Issue of June 17, 2022
eds: Jeremy Bailin, Nicolle Zellner, Alessandra Aloisi, and Sethanne Howard
[We hope you all are taking care of yourselves and each other. --eds.]
This week's issues:
1. Crosspost: Groping, Derision, Bias, Threats: Women in Science Face It All
4. Anne Green receives Companion of the Order of Australia
5. Fred Kavli Plenary Lecture: Phosphine in the Atmosphere of Venus, Jane Greaves
6. 2022-2024 cohort of CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars includes astrophysicist Katie Mack
7. Interview with Black In Astro Founder and Organizers
8. She's Back! Meet Bethany Johns: New AAS Deputy Director of Public Policy and Interim Acting Director
9. First public statue of female scientist in Italy celebrates astronomer Margherita Hack
10. Diversity in science prizes: why is progress so slow?
11. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
12. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
An online version of this newsletter will be available at
https://http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com at 3:00 PM ET every Friday.
1. Crosspost: Groping, Derision, Bias, Threats: Women in Science Face It All
By Arianne Cohen via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
Two decades ago, Rachel Ivie attended a conference for women in astronomy in Pasadena, Calif. During a panel on gender demographics, she presented a series of charts depicting the dismal truth: Only 14% of astronomy faculty were female—a little more than half the rate for science and engineering overall. After the panel, several participants approached her to discuss why those numbers were so low when 60% of young astronomers at the time were women. “The question was, what’s going to happen to this big group?” says Ivie, a senior research fellow at the American Institute of Physics (AIP). “Why do women drop out?”
Read more at:
Back to top.2. Committee for the Status of Women in Astronomy Activities in the Context of the Astro2020 Decadal Survey
From: Sethanne Howard [sethanneh_at_msn.com]
By Isabella Trierweiler
The evening splinter meeting was hosted by the Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy (CSWA) to present their strategic plan and its importance to the Astro2020 Decadal Survey. Their plan has four main focus-points, including addressing harassment and bullying, creating inclusive and ethical workspaces, and interactions with AAS. Much of the work includes collaboration with other AAS committees, including demographics, employment, and minority identity committees. After introducing the committee, the session then broke out into small groups to brainstorm additional ideas. Check out their website for advice and a database of their previous departmental surveys!
For more see:
https://astrobites.org/2022/06/14/astrobites-at-aas-240-day-1/#topic1
https://aas.org/comms/cswa/resources
Back to top.3. Royal Astronomical Society Gold Medal Lecturer: Jocelyn Bell Burnell; and the Northern Ireland £50 note featuring her discovery of pulsars goes into circulation
From: Sethanne Howard [sethanneh_at_msn.com] and Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]
by Katya Gozman and Joshua Murray
This morning’s (06/13/2022) plenary session was probably one that many people have been waiting for, since the speaker was none other than Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, one of the most well-known women of astrophysics in the last century. Dr. Bell Burnell is the recipient of the Royal Astronomical Society’s (RAS) Gold Medal, which is the highest honor awarded by the society. A winner of multiple prestigious awards over her distinguished career, Bell Burnell is also a big advocate for budding astronomers and donated most of the prize money she received from the Special Breakthrough Prize to fund underrepresented minorities and refugees. While Dr. Bell Burnell is most well known for her groundbreaking discovery of radio pulsars in 1967, her talk was on the more human side of science — today she discussed women in astrophysics.
Read more at:
https://astrobites.org/2022/06/14/astrobites-at-aas-240-day-1/#topic8
"Ulster Bank's new £50 inspired by the role of women in life and industry in the north is set to go into circulation tomorrow. The polymer £50 is the latest in a series of vertically oriented notes launched by the bank featuring prominent people and places in Northern Ireland. The design of the note heavily features women working in NI’s burgeoning life sciences industry. It includes Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell’s iconic 1967 discovery of pulsars - spherical, compact objects that are about the size of a large city but contain more mass than the sun.”
Read more at
Back to top.4. Anne Green receives Companion of the Order of Australia
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]
By Peter Bodkin
"When Anne Green began her career studying the stars, women were such a rarity in the male-dominated field that special provisions had to be made.
