Issue of July 02, 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. Crosspost: Interview with Dr. Martha Gilmore
2. ‘If you can name it, you can tame it’: How exposing academic culture helps students
3. Black scientist network celebrates successes — but calls for more support
4. Take Nature's salary and job-satisfaction survey
5. Ms. Categorized: Gender, notability, and inequality on Wikipedia
6. Rethinking the future of science through a new filmmaking fellowship
7. Maria Mitchell Association hosts Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
8. Impact factor abandoned by Dutch university in hiring and promotion decisions
9. Blue Origin will fly female aviator Wally Funk, one of the Mercury 13, on 1st crewed launch
10. Two NASA Centers Get New Directors — Both Women
11. Black hole at center of swirling new women-in-science mural
12. Universities ramp up efforts to improve faculty gender balance and work climate in STEM
13. Nominations solicited for the 2022 James Craig Watson Medal
14. The Maria Mitchell Women of Science Symposium
15. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
16. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to 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. Crosspost: Interview with Dr. Martha Gilmore
From: Nicolle Zellner via Women In Planetary Science
Martha Gilmore is the Seney Professor of Geology in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Wesleyan University, Middletown CT. A geologist who specializes in the study of planetary surfaces using geomorphic mapping and VNIR spectroscopy on Venus, Mars and Earth, Dr. Gilmore compares spectral signatures from field and laboratory work to orbital images to better interpret the signals received from remote sensing platforms.
Read more at
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2021/06/crosspost-interview-with-dr-martha.html
Back to top.2. ‘If you can name it, you can tame it’: How exposing academic culture helps students
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]
By Katie Langin
"When Diedra Wrighting saw a preprint published last month reporting that Black scientists disproportionately “leak” out of the academic pipeline following their Ph.D. and postdoc years, she wasn’t surprised. “Not one of my women of color friends is currently a scientist working at the bench, like we were as graduate students,” she says.
But that doesn’t mean she thinks the data are unimportant. “I’m personally very interested in understanding the ‘whys’ behind that,” says Wrighting, who now works as executive director of the ADVANCE Office of Faculty Development at Northeastern University.
She’s also committed to trying to make a dent in that phenomenon. Her efforts include developing a course for undergraduate students to better prepare them for the culture of graduate school, unveiling some aspects of the so-called “hidden curriculum.”"
Read more at
Back to top.3. Black scientist network celebrates successes — but calls for more support
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
By Ariana Remmel
In the wake of global protests against anti-Black racism last year, a movement emerged to celebrate Black scientists and fight systemic oppression in academia. Researchers in fields across science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) worldwide, but especially in the United States, rallied around social-media hashtags and attended online community events. A year later, they are celebrating all that they have accomplished with the movement now known collectively as Black in X — but also highlight the challenges they still face in fighting racism in science, including the need for more institutional support and funding.
Read more at
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01734-0
Back to top.4. Take Nature's salary and job-satisfaction survey
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
Nature magazine "is encouraging researchers at every career stage in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics to participate in its sixth salary and job-satisfaction survey. Created in partnership with Shift Learning, a London-based research consultancy, the survey ... will run online from 7 June to 11 July."
Read more at
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01538-2
Take the survey at
Back to top.5. Ms. Categorized: Gender, notability, and inequality on Wikipedia
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]
By Francesca Tripodi
"On March 7, 2014, a biography for Donna Strickland, the physicist who invented a technology used by all the high-powered lasers in the world, was created on Wikipedia. In less than six minutes, it was flagged for a “speedy deletion” and shortly thereafter erased from the site. This decision is part of the reason Dr. Strickland did not have an active Wikipedia page when she was honored with the Nobel Prize in Physics four years later. Despite clear evidence of Dr. Strickland’s professional endeavors, some did not feel her scholastic contributions were notable enough to warrant a Wikipedia biography. My research demonstrates that the perceptions of Dr. Strickland’s accomplishments are not an anomaly. What happened to her biography fits a broader pattern regarding how women’s biographies that merit a Wikipedia page are disproportionally perceived as non-notable subjects."
Read more at
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14614448211023772
Back to top.6. Rethinking the future of science through a new filmmaking fellowship
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]
By Wonder Collaborative
The team behind the feature documentary PICTURE A SCIENTIST is pleased to announce funding for the new Future of Science Film Fellowship, a program for emerging filmmakers to develop new documentaries about efforts to make science more equitable and inclusive. Funding for the first phase of the Fellowship was awarded by the Wonder Collaborative, the filmmaking arm of the nonprofit Science Communication Lab, as well as the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. The program aims to support storytellers who are committed to exploring diversity, equity, and inclusion in science through their unique life experiences.
The Future of Science Film Fellowship builds on the success of PICTURE A SCIENTIST (now streaming on Netflix), which chronicles stories of bias, discrimination, and harassment against women scientists. The goal of the Fellowship is to launch a new set of films that will amplify the conversation about race, equity, and inclusion in science, and spark change in the scientific community.
