Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Diversity & Inclusion events at the AAS Meeting in Denver

Please join the CSWA at the 232nd AAS meeting in Denver, CO, June 3-7, starting this coming weekend! Here are a few sessions with CSWA support and/or participation, and diversity/inclusion meeting events of general interest.

1. "Student Reception: Orientation & Grad School Fair and Student Pavilion", Sunday June 3, 5:30 - 7 PM, Governor's Square 15. Please encourage your students (undergraduate and graduate), and junior professionals to attend and network with their peers and mentors. Feel free to join us and the AAS in advertising this on Facebook, Twitter and via direct emails to undergraduates and Junior Members, using the hashtag #AAS232. CSWA member Aparna Venkatesan will be at the CSMA table at this event so please stop by for any information.

2. Special Session on AAS Taskforce on Diversity and Inclusion in Astronomy Graduate Education, Monday June 4,  10:40-12:10, Governor's Square 16. The AAS Board of Trustees has undertaken a 2-stage effort to update the 1996 report on graduate education. The recommendations will include the collection of vital data, a menu of evidence-based approaches related to recruitment and enrollment of talented and diverse graduate students, and practices leading to broadly successful graduation rates. The task force is hosting a special session to provide an opportunity for discussion and input by the larger community. Click here for an overview on the AAS Grad Education Diversity Taskforce: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lyuO39gGVc8y1wlUQMtUy7iSuEM6CBbSMhZBjt3GYxI/edit

3. Special Session on Indigenous Knowledge in 21st Century Science,  Tuesday June 5, 10:40-12:10, Governor's Square 16. This session is sponsored by the CSMA and CSWA, with confirmed speakers Dr. Nancy Maryboy (Indigenous Education Institute, and University of Washington), Dr. David Begay (Indigenous Education Institute, and University of New Mexico), Dr. Isabel Hawkins (San Francisco Exploratorium), and Ka'iu Kimura ('Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawai'i). The session will begin with taking a moment to honor Dr. Paul Coleman (University of HawaiĘ»i Institute for Astronomy). Dr. Coleman was the first Native Hawaiian with a doctorate in astrophysics. He passed away at his home on January 16th, 2018.

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

CSWA @ the AAS Meeting in Denver

The CSWA has organized two events at the upcoming AAS Meeting in Denver. 

The first, "CSWA Priorities in the 2020's" invites attendees to determine the committee's priorities into the next decade. This meeting will build on the input collected from those in attendance at the special session and the Meet and Greet at AAS 231 in January 2018. A CSWA survey will soon be active, on which to rate the issues that the community finds important to address and to suggest additional issues, results of which will be open for discussion. The meeting is on Monday, June 4, from 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM in Plaza Court 3. Please participate! It's an opportunity open to everyone who is interested.

The second meeting, "Drafting 'State of the Profession' White Papers", is an outgrowth of Monday's meeting. Here, participants will organize themselves into writing committees and teams, making an outline, and making a plan for writing for white paper ideas that came out of the earlier meeting. This meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 5, from 6:00pm–7:30pm, in Plaza Court 3Please participate! It's an opportunity open to everyone who is interested.

The CSWA also supports the session, "Decadal Survey Preparations: State of the Profession", in which leaders of several advisory efforts will present their activities to the larger community, build collaborations on topics of interest, and solicit additional signatories to their efforts. Among these projects are white papers that resulted from the Women in Astronomy IV meeting in June 2018. This meeting will be on Wednesday, June 6, from 10:40 AM - 12:10 PM, in Governor's Square 10.

Please feel free to submit any comments in the comment boxes below; we look forward to seeing you in Denver!

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Cross-post: New Director of Air and Space Museum is the First Woman to Hold the Job


Former NASA Chief Scientist Ellen Stofan recently became the first woman to hold the position of director of the National Air and Space Museum. She recently spoke with the hosts of NPR's All Things Considered about her new position and passion for space science.

Read more and hear the interview at:

https://www.npr.org/2018/04/30/607076266/new-director-of-air-and-space-museum-is-the-first-woman-to-hold-the-job

Friday, May 11, 2018

AASWomen Newsletter for May 11, 2018

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of May 11, 2018
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, and Maria Patterson

This week's issues:

1. The Awakening                 
2. The #MeToo campaign is gaining ground in China
3. Former NASA Chief Scientist Heads National Air and Space Museum
4. Harassment should count as scientific misconduct 
5. The first person on Mars 'should be a woman' 
6. Men Get Credit for Voicing Ideas, but Not Problems. Women Don’t Get Credit for Either
7. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter
8. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter
9. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Cross-post: Meet the Women of Breakthrough: Portraits of Women in Science

Image Credit: Science Friday
Breakthrough: Portraits of Women in Science is a new documentary series by Science Friday and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Producer Emily Driscoll recently described the series on the Voices section of Scientific American: "The series shows how women at the forefront of their careers navigate personal and profession challenges in their path to discovery. Showing how these researchers overcome challenges like disabilities, dangerous field conditions, and going against cultural expectations, will hopefully inspire future generations of women in STEM.

The overall challenges faced by women in STEM as a group have been well documented. Women make up half the workforce, but less than a third of STEM jobs, and are more likely than men to leave those positions. At the same time, women and scientists are underrepresented on film, and a recent survey found that most Americans aren’t able to name a living scientist. It was clear to all involved that a creative collaboration to share stories of women in science would be an ideal project and Breakthrough: Portraits of Women in Science was born."

Read more and see the videos at:

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/meet-the-women-of-breakthrough-portraits-of-women-in-science/

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Volunteer Reviewers Needed for NASA Programs

By Max Bernstein

Dr. Bernstein is the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Lead for Research at NASA Headquarters. This post also appears on the Women in Planetary Science blog

As the lead for research at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD), I am often told by the NASA HQ folks who run the research programs that it's a lot of work to find enough qualified proposal reviewers who are not conflicted. Similarly, it's not uncommon for proposers who are unhappy with their evaluations to assert that the people who reviewed their proposal must have been unqualified. To solve both of these problems and, just as importantly, to increase the diversity of the pool of reviewers, I am writing this appeal to potential reviewers:

Please sign up using our web-based volunteer reviewer forms. Each form asks for: 1. contact information, 2. whether you are willing to be a panelist, mail-in reviewer, or executive secretary (good for graduate students and post docs who have never served as a reviewer before) and 3. identify specific technical areas of expertise.

There are many different technical areas depending on the program, from Solar Interior through Outer Heliosphere and the Interstellar Boundary in Heliophysics, from formation of the Solar System to technology development in planetary science, as well as Astrophysics data analysis and Earth Surface and Interior and Space Geodesy Programs. Links to all of the forms may be found at https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/volunteer-review-panels.