Issue of February 19, 2021
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. The pursuit of gender equity in astronomy: how do we know what’s working?
2. #BlackInAstro founder Ashley Walker is fighting for equality in the space sciences
3. Arianna Rosenbluth Dies at 93; Pioneering Figure in Data Science
4. Pay gap widens between female and male scientists in North America
5. Panel: Money, Gender & Diversity in Higher Ed
8. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter
9. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter
10. 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. The pursuit of gender equity in astronomy: how do we know what’s working?
From: Isabelle Kingsley, Office of the Women in STEM Ambassador, Australia via http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
Many organizations and individuals have been trying for years to address the gender imbalance in astronomy. Efforts include programs such as educational activities, work and industry experience, mentoring schemes, and many more. These programs seek to dismantle barriers to attract and keep more girls and women in astronomy. We’re spending time, energy, and millions of dollars on programs, but are they working?
The trouble is, we don't know. That's because most programs are not evaluated.
Read more at
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-pursuit-of-gender-equity-in.html
Back to top.2. #BlackInAstro founder Ashley Walker is fighting for equality in the space sciences
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]
By Briley Lewis
"Last year's Black Lives Matter protests spurred a reckoning with the United States' unjust history and ongoing systemic racism, and science is not exempt from this revolution. According to the American Physical Society, only three percent of undergraduate physics degrees (and two percent of physics PhDs) are awarded to Black students in the U.S. The American Institute of Physics records show that 2.1 percent of all physics faculty are Black, and there are only 22 Black women with astronomy PhDs according to AAWiP (African American Women in Physics).
Inspired by these facts, everything happening in the U.S., and other movements like #BlackBirdersWeek and #BlackInIvory, Ashley Walker, an astrochemist from Chicago, started the #BlackInAstro movement last summer."
Read more at
https://massivesci.com/notes/black-astro-ashley-walker-astronomy-physics
Back to top.3. Arianna Rosenbluth Dies at 93; Pioneering Figure in Data Science
From: Heather Flewelling [flewelling.heather_at_gmail.com]
"The Metropolis algorithm, a technique for generating random samplings, started out as a way to understand a fundamental problem: how atoms rearrange themselves as solids melt.
Over the decades, the Metropolis algorithm and its subsequent variations have been put to a vast number of uses and now serve as an underpinning to understanding critical challenges of our age, including making sense of huge volumes of data, predicting election outcomes and understanding Covid-19's spread.
A physicist who played an important role in developing that algorithm and thus shaping the science of simulation, Arianna Wright Rosenbluth, died on Dec. 28 at a nursing home in Pasadena, Calif. She was 93. The cause was complications of Covid-19, her daughter Jean Rosenbluth said.
Despite her extraordinary work and despite earning her Ph.D. from Harvard at 21, Dr. Rosenbluth left the field in her mid-20s and rarely talked about her scientific achievement afterward."
Read more at
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/09/science/arianna-wright-dead.html [NYT may be behind paywall - eds.]
and another post about Dr. Rosenbluth entitled "Maybe we should've called it 'Arianna'" at
https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2021/02/09/maybe-we-shouldve-called-it-arianna
Back to top.4. Pay gap widens between female and male scientists in North America
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
By Chris Woolston
The US National Science Foundation’s Survey of Earned Doctorates tracked more than 55,700 people who earned PhDs between 1 July 2018 and 31 June 2019, including more than 33,900 PhD recipients in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and more than 9,000 in psychology and social sciences.
Overall, about 35% of all PhD recipients reported having a permanent job lined up at graduation, and 38% planned to go into postdoctoral research positions. Among those with a permanent job at hand, men reported an expected median annual salary of US$95,000. Women reported a[n] expected median salary of $72,500, a gap of $22,500. In a similar survey in 2020, the overall gender gap in expected salaries was $18,000; the survey did not report on the salaries of non-binary researchers.
Read the full summary at
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00387-3
See the NSF survey data at
https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf21308/data-tables
See the 2020 summary of the 2019 survey at
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00220-y
Back to top.5. Panel: Money, Gender & Diversity in Higher Ed
From: AAUW and Eos Foundation [memberinfo_at_email.aauw.org]
The American Association of University Women is teaming up with the Eos Foundation and The Institute for Women’s Policy Research to host a panel discussion on a compelling new report, "The Power Gap among Top Earners at America’s Elite Universities". The panel will be on Wednesday, February 24, 2021, 4:00-5:00 p.m. ET.
Register at
https://www.workcast.com/register?cpak=4384439276102870
Back to top.6. Jon Schneider's Tech Blog: Interview: Amanda Schneider Milne, Software Developer / Manager / Executive
From: Heather Flewelling [flewelling.heather_at_gmail.com]
"I’m super proud of my mom, Amanda Milne! She was among the first to earn a degree in Computer Science from the University of Michigan, has worked in the field of software development her entire career, and worked her way up to become president of her own custom software development company here in Michigan, and later on, a Senior Vice President of a Fortune 500 company.
This is an interview with Amanda about her early years in software development, back in the 1970s and 1980s, and about one project in particular that I remembered her doing from my days as a grade school kid."
Read more at
https://blog.jonschneider.com/2021/02/interview-amanda-schneider-milne.html
Back to top.7. 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
- Scientific Programmer to work on DRAGONS https://github.com/GeminiDRSoftware/DRAGONS development at Gemini Observatory/NSF's NOIRLab in either Hilo, HI or La Serena, Chile https://recruiting2.ultipro.com/SPA1004AURA/JobBoard/803c161b-49fa-4118-99d2-50475cd61d5d/Opportunity/OpportunityDetail?opportunityId=ba7071d0-8c5a-4493-827b-ff65b007b909&sourceId=12269511-db29-4816-bd6f-da5f40c14eaa
Back to top.8. 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.9. 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.10. Access to Past Issues
https://aas.org/comms/cswa/AASWOMEN
Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.
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