Women In Astronomy: AASWOMEN Newsletter for December 04, 2015

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of December 04, 2015
eds: Daryl Haggard, Nicolle Zellner, Elysse Voyer, & Heather Flewelling

This week's issues:

1. Taking a Mental Health Break from My Dissertation
From: Jessica Kirkpatrick via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

[Today's guest post is by Nicole Cabrera Salazar. Nicole is an NSF Graduate Research Fellow at Georgia State University. She plans to pursue a career in science communication/outreach focusing on equity in STEM.]

About a month ago, I got sick with a simple cold. I was in the middle of writing the third chapter of my dissertation and had just taken time off to get over another cold two weeks before. I was also behind on the timeline to defend my thesis next year, and more delays didn't seem like the best idea. So I did what any other grad student in my position would: I tried to power through.

To read more, please see

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2015/12/taking-mental-health-break-from-my.html

2. The Discovery Program Series: NEOCam (PI: Amy Mainzer)
From: Christina Richey via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

[This post is part of a series discussing the recent NASA Discovery Program mission selections for further refinement. From the 27 proposals submitted in November of 2014, NASA has selected 5 missions for further refinement in the next year. This post, Part III, focuses on the NEOCam Mission (PI: Amy Mainzer, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Managed by JPL).]

Mission Overview: NEOCam

The Near-Earth Object Camera (NEOCam) mission will permit the most comprehensive inventory ever made of our solar system’s small bodies (asteroids and comets) using a space-based infrared survey telescope. NEOCam will detect millions of asteroids, enabling unprecedented understanding of their origins, evolution, and physical properties, and significantly reducing the risk of an unwarned impact on the Earth. NEOCam will detect approximately ten times more near-Earth objects (NEOs) than are known today, making significant progress toward the direction given to NASA by the U.S. Congress to discover more than 90% of near-Earth objects large enough to cause significant regional damage.

To read more, please see

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-discovery-program-series-neocam-pi.html

Part I: http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-discovery-program-series.html

Part II: http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-discovery-program-series-psyche-pi.html

3. Gift Giving Guide from STARtorialist creators Emily Rice and Summer Ash
From: Christina Richey via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

[Today's guest post is by Emily Rice and Summer Ash. Emily and Summer created STARtorialist, the astronomy-fashion blog "where science meets fashion and scientists get fabulous!" in 2013.]

As we approach northern hemisphere winter solstice and Earth's perihelion, we also begin customary exchange of benefaction in many hominin clade cultures.

Translation: it's winter holiday season, and that means presents! Here at STARtorialist, Summer and I have been curating astronomy-inspired fashion, decor, and more for nearly two years, and the WiA blog has asked us to share some of our favorites with you. The Universe of astrofashion seems to be affected by dark energy so it was a challenge to keep this short.

To read more, please see

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2015/11/guest-post-gift-giving-guide-from.html

4. Astronomy Leadership: Applications, Interviews and Jobs
From: Joan Schmelz via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

I didn't get the job. That's how this post was supposed to start, but a strange thing happened as I was contemplating the future of my career in astronomy (but more on that later). This was supposed to be a post about the job application process, the invitation I received at the beginning that made all the difference, the boost I got from an anonymous blogger talking about why women don't apply for high level jobs, the virtual shove I got from my husband at a crucial moment, the help, advice, and encouragement I got from other senior women. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

To read more, please see

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2015/11/astronomy-leadership-applications.html

5. It's Not Just Marcy, and the Grapevine Won't Save Us
From: Jessica Kirkpatrick via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

[The below post was written by a contributor who wishes to use the pseudonym ExUngueLeam. The author is a junior astronomer whose friends and colleagues may be able to identify her from her writing, but who is nevertheless afraid to post this under her real name.]

November was the month I discovered that the fractional abundance of "known" sexual harassers in the astronomy community is greater than that of oxygen in the universe.

Since the Geoff Marcy case broke I've had a number of overlapping conversations with friends and colleagues trying to discover if there are any "well-known serial harassers" at large in their area of specialization. I've had these conversations with astronomers at all levels of career advancement, from undergraduate students to tenured professors. While many of my senior colleagues were vaguely aware of the conversation about sexual harassment happening in the astronomy community, they never guessed that Marcy was on the list of alleged perpetrators. They were appalled and shocked when they found out.

To read more, please see

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.ca/2015/11/its-not-just-marcy-and-grapevine-wont.html

6. Katherine G. Johnson award wins Presidential Medal of Freedom
From: Michael Rupen <mrupen_at_aoc.nrao.edu>

Katherine Johnson, who worked as a mathematician at NASA's Langley Research Center, recently received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. NASA's announcement of the award reads as follows:

"Newport News resident Katherine G. Johnson, a retired NASA Langley mathematician whose computations influenced space exploration efforts from Mercury through the shuttle program, will be honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, President Barack Obama announced this week.

Johnson, who is among 17 recipients of the nation'€™s highest civilian honor, worked at NASA'€™s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, from 1953 to 1986. She was one of a number of African-American women who worked as human computers for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the agency that preceded NASA."

NASA has a nice page devoted to her at

https://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/a-lifetime-of-stem.html

There's also a story on NPR

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/11/23/456832743/here-are-the-2015-medal-of-freedom-winners-in-their-own-voices#katherine

7. Female Astronomers: Outsiders in Their Field
From: Rick Fienberg [rick.fienberg_at_aas.org]

By Robin Wilson

One scholar was mistaken for a food server at a national meeting, treated as if she didn't belong in the intellectual conversation. Another has watched women minimize their achievements in job interviews and worries that female scientists frequently undercut themselves. A graduate student who received sexually explicit poems from a colleague wonders if she should pursue a PhD: Would that mean spending a career navigating a hostile environment?

The full article is available (with an active subscription) via The Chronicle of Higher Education

http://chronicle.com/article/Female-Astronomers-Outsiders/234298

And a brief summary is available via AAS News

http://aas.org/posts/news/2015/11/female-astronomers-outsiders-their-field

8. Women in STEM: A Panel Discussion Across Natural Science, Engineering, and Social Science
From: Barbara McArthur [mca_at_astro.as.utexas.edu]

".. women who enter the STEM workforce are eight times more likely to leave their job than women in other professional fields, according to research by Jennifer Glass, a sociology professor at the University of Texas at Austin."

The Women in STEM panel discussion, hosted at UT Austin on Wednesday, November 18, 2015, included panelists from Natural Science, Engineering, and Social Sciences. It provided a unique forum for both women in STEM and those who research women in STEM. Its goals were to explore the reasons for the continued under-representation of women in STEM fields and to empower women in different stages of their STEM careers, from undergraduates to junior researchers and senior faculty.

Here is the website to the event which will remain online,

http://www.as.utexas.edu/~sj/aware/stem-panel-2015

the entire event can be viewed by clicking on the webcast link.

9. Stem Toys Made For Girls Are The Hot New Trend
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]

Calling all aunts, uncles, moms, dads, sisters, brother, cousins, and more! There are lots of new STEM- and STEAM-themed toys (the "A" is for arts) designed just for girls. Adrienne Appell, trend specialist at the Toy Industry Association in Manhattan, says STEM toys for girls is a big trend. "We named it as a major trend in 2014 and we’ve seen it continue in 2015," says Appell.

	Katie Eckert
	Regina Jorgenson
	JoEllen McBride
	Christina Richey
	Joan Schmelz

Women In Astronomy

Friday, December 4, 2015

AASWOMEN Newsletter for December 04, 2015

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