AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of December 18, 2020
eds: Heather Flewelling, Nicolle Zellner, Maria Patterson, Jeremy Bailey, and Alessandra Aloisi
[We hope you all are taking care of yourselves and each other. --eds.]
This week's issues:
1. Career Profile: Astronomer to STEM Inclusion and Outreach Specialist
2. Diversity Officer at STScI
3. Astrotech Summer School 2021
4. Calendar of Women Scientists Who Made Nuclear Astrophysics
5. ‘I’ve had to fight to be taken seriously’: Women With Ph.Ds Respond To Dr. Jill Biden Column
6. Better Letters: Equitable Practices for Writing, Reading, and Soliciting Letters of Recommendation
7. Nature's 10 people who helped shape science in 2020
8. Meet 5 Black researchers fighting for diversity and equity in science
9. The life-changing and long-lasting influence of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
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
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1. Career Profile: Astronomer to STEM Inclusion and Outreach Specialist
From: JoEllen McBride via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
Below is our interview with Regina Barber DeGraaff. Regina is a Mexican-Taiwanese-American, pop-culture-obsessed, astrophysicist, who teaches physics, astronomy, and science communication at WWU. Regina completed her PhD in physics at Washington State University in 2011, studying distant extragalactic globular clusters using the Hubble Space Telescope. Over five years ago Regina co-created and began to host the radio show (KMRE) & WWU podcast Spark Science. This talk show strives to humanize the scientist and make Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) accessible. She also created the position of the STEM Inclusion and Outreach Specialist at WWU devoted to the retention and support of underrepresented students and faculty in STEM. Through all her efforts, Regina’s goal is to break apart the scientist stereotype so that anyone can see themselves in science.
Read more at
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2. Diversity Officer at STScI
From: Nancy Morrison [nancyastro126_at_gmail.com]
Sheryl Bruff writes that STScI is advertising a new opportunity for a Diversity Officer. This person will be a member of the senior leadership team at STScI and will report to the director. This individual will also work closely with Ameerah McBride (Chief Diversity Officer for AURA). Please circulate to people you know who might be good candidates for this opportunity.
Find more information at
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3. Astrotech Summer School 2021
From: Regina Jorgenson [rjorgenson_at_mariamitchell.org]
The Institute for Scientist & Engineer Educators and University of California, Berkeley are pleased to offer the 2021 AstroTech Summer School, to be held at UC Berkeley on July 19-23, 2021. The Summer School is designed for upper-level undergraduate students and early graduate students in astronomy, engineering, physics, or computer science. Participants will gain skills, knowledge, and mindset to advance in the field of instrumentation, including designing, building, and testing an astronomical instrument; practicing inclusive teamwork; learning about careers in instrumentation; and networking with people from telescopes, universities, and companies across the U.S. In the event we cannot safely offer an in-person program, we plan to offer a shorter, remote version of AstroTech.
A core goal of AstroTech is to help reverse the underrepresentation of people of color, women and gender minorities, and other marginalized groups in astronomy instrumentation. We especially encourage individuals from historically underrepresented groups to apply.
AstroTech is free for all participants to attend. The deadline for applications is January 21, 2021.
Further information on AstroTech and the 2021 Summer School is available at
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4. Calendar of Women Scientists Who Made Nuclear Astrophysics
From: Regis Courtin [Regis.Courtin_at_obspm.fr]
To celebrate the achievements of women scientists in the development of Nuclear Astrophysics throughout the next year 2021, we have prepared a beautiful calendar with the profiles of twelve outstanding, inspiring women and translated it into about 25 languages. Please help us to distribute the calendar in as many countries as possible, and to advertise to schools, networks, universities, visitor centres, etc.
The main sponsors of the project are the COST ChETEC Action (CA161167), the Join Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics (JINA-CEE) in the USA, and the IReNA International Network for Nuclear Astrophysics. Maria Lugaro and Christine Hampton are respectively Project Coordinator and Designer.
Download and print a calendar in your language of choice at
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5. ‘I’ve had to fight to be taken seriously’: Women With Ph.Ds Respond To Dr. Jill Biden Column
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
By Shefali Luthra, Mariel Padilla, Barbara Rodriguez
“When Dr. Glenna Matthews saw an opinion piece arguing that Dr. Jill Biden should drop her title, it brought back a flood of memories for the 82-year-old.
Matthews called the op-ed “infuriating.” She earned a doctorate in American history from Stanford University in the 1970s, which she said had never had a tenured woman on the history faculty. Matthews said when she got her first job at Oklahoma State University, she was the only woman working in the history department and the only woman in a tenure track position within the school of social sciences.
Still, during her decades teaching history, she dealt with rude male students who did not address her as Dr. Matthews. She also faced challenges when attempting to access research materials at public facilities, which she wonders if she would have faced as a man.”
Read more at
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6. Better Letters: Equitable Practices for Writing, Reading, and Soliciting Letters of Recommendation
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
One of the best pieces of advice I received as an undergraduate was not to ask someone for a letter of recommendation but to ask whether or not that person could write a good letter of recommendation. We now know it's really not that simple - implicit biases in letters of recommendation are pervasive and it takes practice to write, read, and interpret letters appropriately. Fortunately, the Inclusive Graduate Education Network at the University of Southern California has created a guide with advice and references for more information, including equity checkpoints.
Find the guide at
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7. Nature's 10 people who helped shape science in 2020
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]
By Nidhi Subbaraman
"It has been a busy year for cosmologist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein. She won two new grants, hired her first postdoctoral researcher and began co-directing a group that is mapping out the next two decades of research using astrophysical observations to study dark matter. She also finished her first book, started another, wrote a monthly column for New Scientist magazine, published two chapters in books in the field of education research and guided two graduate students through their first publications in their PhD programmes. She did this while entering her second year as a tenure-track professor at the University of New Hampshire in Durham."
Read more at
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8. Meet 5 Black researchers fighting for diversity and equity in science
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
Black researchers from multiple fields, including cosmology (Brian Nord, Fermilab), discuss their efforts to improve and increase diversity in the sciences and what they see as new opportunities for progress.
Read more at
Read a related article with “graphs show that Black scientists are underrepresented at every level” at
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9. The life-changing and long-lasting influence of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]
By Emma Chapman
“I was lucky enough to attend an all-girls high school and our A-Level physics and maths classes were small, but without stigma. When I went to university to study physics in 2006, I was one of a few women, but the numbers were significant enough that I didn’t feel too uncomfortable. It was only when I started my PhD that I accepted sexism was something that affected me.
My experience still marks significant progress since the early and mid-20th Century experience of women in science, though. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin walked into her lecture halls to whistles and the stamping of the men’s feet in the early 1920s, and Northern Ireland-born astronomer Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell suffered the same humiliation in the 1960s. How slow we are to change.”
Read more at
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10. 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
- Diversity Officer, Space Telescope Science Institute
- Planetary Astronomer, SETI
- Research Scientist II (Instrument Scientist) at the CHARA Array, Georgia State University
- Postdoc in Observational and Experimental Astrophysics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
- Postdoctoral Research Associate Position in Astronomical Instrumentation at the CHARA Array, Georgia State University
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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
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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12. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
Join AAS Women List by email:
Send an email to aaswomen_at_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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13. Access to Past Issues
Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.
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