AAS Committee on the Status of Women
March 1, 2019
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Maria Patterson, and JoEllen McBride
This week's issues:
1. Does your conference spark joy? Two days at Women in Space 2019
2. NASA Renames Facility to Honor 'Hidden Figures' Subject Katherine Johnson
3. Announcing the 11th Annual Susan Niebur WiPS Networking Event – LPSC 2019
4. Conferences on General Relativity, Gravitation, and Gravitational Waves
5. Deaf Students Feel the Universe’s Vibrations in New Workshop
6. When Pioneers Disappear from History
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| The Tower of the Moon and the Stars, built by Queen Sonduk (632 CE). Image by Gabriella Bernardi. |
8. 18 Children's Books About Female Scientists, Because STEM-inism Is The Future
9. The unforgotten sisters: Sonduk, the astronomer queen
10. Job Opportunities
11. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter
12. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter
13. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter
1. Does your conference spark joy? Two days at Women in Space 2019
From: Adeene Denton via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
[This is one of a series of recaps of the Women in Space conference. Each will feature the viewpoint of someone at a different career stage. –eds.]
On February 7 and 8, 2019, I returned to the Women in Space conference for its second year of programming. In its inaugural outing in Toronto, I found Women in Planetary Science and Exploration (as it was then called) to be a conference experience unlike any other. Scientists, engineers, humanities scholars, and educators were all welcomed to the space as valued contributors to our discussion. … And while no conference is ever perfect, I’m here not to critique Women in Space, but to praise it. I want to talk about the critical things it’s getting right, because it’s the only conference I’ve attended that has done so.
Read more at
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2. NASA Renames Facility to Honor 'Hidden Figures' Subject Katherine Johnson
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]
By Ryan F Mandelbaum
"NASA has changed the name of a facility in Fairmont, West Virginia to the “Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility,” in honor of the retired NASA mathematician."
Read more at
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3. Announcing the 11th Annual Susan Niebur WiPS Networking Event – LPSC 2019
From: Kelsi Singer via womeninplanetaryscience.wordpress.com
In honor of the 50th anniversary of the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, eminent women who worked at NASA and/or participated in LPSCs since the beginning (or near to it) will share their experiences. Join us on Wednesday March 20 (5:30 to ~7:30 pm, Waterway 1-3) for what's sure to be an exciting panel discussion. Everyone is welcome!
Find details about the event and the registration link at
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4. Conferences on General Relativity, Gravitation, and Gravitational Waves
From: Samaya Nissanke [samaya.nissanke_at_uva.nl]
The 22nd International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation (GR22) and the 13th Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Waves (Amaldi13) will take place from 7th – 12th July 2019 at the University of Valencia, Spain.
GR22 is the latest in the series of triennial international conferences held under the auspices of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation. This conference series constitutes the principal international meetings for scientists working in all areas of relativity and gravitation. The Amaldi conferences are held under the auspices of the Gravitational Wave International Committee. Since 1997, they have been held every two years and are regarded as the most important international conferences for the gravitational-wave detection community.
For more information about this joint conference, please see
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5. Deaf Students Feel the Universe’s Vibrations in New Workshop
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
Astronomers at the University of California - Riverside worked with teachers at the California School for the Deaf, Riverside to make space accessible to Deaf students, a group that is not often the focus of public outreach activities. "According to recent surveys, over 5% of the world’s population are Deaf or hard of hearing, but this community represents only about 1% of recently awarded science and engineering doctorate degrees. This is partly due to the scarcity of Deaf-accessible science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses in higher education", explained Mario De Leo-Winkler, an astronomer and director of the National System of Researchers of Mexico.
Read more (and experience the vibrations!) at
https://eos.org/articles/deaf-students-feel-the-universes-vibrations-in-new-workshop
Read the journal article about this workshop at
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10956-018-9761-1
Read the journal article about this workshop at
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10956-018-9761-1
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6. When Pioneers Disappear from History
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]
By Brad Whitehouse
"When women and underrepresented minorities make important contributions to science or technology, why do they later disappear from history?
It’s a phenomenon that Lynn Conway, U-M professor emerita of electrical engineering and computer science, documents and explores in an essay for a special issue on “Winning and Losing in IT” by Computer Magazine, the publication of the IEEE Computer Society. In it, she reconstructs how her own contributions faded over time.
“As a woman, I disappeared from history and so did my innovations,” she writes."
Read more at
Read Lynn Conway's piece at
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7. How some men are challenging gender inequity in the lab
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]
By Kendall Powell
"Last year, six female scientists discussed in Nature how they dealt with gender bias in the workplace. Several readers asked what men were doing to help. Here, six male researchers describe their efforts to support their female colleagues. Some were uncomfortable getting credit for work that they feel everyone should be doing, with one rejecting credit completely by requesting anonymity."
Read more at
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8. 18 Children's Books About Female Scientists, Because STEM-inism Is The Future
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]
By Cat Bowen
"I remember when I took my first microbiology class. It was a general education class, and I was dreading it. This was a class I was destined to hate — or at least that's what I was told. I had purchased the requisite expensive textbook, paid my lab dues, and sat far in the back. But later in that class, something magical happened. I fell in love with microbiology, even though I was told I'd hate it. I don't want that kind of stereotype for my daughter, so I compiled a list of children's books about female scientists that will hopefully inspire some future scientists of any gender."
Read more at
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9. The unforgotten sisters: Sonduk, the astronomer queen
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
"Italian science writer Gabriella Bernardi profiles a seventh century Korean astronomy pioneer."
Read more at
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10. Job Opportunities
Astronomer (Program Director), National Science Foundation
Instructor (3-year renewable contract), Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences Department, University of Colorado Boulder
For those interested in increasing excellence and diversity in their organizations, a list of resources and advice is here: https://cswa.aas.org/#howtoincrease
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13. Access to Past Issues
Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.