Women In Astronomy: March 2023

Friday, March 31, 2023

AASWomen Newsletter for March 31, 2023

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of March 31, 2023
eds: Jeremy Bailin, Nicolle Zellner, Sethanne Howard, and Hannah Jang-Condell

[We hope you all are taking care of yourselves and each other. --eds.]

This week's issues:

1. Cross-post: The Forgotten Women Aquanauts of the 1970s
2. Inclusive STEM Education Webinar
3. FAMOUS Travel Grants to Promote Diversity at AAS Meetings
4. Deadline Extended: TEAM-UP Together Scholarship Application
5. Professional Start-up Scholarships for Women Scientists in the Developing World
6. Job Opportunities
7. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
8. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
9. Access to Past Issues

An online version of this newsletter will be available at http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/ at 3:00 PM ET every Friday.

Thursday, March 30, 2023

Cross-post: The Forgotten Women Aquanauts of the 1970s

By Amy Crawford for Atlas Obscura

“We performed admirably,” Alina Szmant says.“We spent more hours in the water doing science than any of the male groups.”

Credit: OAR/National Undersea Research Program;
National Park Service

SZMANT WAS A GRADUATE STUDENT at Scripps Institution of Oceanography when she heard about an intriguing request for proposals put out by the U.S. Department of the Interior and NASA. They were looking for a team of scientists to spend two weeks in the Tektite underwater habitat, parked off the shore of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Named for a type of glassy pebble sometimes formed by meteorite impacts, Tektite consisted of two 18-foot-high metal cylinders connected at the base. Inside was a lab and storage space, a small kitchen with a Harvest Gold refrigerator and microwave, a tiny bathroom and no-frills bunks. Its original inhabitants, the year before, had been a team of male scientists whose primary research goal was to see whether they experienced any adverse effects from spending two months underwater.

“Man had walked on the moon, but NASA was thinking about longer missions,” Szmant explains. “They were interested in the medical and psychological side of things—what happens when people are isolated from society and have to live with only a few other people?”

NASA hoped that the undersea environment could stand in for space, and in a way it did.

Read more at https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/women-aquanauts-tektite-ii

Friday, March 24, 2023

AASWomen Newsletter for March 24, 2023

Maria Mitchell, item 2.
Credit: Interim Archives/Getty Images via space.com.

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of March 24, 2023
eds: Jeremy Bailin, Nicolle Zellner, Sethanne Howard, and Hannah Jang-Condell

[We hope you all are taking care of yourselves and each other. --eds.]

This week's issues:

1. Career Profile: Dr. Naomi Rowe-Gurney
2. New children's book celebrates pioneering astronomer Maria Mitchell
3. Caroline Herschel, Giant of Science
4. Demystifying Academic Job Negotiations Webinar
5. The importance of citing Black women in physics
6. Women in STEM Experience Higher Rates of Sexual Violence
7. How The Matilda Effect Removes Women in STEM From History
8. White men still hold majority of US science and engineering jobs
9. Job Opportunities
10. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
11. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
12. Access to Past Issues

An online version of this newsletter will be available at http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/ at 3:00 PM ET every Friday.

Thursday, March 23, 2023

Career Profile: Dr. Naomi Rowe-Gurney

The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy is compiling interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths.

Below is our interview with Dr. Naomi Rowe-Gurney, a planetary scientist at
Image Credit: Lydia Neary

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center employed by University of Maryland College Park under the CRESST II Cooperative Agreement. She earned her PhD in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Leicester in 2021.

What has been your career path since you completed your degree?

I did my undergraduate degree, an integrated (4-year) Master’s in Physics with Astrophysics at the University of Leicester (2008-2012). I then left academia and moved to Shanghai, China and ended up staying for 5 years. Initially I moved for an internship in financial services but I didn’t like it and missed Physics, so eventually I became a Physics teacher there. I taught international GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) and A-Level Physics at a Chinese college for 2 years then went back to Leicester for my PhD (2017-2021). My equal love of meteorology and astronomy brought me to studying Planetary Atmospheres on my favourite planets, Uranus and Neptune. I used data from the Spitzer space telescope to do that. Its successor is the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), so now I work at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center supporting the JWST for Solar System Planetary Science.

What have been particularly valuable skills for your current job that you gained through completing your degree?

Because I came from a teaching background, I did a lot of science communication and engagement during my PhD. I’m glad I did because this was a main reason for which I was chosen to do my job for JWST at NASA. They needed someone to represent the telescope for Solar System science to both the science community and the general public.

What is your salary?

I was on $65K for the first year of my contract but they saw the need (thankfully!) to give us a cost of living adjustment and now I am on $74K.

What opportunities does your job provide to be creative and/or to take initiative?

