Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell being painted by Stephen Shankland (from Item #4; credit: Chris Scott) Issue of December 4, 2020
eds: Heather Flewelling, Nicolle Zellner, Maria Patterson, Alessandra Aloisi, and Jeremy Bailin
[We hope you all are taking care of yourselves and each other. Be well! --eds.]
This week's issues:
1. Cross-post: Extend the Tenure Clock to Save Careers of Rising Academic Women
2. What NASA missions can teach us about teamwork
4. 'It'll upset a few fellows': Royal Society adds Jocelyn Bell Burnell portrait
5. Perceptions of stereotypes applied to women who publicly communicate their STEM work
6. Helen Magill White -- the first woman to earn a PhD in the United States
7. 2021 AAAS Fellows Recognized for Advancing Science
8. 2021 L’Oréal USA For Women In Science Fellowship Program
9. Top Eight Physic Scholarships
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
An online version of this newsletter will be available at http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/ at 3:00 PM ET every Friday.
1. Cross-post: Extend the Tenure Clock to Save Careers of Rising Academic Women
From: Karen Bjorkman via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
“The halls of higher education already had a leaky pipeline for women in science and academia, but the coronavirus pandemic has taken an ax to the problem and busted it wide open.”
Read more at
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2020/12/cross-post-extend-tenure-clock-to-save.html
Back to top.2. What NASA missions can teach us about teamwork
From: Heather Flewelling [flewelling_heather_at_gmail.com]
By Alexandra Witze
"In 25 years of covering US planetary science, I’ve become used to seeing certain faces in press briefings, at conferences and on webcasts presenting discoveries from the NASA spacecraft exploring the Solar System. And I’ve enjoyed ferreting out the complex relationships between these researchers.
But I’ve never had a direct, sustained view of their interpersonal interactions. Now, sociologist Janet Vertesi has lifted the curtain for all to see. Embedded with various NASA projects for years, she takes readers into the heart of two of them — the Cassini mission to Saturn and the Mars Exploration Rovers."
Read more at
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03222-3
Back to top.3. I’m a Black Female Scientist. On My First Day of Work, a Colleague Threatened to Call the Cops on Me.
From: Heather Flewelling [flewelling_heather_at_gmail.com]
By Raven Baxter, as told to Jackie Flynn Mogensen
"Over the past few weeks, a new hashtag has emerged on Twitter: #BlackintheIvory, a reference to being Black in the ivory tower of academia, which was first shared by two Black women in communications research. It has been posted thousands of times as the racial reckoning sparked by the police killing of George Floyd on May 25 spreads far beyond policing into industries like media, entertainment, food, tech, and more. Most of the tweets are from Black students, professors, researchers, and scholars sharing their stories of experiencing racism in the workplace and classroom: Getting passed over for jobs, or confused with maintenance staff, or called by the name of the one other Black person in their department.
Among the most widely shared tweets were those from Raven Baxter. “Raven the Science Maven,” as she is known on the internet, is currently the director of collegiate STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) initiatives at a charter school in Buffalo, New York, the founder of science advocacy organization STEMbassy, and a musician whose rap music, she hopes, inspires other Black women in science. (Her music video, “Big Ole Geeks,” is a treasure.)
Here, in her own words, she recounts her time as a corporate research scientist at a drug company in western New York—a job she left in 2017 in part because of its toxic culture. Afterward, she went into academia as an assistant professor of biology at a community college, also in western New York, where on her first day a white co-worker threatened to call the police on her. Today, she is hopeful the uprising we’re seeing across the country will bring real, lasting change, including in higher education. Her story here has been edited and condensed."
Read more at
Back to top.4. 'It'll upset a few fellows': Royal Society adds Jocelyn Bell Burnell portrait
From: Heather Flewelling [flewelling.heather_at_gmail.com] and Matthew Greenhouse [matt.greenhouse_at_nasa.gov]
By Mark Brown
"A British astrophysicist who made one of the most significant scientific discoveries of the 20th century but was overlooked by the Nobel prize committee has joined the male-dominated portrait collection of the Royal Society.
Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell was a 24-year-old graduate student when in 1967 she discovered a new type of star later called a pulsar. It was a sensational find, recognized with the Nobel prize for physics in 1974 that went not to her, but to her male PhD supervisor."
