Friday, February 7, 2020

AASWomen Newsletter for February 07, 2020


The Golden Record cover shown with its extraterrestrial instructions. Credit: NASA/JPL
AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of February 07, 2020
eds: JoEllen McBride, Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Maria Patterson, and Alessandra Aloisi

This week's issues:

1. Share Your Best CSWA Memories!

2. NASA Headquarters Summer Internships

3. Task force recommends US$50-million fund to bring African Americans into physics and astronomy

4. Amazon Prime's 'Troop Zero' shows inspiring effect of Voyager's 'Golden Record' on kids

5. NASA Astrophysics Virtual Town Hall: Dual-Anonymous Peer Review for Astrophysics General Observer / General Investigator Programs

6. Equal Representation in Scientific Honors Starts with Nominations

7. Cancel cuts to Graduate Research Fellowships

8. Record-breaking NASA astronaut Christina Koch is returning to Earth after nearly a year in space

9. She discovered how to measure the universe. Then the men got all the acclaim.

10. NASEM: Supporting the Black Student Experience

11. People will not trust unkind science

12. Job Opportunities

13. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

14. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

15. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter


1. Share Your Best CSWA Memories!
From: JoEllen McBride via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

2019 marked the 40th anniversary of the Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy. For 40 years, this Committee has been making recommendations to AAS leadership on ways to improve the astronomical community so that all women (people who identify as female, including trans women, genderqueer women, and non-binary people who are significantly female-identified) are welcome and encouraged to pursue astronomy. We have submitted white papers in decadal surveys, endorsed four Women in Astronomy conferences, and shared the perspectives of astronomers whose experiences in the field differ from the status quo on our Women in Astronomy blog among other things.

To celebrate, we asked attendees of our Meet and Greet at the 235th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society to briefly share their favorite CSWA memories. We now want to extend that offer to the rest of the astronomy community. Read the memories below and feel free to add your own in the comments!

Read more at

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2020/02/share-your-best-cswa-memories.html

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2. NASA Headquarters Summer Internships
From: Pat Knezek [patricia.m.knezek_at_nasa.gov]

Applications are now being accepted for summer interns at NASA! This year the NASA Headquarters Science Mission Directorate (SMD) plans bring aboard up to 15 students for paid internship opportunities. Students will have the chance to work on exciting new projects and gain meaningful work experience within SMD. There are also opportunities at NASA Centers around the country. The deadline for applications for the summer internships is March 8.

Please direct any interested students to https://intern.nasa.gov and for the NASA Headquarters SMD opportunities please search for the division-specific announcements listed below:

NASA Science Mission Directorate Internships – Earth Science Division – 16387 NASA Science Mission Directorate Internships – Heliophysics Division – 16394 NASA Science Mission Directorate Internships – Planetary Science Division – 16401 NASA Science Mission Directorate Internships – Astrophysics Division – 16391 NASA Science Mission Directorate Internships – James Webb Space Telescope Program – 16397

Learn more at

https://intern.nasa.gov

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3. Task force recommends US$50-million fund to bring African Americans into physics and astronomy
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]

Nature article highlighting the recommendations of the AIP TEAM-UP task force that were released during the AAS Meeting in January 2020. This article also discusses the efforts underway in the AGU and APS.

Read more at

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00286-z

Read our blog post about the AIP TEAM-UP announcement at

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2020/01/cross-post-task-force-recommendations.html

Read a Physics Today article at

https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/PT.3.4405

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4. Amazon Prime's 'Troop Zero' shows inspiring effect of Voyager's 'Golden Record' on kids
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]

"Troop Zero" on Amazon Prime follows the journey of a young girl who rallies her town together to submit a recording for the Voyager Golden Record. This article interviews the creator of the movie about her inspiration for creating this fictional story.

Read more at

https://www.space.com/troop-zero-movie-voyager-golden-record.html

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5. NASA Astrophysics Virtual Town Hall: Dual-Anonymous Peer Review for Astrophysics General Observer / General Investigator Programs
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_ gmail.com]

“On February 27, 2020 at 1pm Eastern Time, NASA’s Astrophysics Division will host a virtual community Town Hall to discuss the implementation of dual-anonymous peer review for Astrophysics General Observer / General Investigator (GO/GI) programs.”

Submit questions at

https://arc.cnf.io/sessions/m1c4/#!/dashboard

Join Webinar at

https://nasaenterprise.webex.com/nasaenterprise/j.php?MTID=m4418b2712db800a4801f0c93ec3c4ae5 Meeting password: Astrodapr2020! Audio-only participation is available by calling +1-415-527-5035 and providing access code 904 996 893.