I get a lot of opportunities to take initiative and work on all kinds of different projects. My favourite project so far was in my role as Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the JWST outreach images of Neptune released in September 2022 by the team at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). I managed to get onto this project after my boss serendipitously introduced me to the Principle Investigator in a car park at the NASA centre! As SME, I helped get the raw telescope data to a point to send to the artists and then also told the artists and the writers what was new and exciting about the images that we want to tell the public. It was an amazingly successful project and the first time I saw the images in a museum I was shook! Those images can be found here.

What advice do you have for achieving work-life balance (including having a family)?

Set boundaries early on. I am from the UK so I am used to not being expected to work weekends, holidays etc., and having plenty of holiday time to take. The US is very different but I am in the US not only for the job but to explore and enjoy living in this country as much as possible before I leave.

What do you do for fun (e.g., hobbies, pastimes, etc.)?

My wife and I brought our dog to the US with us so we like to go on a lot of walks and go camping to explore new places. I also love to read and play games (one of my first purchases in the US was a PS5).

Can we include your email address for people who may want to contact you directly about your specific career route?

II’m happy to be contacted about careers and also potential job leads. I’m looking for a role in the UK starting at the end of 2023,after I finish my contract here at NASA My email address is naomi.rowe-gurney_at_nasa.gov.

Naomi and her dog (Pengyou) on a walk in the UK before they moved to the US.

Learn more about Dr. Rowe-Gurney:

Friday, March 17, 2023

AASWomen Newsletter for March 17, 2023

Al-Shaimaa Hassanin, item 4. Credit: AfNWA

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of March 17, 2023
eds: Jeremy Bailin, Nicolle Zellner, Sethanne Howard, and Hannah Jang-Condell

[We hope you all are taking care of yourselves and each other. --eds.]

This week's issues:

1. $1,000 USD Mini-Grant for Women, Girls, and Underrepresented Genders in Astronomy
2. AAS SGMA Committee Openings
3. Sweeping report calls for anti-bias measures in US science
4. Dr Al-Shaimaa Hassanin recognised with award for top female early career astronomer in Africa
5. Celebrate women in science - today, and every day
6. 20 trailblazing women in astronomy and astrophysics
7. Half of women scientists worldwide sexually harassed: survey
8. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
9. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
10. Access to Past Issues

An online version of this newsletter will be available at http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/ at 3:00 PM ET every Friday.

Thursday, March 16, 2023

$1,000 USD Mini-Grant for Women, Girls, and Underrepresented Genders in Astronomy

By Karla Sofia Garcia, Women and Girls in Astronomy Coordinator

Women, especially Black, Indigenous and Latine women, “remain under-represented in physics and astronomy”, according to the American Institute of Physics’ 2019 report on Women in Physics and Astronomy. Awarding projects centering women, girls, and underrepresented genders in astronomy is just one small step toward bridging this gap.

Implemented by the North American Regional Office of Astronomy for Development (NA-ROAD) and the International Astronomical Union Office of Astronomy for Outreach (IAU-OAO), the Women and Girls in Astronomy Project (WGAP) will target aspiring astronomers and current professionals alike, establishing a network to uplift, educate, connect with, and provide opportunities to women and girls.

As a newly established project, this mini-grant initiative is
our very first act toward making a significant impact in communities
with limited or no access to astronomy.

Ten unique astronomy projects will be selected and awarded $1,000 USD mini-grants. The projects must take place in Canada, United States, the Caribbean, Mexico, or Greenland. Projects are encouraged to approach astronomy from a unique lens, including, but not limited to, scientific, social, technical, cultural, and artistic perspectives.

If you are wondering who we are expecting applications from, the answer is... anyone! As Program Coordinator, I would personally love to see a variety of projects, targeting, for example, young girls in the Caribbean, early career women in Mexico, retired women in Canada. We are really leaving the projects up to the imagination, and the idea of what the project can be is very moldable depending on what the individual or group has identified their community needs. As long as there is a passion for astronomy, anything is possible.

Projects can be of any length as long as they are completed by December 1, 2023 and their needs fit within the $1000 USD grant. The projects can be activities, programs, workshops, exhibits, websites, events, to name a few. For example:

a one-time astronomy programming workshop (or series of workshops) run by an undergraduate for their college community;
a short-term program for retired women looking to gain basic knowledge on astronomy, for which the grant would cover the lecturer;
an astronomy art activity for kids to paint galaxies while learning about them, for which the grant is used to pay for art materials;
an event/showcase/exhibit that centers women in astronomy; or
paying for accessible astronomy equipment for a community center which would be used to host a special event or activities.

We are thankful to the Heising-Simons Foundation for supporting the NA-ROAD Women and Girls in Astronomy Program, and we are excited to see applicants’ creativity and to witness great ideas in action!

