one-line description and a link to the full job posting.
Please remember to replace "_at_" in the e-mail address above.
Back to top.15. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
Join AAS Women List by email:
Send email to aaswlist+subscribe_at_aas.org from the address you want to have subscribed. You can leave the subject and message blank if you like.
Be sure to follow the instructions in the confirmation email. (Just reply back to the email list)
To unsubscribe by email:
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To join or leave AASWomen via web, or change your membership settings:
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You will have to create a Google Account if you do not already have one, using https://accounts.google.com/newaccount?hl=en
Google Groups Subscribe Help:
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Back to top.16. Access to Past Issues
http://www.aas.org/cswa/AASWOMEN.html
Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.
Back to top.
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