Issue of April 08, 2022
eds: Heather Flewelling, Nicolle Zellner, Alessandra Aloisi, Jeremy Bailin and Sethanne Howard
[We hope you all are taking care of yourselves and each other. Be well! --eds.]
This week's issues:
1. Infusing IDEA Culture throughout Astronomy
2. Delia Santiago-Materese: Never underestimate how much you are a role model
3. Advancing gender equity in the academy
4. The State of Hiring Practices that Promote Diversity in the Astronomical Community
5. New Revelations Raise Pressure on NASA to Rename the James Webb Space Telescope
6. Presidential Action Update on JWST Naming
8. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
9. 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. Infusing IDEA Culture throughout Astronomy
From: Bryne Hadnott via http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
By Joan Schmelz
Ideally, Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Accessibility (IDEA) should be part of the way we do business. Everyone should be aware of the issues that hinder the progress of underrepresented groups, and we should all be working to mitigate them. In practice, however, IDEA problems and strategies are often relegated to a committee that is expected to do the hard work and make positive change.
Read more at
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2022/04/infusing-idea-culture-throughout.html
Back to top.2. Delia Santiago-Materese: Never underestimate how much you are a role model
From: Nicolle Zellner via womeninplanetaryscience.wordpress.com
Dr. Delia Santiago-Materese is the lead Program Officer for NASA’s Solar System Workings research and analysis funding program in the Planetary Science Division (PSD). She also initiated and implemented Dual-Anonymous Peer Review among several funding programs in PSD. Dr. Santiago-Materese has a background in biological sciences and earned her Ph.D., in Earth Sciences at the University of California at Santa Cruz. She focused her doctoral studies on understanding the atmosphere of Mars using models and experiments. She spent several years in the Planetary Systems Branch at NASA Ames Research Center before moving to NASA Headquarters. NASA recently honored Dr. Santiago-Materese with the 2022 NASA Excellence in Innovation Award, in part for her contributions to improving the proposal review process. Congratulations! Below is our interview with her.
Read more at
Back to top.3. Advancing gender equity in the academy
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
National data continue to suggest persistent gender inequities in academia, and the pandemic has made everything worse. Rinad Beidas (University of Pennsylvania) and her colleagues report on ways to help keep women from leaving the academy and what universities and funders should do now.
Read their suggestions for the best path forward at
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abq0430
Back to top.4. The State of Hiring Practices that Promote Diversity in the Astronomical Community
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]
By K. Bostroem
A charge of the American Astronomical Society's (AAS) Committee on Employment is to "promote fairness in the job market." As part of this mission, the equity subcommittee seeks to ensure the equitable hiring of a diverse and inclusive workforce. The first step in this process is to understand the current state of hiring. Towards this end, in March 2021, the Committee sent a survey to all people who advertised on the AAS Job Register in 2020 and all exhibitors at the 237th AAS meeting in 2021. The survey asked participants to select all practices performed by the organization to address the hiring of diverse1 candidates, with the option to include anything not already listed in the question. It is important to note that this was not a list of recommendations from the Committee, but rather a list of common practices. These practices are shown in Figure 1 below. We also requested any resources related to equitable2 hiring that the organization thought would be useful to the astronomical community.
Read more at
https://aas.org/posts/news/2022/04/state-hiring-practices-promote-diversity-astronomical-community
Back to top.5. New Revelations Raise Pressure on NASA to Rename the James Webb Space Telescope
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]
By Adam Mann
Sadness. Disappointment. Frustration. Anger. These are some of the reactions from LGBTQ+ astronomers over the latest revelations regarding NASA’s decision not to rename the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), given that the agency long had evidence suggesting its Apollo-era administrator James Webb was involved in the persecution of gay and lesbian federal employees during the 1950s and 1960s. Read more at
Back to top.6. Presidential Action Update on JWST Naming
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]
By Paula Szkody
As noted in the December 2021 AAS News Digest, a letter was sent to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on 17 November 2021 requesting a formal and public report on the investigation concerning James Webb’s involvement in the Lavender Scare. The letter also expressed our misgivings about the general process of naming NASA missions via top-down decisions from NASA leadership instead of via a process that is inclusive of the communities and the public that those missions serve. Having received no answer, the Board comprised a second, stronger letter that was sent on 16 March 2022. We received an acknowledgement that this letter was delivered but have not yet received a formal reply. While these letters may or may not influence what happens to the current telescope name, we will continue to advocate for a more inclusive naming process.
Read more at
https://aas.org/posts/news/2022/04/presidential-action-update-jwst-naming
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#howtoincrease
-Tenure Track Position(s) at Lowell Observatory, Arizona https://lowell.edu/about/career-opportunities
-JWST Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Positions in Observational Extragalactic Astronomy, Switzerland https://jobregister.aas.org/ad/1295c7e1
-Instructor, Astronomy, De Anza College, California https://fhda.csod.com/ux/ats/careersite/4/home/requisition/703?c=fhda
-Professorial Lecturer in Physics, American University: College of Arts & Sciences: Department of Physics, Washington, D.C. https://apply.interfolio.com/104976
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 through the online portal:
To Subscribe, go to https://aas.simplelists.com and in the "Subscribe" area, add in your name, email address, select "The AASWomen Weekly Newsletter", and click subscribe. You will be sent an email with a link to click to confirm subscription.
To unsubscribe from AAS Women by email:
Go to https://aas.simplelists.com in the "My account and unsubscriptions", type your email address. You will receive an email with a link to access your account, from there you can click the unsubscribe link for this mailing list.
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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