“When I first went to the telescope to observe, I was given the professor’s room because it was the only one with a shower; they hadn’t even considered that there would be women astronomers,” she said.”
Read more at
https://www.aap.com.au/news/female-stargazer-makes-astronomical-input
Back to top.5. Fred Kavli Plenary Lecture: Phosphine in the Atmosphere of Venus, Jane Greaves
From: Sethanne Howard [sethanneh_at_msn.com]
By Briley Lewis
AAS 240 started off today with a hot topic: possible detections of alien life. (More specifically, phosphine in Venus’s atmosphere!) In 2020, Professor Jane Greaves and collaborators released a paper that became headline news and claimed a detection of phosphine on Venus, which could be a possible sign of extraterrestrial life. Venus, though, has long been thought of as quite an inhospitable place. Early missions like Mariner 2 and Venera 14 revealed a dried-out surface with a sweltering temperature of 900°F, the result of a “runaway greenhouse effect.” Yet, some scientists think that microorganisms from a previously lush surface could have taken refuge in Venus’s thick clouds, where they may still reside today.
Read More at:
https://astrobites.org/2022/06/14/astrobites-at-aas-240-day-1/#topic1
Back to top.6. 2022-2024 cohort of CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars includes astrophysicist Katie Mack
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]
By Justine Brooks
"In support of the next generation of science leaders, CIFAR welcomes new scholars chosen for their outstanding early-career research in diverse fields
Eighteen early-career researchers have been named CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars for 2022-2024. The announcement of this year’s cohort takes place during a milestone year, as CIFAR celebrates its 40th anniversary."
This year's scholars include astrophysicist Katie Mack.
Read more at
https://cifar.ca/cifarnews/2022/06/07/meet-the-2022-2024-cohort-of-cifar-azriel-global-scholars
Back to top.7. Interview with Black In Astro Founder and Organizers
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]
Nature astronomy interviews organizers of the Black In Astro Community, including Committee for the Status of Women in Astronomy member Bryné Hadnott, about the origins of the community and their experiences.
Read more at
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-022-01704-0?utm_campaign=natastronTWT
Back to top.8.She's Back! Meet Bethany Johns: New AAS Deputy Director of Public Policy and Interim Acting Director
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
By Bethany Johns
Hello, I am Bethany Johns, the AAS Deputy Director of Public Policy and Interim Acting Director. You may remember me as the 2010–2012 John Bahcall Public Policy Fellow. The fellowship was a very impactful and meaningful experience for me. In the years since, I have remained devoted to the vision of the AAS: to create a world where all people value and benefit from a scientific understanding of our universe. I have strategically chosen to work with many different types of organizations to gain a broad set of skills and experience while maintaining a strong commitment to my roots in astronomy.
Read more at
To learn more about the AAS Public Policy Team, including how to invite someone for a talk at your institution, go to
https://aas.org/advocacy/how-aas-advocates/programs
Back to top.9. First public statue of female scientist in Italy celebrates astronomer Margherita Hack
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]
By Davide Castelvecchi
"Astronomer Margherita Hack has become the first female scientist honoured with a public statue in Italy. Hack, who was born in 1922 and died in 2013, was a high-profile figure for decades in the country, where she was a prominent science communicator and is credited with inspiring generations of young women to pursue a career in science. The bronze monument, by Italian artist Sissi, was unveiled on 13 June — a day after what would have been Hack’s 100th birthday — next to the main campus of the University of Milan.”
Read more at
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01665-4
Back to top.10. Diversity in science prizes: why is progress so slow?
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]
Diversity among recipients of science prizes lags the already poor diversity within STEM professions. A Nature editorial argues that one step towards progress on this front is publishing data about prize nomination.
Read more at
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01608-z
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 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.13. Access to Past Issues
https://aas.org/comms/cswa/AASWOMEN
Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered. To unsubscribe from this list please go to https://www.simplelists.com To unsubscribe from this list please go to https://lists.aas.org/confirm/?u=yk6SUFJgfQtOolbenQrht0exS8pKIDY3
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