More information at

https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/dual-anonymous-peer-review

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6. Equal Representation in Scientific Honors Starts with Nominations
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]

The American Geophysical Union (AGU), like many professional societies, is working towards increasing the diversity of recipients of its honors. This past year, members of the AGU's Space Physics and Aeronomy section created a Nomination Task Force with this goal in mind. Weekly meetings were held, "shadow nominators" volunteered to shepard nomination packages, and letters of support were written, reviewed, and revised. In the end, three of the six nominees from underrepresented groups received honors.

Read more and learn what the task force did to accomplish this at

https://eos.org/opinions/equal-representation-in-scientific-honors-starts-with-nominations

This follow up includes a nice graph of the increase of female participants in 2019

https://eos.org/agu-news/agu-makes-strides-in-2019-union-awards-medals-and-prizes

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7. Cancel cuts to Graduate Research Fellowships
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu] and Alessandra Aloisi [aloisi_at_stsci.edu]

[Eds note: May need to login to access article.] The National Science Foundation plans to decrease its Graduate Research Fellowship Program awards to only 1600 in upcoming competitions. No supporting evidence or rationale has been provided. An editorial in Science describes why this isn't good news for women and underrepresented minorities, or for US science and innovation in general.

Read more at

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/367/6477/519

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8. Record-breaking NASA astronaut Christina Koch is returning to Earth after nearly a year in space
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]

Christina Koch is on her way home from the ISS after completing 3 spacewalks and studying how fire behaves in microgravity!

Read more at

https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/5/21123928/nasa-astronaut-christina-koch-year-space-iss-soyuz-returns-spacewalk

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9. She discovered how to measure the universe. Then the men got all the acclaim.
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]

"Silent Sky," currently performing at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., tells the tale of Henrietta Swan Leavitt, the Harvard computer who discovered how to use a star's brightness to determine its distance. Every astronomer uses this technique and yet we're often not told who figured it out until much later in our careers.

Read more at

https://thehill.com/changing-america/enrichment/arts-culture/480762-she-discovered-how-to-measure-the-universe-then-her

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10. NASEM: Supporting the Black Student Experience
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]

“Join the Committee on Women in Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine for our 2020 Black History Month event: Supporting the Black Student Experience, February 21, 2020 at 9:00am-11:00am.”

Register at

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/black-history-month-2020-supporting-the-black-student-experience-registration-92225263245

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11. People will not trust unkind science
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]

Gail Cardew makes the case in Nature that creating a nurturing and supportive scientific culture should begin with leadership and that our kindness affects everyone around us--especially the public.

Read more at

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00269-0

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12. Job Opportunities
For those interested in increasing excellence and diversity in their
organizations, a list of resources and advice is here:
https://aas.org/comms/cswa/resources/Diversity

-Postdoctoral Scholar Position in Planetary Science at Northern Arizona University https://hr.peoplesoft.nau.edu/psp/ph92prta/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM.HRS_APP_SCHJOB.GBL?Page=HRS_APP_JBPST&Action=U&FOCUS=Applicant&SiteId=1&JobOpeningId=604820&PostingSeq=1

-Support Astronomer at Lowell Observatory https://lowell.edu/about/employment

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13. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter

To submit an item to the AASWOMEN newsletter, including replies to topics, send email to aaswomen_at_lists.aas.org

All material will be posted unless you tell us otherwise, including your email address.

When submitting a job posting for inclusion in the newsletter, please include a one-line description and a link to the full job posting.

Please remember to replace "_at_" in the e-mail address above.

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14. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter

Join AAS Women List by email:

Send an email to aaswomen_at_lists.aas.org. A list moderator will add your email to the list. They will reply to your message to confirm that they have added you.

Join AAS Women List through the online portal:

Go to https://lists.aas.org/postorius/lists/aaswlist.lists.aas.org and enter the email address you wish to subscribe in the ‘Your email address’ field. You will receive an email from ‘aaswlist-confirm’ that you must reply to. There may be a delay between entering your email and receiving the confirmation message. Check your Spam or Junk mail folders for the message if you have not received it after 2 hours.

To unsubscribe from AAS Women by email:

Send an email to aaswlist-leave_at_lists.aas.org from the email address you wish to remove from the list. You will receive an email from ‘aaswlist-confirm’ that you must reply to which will complete the unsubscribe.

Leave AAS Women or change your membership settings through the online portal:

Go to https://lists.aas.org/accounts/signup to create an account with the online portal. After confirming your account you can see the lists you are subscribed to and update your settings.

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15. Access to Past Issues

https://aas.org/comms/cswa/AASWOMEN

Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.

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