Read more at
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-06/ss-rtf062921.php
https://futureofsciencefilms.org
Back to top.7. Maria Mitchell Association hosts Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
From: Regina Jorgenson [rjorgenson_at_mariamitchell.org]
The Maria Mitchell Association is happy to welcome Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein as a featured speaker during our Summer Science Speaker Series:
Dark Matter in the Disordered Cosmos
July 7th, 7:00pm - 8:00pm, EST
This webinar is free and open to all. Registration link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_lIhyD9yIQTW3wQtkWNag0A
Back to top.8. Impact factor abandoned by Dutch university in hiring and promotion decisions
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
By Chris Woolston
A Dutch university says it is formally abandoning the impact factor — a standard measure of scientific success — in all hiring and promotion decisions. By early 2022, every department at Utrecht University in the Netherlands will judge its scholars by other standards, including their commitment to teamwork and their efforts to promote open science, says Paul Boselie, a governance researcher and the project leader for the university’s new Recognition and Rewards scheme. “Impact factors don’t really reflect the quality of an individual researcher or academic,” he says. “We have a strong belief that something has to change, and abandoning the impact factor is one of those changes.”
Read more at
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01759-5
Read the 2019 position paper that partially prompted this change at
Back to top.9. Blue Origin will fly female aviator Wally Funk, one of the Mercury 13, on 1st crewed launch
From: Maria Patterson [maria.t.patterson_at_gmail.com], Matthew Greenhouse [matt.greenhouse_at_nasa.gov], Jay Pasachoff [jay.m.pasachoff_at_williams.edu]
By Meghan Bartels
"Aviator Wally Funk wanted to be an astronaut in the earliest days of spaceflight. Sixty years later, on July 20, she'll finally go to space with Blue Origin.
Funk was one of 13 female aviators later dubbed the Mercury 13 who, in 1961, passed all the exams necessary for admission to NASA's astronaut corps and lobbied the federal government to send women into space. NASA and Congress demurred and women were excluded from becoming U.S. astronauts for more than a decade; Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly in space in 1983.
But, if all goes according to plan, in just three weeks, Funk will spend four minutes beyond the bounds of gravity. "I'll love every second of it," Funk said of her flight in a video released by Blue Origin. "I can hardly wait.""
Read more at
https://www.space.com/blue-origin-launching-mercury-13-aviator-wally-funk-1st-crewed-flight
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/01/science/space/wally-funk-blue-origin.html [ed. note: NYT soft paywall]
Read more about the First Lady Astronaut Trainees at
https://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-first-lady-astronaut-trainees-time.html
Back to top.10. Two NASA Centers Get New Directors — Both Women
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]
By Marcia Smith
"NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced two key agency appointments today. Vanessa Wyche is the new Director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center and Janet Petro is now Director of Kennedy Space Center. Both were deputy directors of those centers who have been serving as acting directors for the past month. Four of NASA’s nine civil service field centers now have women in the top jobs."
Read more at
https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/two-nasa-centers-get-new-directors-both-women
Back to top.11. Black hole at center of swirling new women-in-science mural
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]
By Robert Sanders
"Astrophysicist Chung-Pei Ma at the University of California, Berkeley, has studied black holes for decades and has dreamed of cruising by one in a spaceship to check out how black they really are.
Though she has never gotten that close to a black hole, she turned out in San Carlos, California, last week to paint a picture of one as part of a mural supervised by multimedia artist Amanda Phingbodhikpakkiya, who is painting walls around the country to honor women scientists of color.
Phingbodhipakkiya’s colorful mural, which she calls “Horizon Light,” was inspired by Ma’s research, which focuses on supermassive black holes that Ma has shown sit — often hidden from view — in the cores of most galaxies. Only the orbital motions of light-emitting objects such as clouds of hot gas betray the black holes’ existence.
As Phingbodhipakkiya describes the 88-foot-long mural, it “finds parallels between the sparse luminous matter astrophysicists use to detect black holes with the work that women do in revealing hidden truths about the world.”"
Read more at
https://news.berkeley.edu/2021/06/30/black-hole-at-center-of-swirling-new-women-in-science-mural
Back to top.12. Universities ramp up efforts to improve faculty gender balance and work climate in STEM
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]
A number of universities, such as Chalmers University in Sweden, the University of Michigan, and the University Groningen in the Netherlands, detail the ways in which they are trying to address gender balance among STEM faculty by working on changing their culture.
Read more at
https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/PT.3.4790
Back to top.13. Nominations solicited for the 2022 James Craig Watson Medal
From: Meg Urry [meg.urry_at_yale.edu]
The Watson Medal is presented every two years for outstanding contributions to the science of astronomy and carries with it a gold-plated bronze medal, a $25,000 prize, and $50,000 to support the recipient’s research. Additional information, including past recipients, eligibility requirements, and more, can be found at
Nominations must include a letter from the nominator, curriculum vita, bibliography, suggested citation, and two letters of support. Nominations accepted through Monday, October 4, 2021. Nominations can be submitted at
http://www.nasonline.org/programs/awards/how-to-nominate.html
Back to top.14. The Maria Mitchell Women of Science Symposium
From: Jascin Finger [jfinger_at_mariamitchell.org]
The Second Maria Mitchell Women of Science Symposium will take place on September 23-25, 2021 at the Babson Executive Conference Center in Wellesley, MA. This Symposium is designed to serve as an inspiration and support for women and other minoritized groups studying, working, and teaching in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Speakers and panelists include Nicole Cabrera Salazar, Jen Heemstra, Dionne Hoskins-Brown, Sandra Begay, Chiara Mingarelli, and Tara Spann. A unique, hands-on, result-oriented meeting where everyone is working together for change.
Read more at
Back to top.15. 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.16. 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.
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Back to top.17. Access to Past Issues
https://aas.org/comms/cswa/AASWOMEN
Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.
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