Women In Astronomy: AASWomen Newsletter for August 18, 2017

AAS Committee on the Status of Women AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of August 18, 2017
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, and Maria Patterson

This week's issues:

1. Solidarity Statement on Charlottesville
From: Kelsi Singer (via womeninplanetaryscience.wordpress.com)

As members of the Division for Planetary Science’s Professional Culture and Climate Subcommittee, we denounce all forms of hate and racism, and the systematic causes that resulted in this weekend’s events. White supremacy is wrong and should be stopped. We would like to offer our full support to the members of the Committee on the Status of Minorities in Astronomy, and thank them for their leadership with this message and their actions within the astronomical community.

2. Women Who Chase The Sun
From: Kimberly Arcand [kkowal_at_cfa.harvard.edu]

by Kimberly K. Arcand

"The total solar eclipse that will take place over North America in a couple of weeks is a chance for millions of people to experience an exciting event (with proper viewing glasses to protect our sensitive eyes, of course!). Given the population’s demographics, it stands to reason that about half of those who will be under the spectacle of totality will be women.

This is rather appropriate to reflect on. To quote the title of the best seller by Nicolas Kristof and Sheryl Dunn (by way of Mao Zedong), “women hold up half the sky.” But women have been doing far more than just shouldering the weight of the heavens over the years. We have been actively studying the Sun, Moon, stars and beyond for millennia. Women have played a key role in observing solar eclipses and expanding our understanding of how the Sun, our nearest star, works."

3. An astronomer who’s seen 14 eclipses is ready for her biggest eclipse chase yet
From: Heather Flewelling [heather_at_ifa.hawaii.edu]

by Zoe Schlanger

"Shadia Habbal has been chasing solar eclipses with telescopes for more than two decades. Habbal, an astronomer with the University of Hawaii, has set up equipment everywhere from India to the icy barrens of Svalbard, Norway over the last 22 years. All this globetrotting has one goal: to stand in shadow for a few brief minutes of totality when the moon passes in front of the sun, revealing the ultra-hot aura of plasma that surrounds our star like a fiery halo."

4. Leading eclipse expert found her own path in the stars
From: Heather Flewelling [heather_at_ifa.hawaii.edu]

by Eric Graves

"Angela Speck is obsessed with the coming total solar eclipse. She co-chairs the national task force on the event and spends her days planning and promoting what's to come. (See our Facebook Live interview with Speck below.)

Since she was a child in Bradford, England, space has called to her and the sky has demanded her attention. She would often walk around her childhood home at night and just look up at the stars."

5. For One Astronomer, a Solar Eclipse Illuminates Progress for Women in the Field
From: Heather Flewelling [heather_at_ifa.hawaii.edu]

By Paul Basken

"On August 21, as a total solar eclipse cuts a horizontal stripe across the center of the country, millions of Americans will get a deeply spiritual lesson in humanity’s eternal nature.

For some university astronomers, it will also be a welcome reminder that important things in their lives can change, if not quite as fast as they might like.

Back in 1878, as a previous solar eclipse neared, the U.S. government agreed to fund a few teams of scientists to travel west to the predicted path of totality — a vertical band, stretching from the Montana Territory to Texas, across which the sun was completely obscured — and conduct various studies of it.

But the government only financed trips by men. Professor Maria Mitchell of Vassar College, already a globally recognized astronomer known for an 1847 comet discovery, was turned down."

6. Job Opportunities

For those interested in increasing excellence and diversity in their organizations, a list of resources and advice is here: https://cswa.aas.org/diversity.html#howtoincrease

-Junior Science Writer for Astrophysics, University of Maryland College Park, working at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center https://jobs.washingtonpost.com/job/38249094/junior-science-writer

-Scientist (Open Rank), Green Bank Observatory, West Virginia http://jobs.jobvite.com/nrao/job/o9Pq5fwd

-Postdoc, Green Bank Observatory, West Virginia http://jobs.jobvite.com/nrao/job/ozxG5fwB

-Tenure-Track Faculty Position in Exoplanets, Department of Physics, McGill University http://www.physics.mcgill.ca/pos/exoplanets-1.html

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