Women In Astronomy: AASWomen Newsletter for November 10, 2017

AAS Committee on the Status of Women AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of November 10, 2017
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, and Maria Patterson

This week's issues:

1. Meet the CSWA: Angela Speck
From: Patricia Knezek via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

In our newest series on the Women in Astronomy blog, we'd like to introduce our readers to the Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy. Angela Speck was named after the iconic Angela Davis, she likes bright colors, is a nerd at heart, and has wanted to be an astronaut since she was 5 years old. Originally from Yorkshire (England) she went to college in London where she was able to pursue her childhood dreams by majoring in astrophysics. After a brief stint as a r&d technician in a Lancashire company run by crazy new-age hippies, she returned to London and completed a PhD in astronomy. Now the Director of Astronomy at Mizzou (University of Missouri), she continues to research and teach astrophysics and to share her passion for all things extra-terrestrial. Her research into the nature of stardust is apt for a woman called A Speck.

2. CUWiP: Building a Community for Women in Physics
From: Rick Fienberg [rick.fienberg_at_aas.org]

By Kristin Grant

"After months of exhaustive planning, RIT will host the northeast sector of the American Physical Society’s Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP) on January 12–14. Selected out of a pool of numerous universities, RIT will be organizing the event for the very first time...By volunteering to host this conference, it’s clear that RIT acknowledges and strives to mitigate some of the challenges women in physics face everyday."

3. Dr. Wanda Diaz Merced featured on BBC's 100 Women
From: Rick Fienberg [rick.fienberg_at_aas.org]

"Wanda Diaz-Merced: Making astronomy accessible Astrophysicist Wanda Diaz-Merced began to see spots when she was an undergraduate student at the University of Puerto Rico. Diabetic retinopathy would soon deprive her of vision altogether, but she was determined not to change her chosen career. A Nasa internship gave Diaz-Merced the opportunity to work with a method called data sonification. This translated the satellite information from stars that she was studying into sound waves, instead of visual graphs - on which astronomers usually rely heavily. She would go on to develop this software further, making it possible for astrophysicists to more accurately interpret their data, and making the field accessible to a range of researchers who had previously been excluded. Diaz-Merced currently works with the South African Office of Astronomy for Development, opening up the world of astronomy to a generation of blind students. "For my field of astronomy which I really love I want no segregation," she told 100 Women. " I want people to have equal opportunities to display their talents.""

4. Why Girls Leave STEM - And What You Can Do About It
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]

By Jamie Davis Smith

Dr. Monica Burdick (Ohio University) "shares her thoughts on why girls and women leave STEM and what can be done to stop it at every age."

5. Insights into Sexism: Male Status and Performance Moderates Female-Directed Hostile and Amicable Behaviour
From: Angela Speck [speckan_at_missouri.edu]

By Michael M. Kasumovic, Jeffrey H. Kuznekoff

"Gender inequality and sexist behaviour is prevalent in almost all workplaces and rampant in online environments. Although there is much research dedicated to understanding sexist behaviour, we have almost no insight into what triggers this behaviour and the individuals that initiate it. Although social constructionist theory argues that sexism is a response towards women entering a male dominated arena, this perspective doesn’t explain why only a subset of males behave in this way. We argue that a clearer understanding of sexist behaviour can be gained through an evolutionary perspective that considers evolved differences in intra-sexual competition. We hypothesised that female-initiated disruption of a male hierarchy incites hostile behaviour from poor performing males who stand to lose the most status. To test this hypothesis, we used an online first-person shooter video game that removes signals of dominance but provides information on gender, individual performance, and skill. We show that lower-skilled players were more hostile towards a female-voiced teammate, especially when performing poorly. In contrast, lower-skilled players behaved submissively towards a male-voiced player in the identical scenario. This difference in gender-directed behaviour became more extreme with poorer focal-player performance. We suggest that low-status males increase female-directed hostility to minimize the loss of status as a consequence of hierarchical reconfiguration resulting from the entrance of a woman into the competitive arena. Higher-skilled players, in contrast, were more positive towards a female relative to a male teammate. As higher-skilled players have less to fear from hierarchical reorganization, we argue that these males behave more positively in an attempt to support and garner a female player’s attention. Our results provide the clearest picture of inter-sexual competition to date, highlighting the importance of considering an evolutionary perspective when exploring the factors that affect male hostility towards women."

6. Marie Curie's 150 Birthday
From: Heather Flewelling [heather_at_ifa.hawaii.edu]

There are a couple of interesting articles about Marie Curie, in celebration of her 150th birthday.

MARIE CURIE WAS BORN 150 YEARS AGO AND WOMEN ARE STILL FIGHTING TO BE SCIENTISTS By Meghan Bartels

"Today, November 7, marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Marie Sklodowska, later known as Marie Curie. It's hard to quibble with the statement that she changed the world: She was awarded two separate Nobel Prizes, in two separate disciplines, she discovered two elements and the entire concept of radioactivity, and she helped bring the life-saving medical power of X-rays to the battlefields of World War I."

It's Marie Curie's 150th Birthday, And Her Legacy Deserves More Nuance By K.N. Smith

"Today marks the 150th birthday of the most famous woman in science, Marie Curie, but making sense of her story remains a challenge. In the decades since Curie’s death, her story has been framed, at different times, as a romantic tragedy of lone geniuses sacrificing themselves for discovery, a cautionary tale about lab safety, and a punchline."

7. One More Pioneering Woman in Science You've Probably Never Heard of
From: Heather Flewelling [heather_at_ifa.hawaii.edu]

By Ellen Elliot

"It is a regrettable fact that science has historically undervalued the contributions of women. Elizabeth Stern is probably one of the most significant physician-scientists who worked at the interface of epidemiology and cancer in the mid-20th century, but it is unlikely you have ever heard her name. You won’t read about Stern’s research in medical textbooks, or find any symposiums or departments dedicated to her memory. But her groundbreaking research led the way to our modern understanding of the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cervical cancer."

8. Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics astrophysics programs 2019
From: David Kaczorowski [progmgr_at_kitp.ucsb.edu]

The Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) is a scientific research facility on the campus of UC Santa Barbara where theorists, observers and experimentalists congregate for sustained periods of time to work together intensely on a broad range of questions. It offers participants lodging, family-visit support, and remote teaching facilities that make a long (few months) visit possible. In 2019, the KITP will host three astrophysics programs Dynamical Models for Stars and Gas in Galaxies in the GAIA Era, Better Stars, Better Planets: Exploiting the Stellar-Exoplanetary Synergy, and The New Era of Gravitational-Wave Physics and Astrophysics.

Information about all upcoming programs is at https://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/programs

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