Read more at
Back to top.5. Perceptions of stereotypes applied to women who publicly communicate their STEM work
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
By Merryn McKinnon and Christine O’Connell
Using workshops with over 300 participants, predominantly female STEM professionals, from over 25 different cultural backgrounds, the results showed women who publicly communicate their work are likely to be stereotyped as ‘bitchy’, ‘bossy’, and ‘emotional’—often by their own gender. These findings suggest that women may be in a more vulnerable position when communicating publicly about their work, which could have implications for them participating fully in their careers.
Read the published peer-reviewed article at
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-020-00654-0
Back to top.6. Helen Magill White -- the first woman to earn a PhD in the United States
From: Heather Flewelling [flewelling.heather_at_gmail.com]
“Helen Magill White -- the first woman to earn a PhD in the United States -- was born on this day in 1853. White was raised by Quaker parents who believed, contrary to the practice of the time, in giving girls the same quality of education as boys. As a teenager, she enrolled as the only female student in the Boston Public Latin School and later at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, where she was a member of the college's first graduating class in 1873. She went on to attend graduate school at Boston University, earning a PhD in Greek in 1877. White later taught for a time at Evelyn College, the women's college of Princeton University and, in 1883, she was hired to organize Howard Collegiate Institute, a new women's college in Massachusetts.”
Read more at
https://www.facebook.com/amightygirl/posts/3488704527832502
Back to top.7. 2021 AAAS Fellows Recognized for Advancing Science
From: Alessandra Aloisi [aloisi_at_stsci.edu]
Congratulations to Nancy Susan Brickhouse (CfA), Joan R. Najita (NOIRLab), Liese van Zee (Indiana University), Risa Wechsler (Stanford University), and Ellen G. Zweibel (University of Wisconsin-Madison) for being selected as 2021 AAAS Fellows in recognition of their contributions to advancing Astronomy.
For a full list of this year’s AAAS Fellows, please see
https://www.aaas.org/news/aaas-announces-leading-scientists-elected-2020-fellows
Back to top.8. 2021 L’Oréal USA For Women In Science Fellowship Program
From: For Women In Science [ForWomenInScience_at_us.loreal.com] and Rick Fienberg [rick.fienberg_at_aas.org]
Applications for the 2021 L’Oréal USA For Women in Science fellowship program are now open and will close on Friday, January 29, 2021. This program honors female scientists at a critical stage in their careers with grants of $60,000 each. Since 2003, the program has awarded 85 postdoctoral women scientists over $4 million in grants. They are now seeking five exceptional female scientists looking to advance their research and serve as role models for the next generation of girls in STEM.
Read more information and apply at
https://www.loreal.com/en/usa/pages/group/fwis
Back to top.9. Top Eight Physic Scholarships
From: Kirtika Nice [nicekirtika_at_gmail.com]
HelpToStudy.com is a simple blog to help students to complete their education. The blog authors have now compiled a list of “Top Eight Physic Scholarships”. The funding programs included in this list are open for undergraduate students.
Read more at
https://www.helptostudy.com/top-eight-physic-scholarships/?ref=kk
Back to top.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#howtoincrease
- Instruments Division Head, STScI, MD https://jobregister.aas.org/ad/66d3e623
- Postdoctoral Associate Position in Astronomical Instrumentation, CHARA Array, Mount Wilson Observatory, CA (deadline extended to 12/31/2020) https://gsu.taleo.net/careersection/2/jobdetail.ftl?job=20000554&lang=en
- Postdoctoral Associate in Near-Earth Objects Studies, Lowell Observatory, AZ https://lowell.edu/about/employment
- Postdoctoral Associate in Exoplanet Science, Lowell Observatory, AZ https://lowell.edu/about/employment
- Postdoctoral Research Position in the Interstellar Medium, STScI, MD https://jobregister.aas.org/ad/f8fe81bb
- Postdoctoral Research Position in Metals in Nearby Star-Forming Galaxies, STScI, MD https://jobregister.aas.org/ad/e162eeda
- Postdoctoral Research Position in X-Ray Binaries and Astronomical Transients, STScI, MD https://jobregister.aas.org/ad/a22c2d18
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_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.
Back to top.12. 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.
Back to top.13. Access to Past Issues
https://aas.org/comms/cswa/AASWOMEN
Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.
Back to top.
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