Issue of March 22, 2019
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Maria Patterson, JoEllen McBride, and Alessandra Aloisi (guest ed.)
Today's guest editor is Alessandra Aloisi. Alessandra studies stars and gas in nearby star-forming galaxies with UV/optical/NIR imaging and UV/optical spectroscopy to infer their chemical and evolutionary state. She received her PhD from Bologna University (Italy) in 1999. She then landed in the US and launched her career as postdoc at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), and as associate research scientist at Johns Hopkins University. Alessandra joined the research staff at STScI in 2003, working first for the European Space Agency (ESA) and transferring to a position with the Association of the Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) in 2009. At STScI, Alessandra started as instrument scientist for the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope, and became the lead for the team responsible for the calibration, operations, and user support of these spectrographs just before the Hubble Servicing Mission 4. She then moved to be the Deputy Division Head of the Operations & Engineering Division, and is now the Head of the Science Mission Office where she oversees the science career and infrastructure of STScI as well as HST and JWST science policies.
This week's issues:
2. The Case for Disciplining Faculty Harassers
3. Who invented the dishwasher, windshield wiper, caller ID? Women created these 50 inventions.
4. First person on Mars is likely to be a woman, NASA says
5. This Northern Va. student won the $250,000 prize in a top science competition
6. 7 books about women’s space history for women’s history month
7. The Woman who knows everything about the Universe
8. U.S. Mathematician Becomes First Woman To Win Abel Prize, 'Math's Nobel'
9. High-pressure research and a return to China: meet Haiyan Zheng
10. Study: U.S. gives less early-career research funding to women
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. Women in Observatory Blog
From: Cristina Thomas via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
By Pascale Hibon
“Although there is already one or more Women in Astronomy groups, life in observatories has different challenges, very specific to the exceptional character of the job: Traveling for several days/weeks to remote places, Working a night with only male colleagues/peers. The objectives of this blog are to collect, inform, and support women experiencing life in Astronomical Observatories.”
Read more at
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2019/03/women-in-observatory-blog.html
Back to top.2. The Case for Disciplining Faculty Harassers
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]
By Colleen Flaherty
"Based on a review of literature and policies on trauma-informed and comprehensive prevention, there is a clear “need for each educational institution to commit to the meaningful discipline,” the paper says -- including “serious sanctions involving temporary or permanent separation, of those found responsible of sexual harassment from the campus, especially if they are faculty holding significantly greater formal and informal power over students.”
Anything less risks what’s been called institutional betrayal, or hurting stakeholder confidence."
Read more at
Back to top.3. Who invented the dishwasher, windshield wiper, caller ID? Women created these 50 inventions.
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]
By Josie Green
"As of last year, only 10 percent of U.S. patent holders were women, although women account for half of doctoral degrees in science and engineering. This disparity is due in part to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office being more likely to reject patents with women as sole applicants.
Further, when patents sought by women are approved, they are more likely to have added parameters that made the description of the patents far more detailed. These revisions tend to lower the scope of the patent, making it weaker and less valuable."
Read more at
Back to top.4. First person on Mars is likely to be a woman, NASA says
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]
“A top NASA official says the first person on Mars will likely be a woman.“
Read more at
https://abc13.com/science/first-person-on-mars-is-likely-to-be-a-woman-nasa-says/5201192
Back to top.5. This Northern Va. student won the $250,000 prize in a top science competition
From: John Mather [johncm12_at_gmail.com]
By Debbie Truong “In sixth grade, Ana Humphrey attended the nation’s oldest and most prestigious high school science competition and was inspired after speaking with a student who claimed the top prize that year. Humphrey left that year with dreams of conducting her own research. On Tuesday night, at a black-tie gala inside a soaring hall at the National Building Museum in Washington, the 18-year-old from the city of Alexandria, Va., was awarded the $250,000 top prize at the Regeneron Science Talent Search.” Read more at
Back to top.6. 7 books about women’s space history for women’s history month
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]
By Swapna Krishna
"When you hear about the history of space science and space exploration, it often seems like a laundry list of men and their achievements. The fact is, though, women have been doing science and making breakthroughs as long as there has been such a thing as science.
This is a list of books about just a few of the women who helped us survey the stars and reach them for the first time. These are stories of triumphs but also rejection due to rampant sexism. We’ve got a long way to go before the genders are truly equal, but reading these stories and understanding how women contributed to space history is a start."
Read more at
https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/7-books-about-womens-space-history-for-womens-history-month
Back to top.7. The Woman who knows everything about the Universe
From: John Mather [johncm12_at_gmail.com]
By Sarah Scoles
“In 1965, physicist Richard Feynman was busy. He was busy winning the Nobel Prize, and he was busy learning to draw. One day during that productive time in his life, he saw astrophysics student Virginia Trimble striding across Caltech's campus and thought, There's a good model.”
Read more at
https://www.wired.com/story/the-woman-who-knows-everything-about-the-universe
Back to top.8. U.S. Mathematician Becomes First Woman To Win Abel Prize, 'Math's Nobel'
From: Alessandra Aloisi [aloisi_at_stsci.edu]
By Bill Chappell “"I find that I am bored with anything I understand," Karen Uhlenbeck once said - and that sense of curiosity is part of why she won the prestigious Abel Prize, from the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Uhlenbeck, an influential mathematician who was for decades a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and who has sought to encourage women to study mathematics, has become the first woman to win the Abel Prize — often called the Nobel Prize of math.” Read more at
Back to top.9. High-pressure research and a return to China: meet Haiyan Zheng
From: Alessandra Aloisi [aloisi_at_stsci.edu]
By Sarah O’Meara “Chemist Haiyan Zheng works for the Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research (HPSTAR) in Beijing. Nature talks to her about her work at the institute and about equality in science in China.“ Read more at
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00887-3
Back to top.10. Study: U.S. gives less early-career research funding to women
From: Alessandra Aloisi [aloisi_at_stsci.edu]
“Researchers analyzed grants given by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) to 53,000 first-time principal investigators (57 percent men and 43 percent women) between 2006 and 2017.
The average grant was $126,615 for women and $165,721 for men, a gap of more than $39,000. For the 10 highest-funded grant types across all institutions, the average grant was $305,823 for women and $316,350 for men.”
Read more at
https://www.upi.com/Study-US-gives-less-early-career-research-funding-to-women/9821552747774
Back to top.11. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
To submit an item to the AASWOMEN newsletter, including replies to topics, send email to aaswomen_at_aas.org
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Back to top.12. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
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Back to top.13. Access to Past Issues
https://cswa.aas.org/AASWOMEN.html
Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.
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