Project proposals will be accepted until Sunday, April 16th at 11:59 EDT. The full details can be found in English, Spanish, and French in the images below. Proposals can be submitted in any of these languages through the Google Form (English), which includes four key questions to answer about the proposed project. Links to the Google Forms are also in Spanish and French.

For questions, please send an email to wgap_at_aui.edu. Be sure to share with your networks, colleagues, students, or any individual you believe would be a great fit for the WGAP mini-grant!

Call For Projects: Women and Girls Astronomy Program

Friday, March 10, 2023

AASWomen Newsletter for March 10, 2023

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of March 10, 2023
eds: Jeremy Bailin, Nicolle Zellner, Sethanne Howard, and Hannah Jang-Condell

[We hope you all are taking care of yourselves and each other. --eds.]

This week's issues:

Google Doodle honors International Women's Day

1. International Women's Day
2. Updated Information: NASA Planetary Science Summer School
3. Three Space Station Women Engineers
4. Maria Mitchell: America’s first female astronomer
5. Female astronauts keep making strides off Earth
6. Shooting the sky: Meet the women astrophotographers capturing the beauty of the Milky Way in Qatar
7. Job Opportunities
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.

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1. International Women's Day
From: Sethanne Howard via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

March 8, 2023 is International Women’s Day (IWD), with a theme to “Embrace Equity”. As IWD staff write, “Equity isn't just a nice-to-have, it's a must-have. A focus on gender equity needs to be part of every society's DNA. And it's critical to understand the difference between equity and equality.”

Equality means each individual or group of people is given the same resources or opportunities. Equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances, and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome. Equity means creating an inclusive world.

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2. Updated Information: NASA Planetary Science Summer School
From: Joyce Armijo [joyce.e.armijo_at_jpl.nasa.gov]

Now through March 27, 2023, NASA is encouraging applications for its 35th Annual Planetary Science Summer School. Offered by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, PSSS is a 3-month long early career development experience to help prepare the next generation of planetary science and engineering mission leaders. Participants learn the process of developing a science hypothesis-driven robotic space mission in a concurrent engineering environment while getting an in-depth, first-hand look at mission design, life cycle, costs, schedule and the trade-offs inherent in each.

A recording of the PSSS Informational Application Q&A webinar held on February 14 is available at

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/intern/apply/nasa-science-mission-design-schools/

To apply and learn more about the NASA Science Mission Design Schools:

http://go.nasa.gov/missiondesignschools

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3. Three Space Station Women Engineers
From Sethanne Howard [sethanneh_at_msn.com]

by Heather Deiss, NASA

Women of the International Space Station Program’s workforce are trailblazers and contribute to the success of the orbiting laboratory in remarkable ways. From program management to research or mission integration, the numerous space station teams are rich with women engineers who work hard on the ground to ensure the seamless operation of the orbiting laboratory 250 miles above.

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4. Maria Mitchell: America’s first female astronomer
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]

“First, no woman should say, 'I am but a woman!' But a woman! What more can you ask to be?” - Maria Mitchell

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5. Female astronauts keep making strides off Earth
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]

By Elizabeth Howell

More than 60 years after human spaceflight began in 1961, genders other than male make up only about 10% of astronauts and space tourists. But diversity is starting to accelerate, with recent notable spaceflights of women including an octogenarian, a cancer survivor with a prothesis and a Black female pilot. NASA also pledges that a woman will be on its Artemis 3 mission, which aims to land on the moon as soon as 2025.

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6. Shooting the sky: Meet the women astrophotographers capturing the beauty of the Milky Way in Qatar

From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]

By Chaitra Arjunpuri

It’s new moon day and that season again. She double-checks her camera, carefully attaching the wide-angle lens. She keeps extra memory cards, batteries, a headlamp, a remote, and an intervalometer in the separate padded sections in the backpack, before slipping the tripod in the dedicated attachment. She’s all geared up to travel from Doha to a location with the least light pollution. She and her three friends have waited for this day and are excited to be under the stars, staying the whole night out in the desert, capturing the stars.

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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 in Planetary Science and Instrumentation, University of Hawaii
https://www.schooljobs.com/careers/hawaiiedu (search on 0086576)

- Tenure-Track Position in Materials Science and Mineral Physics, University of Hawaii
https://www.schooljobs.com/careers/hawaiiedu (search on 0086226)

- Postdoc in Exoplanets at Louisiana State University
https://jobregister.aas.org/ad/984986d7

- Lecturer, Astronomy Department, University of Maryland
https://ejobs.umd.edu/postings/105248

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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.

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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.

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10. Access to Past Issues

https://aas.org/comms/cswa/AASWOMEN

Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.

Wednesday, March 8, 2023

International Women's Day

By Sethanne Howard

The aim of the IWD 2023 #EmbraceEquity campaign is to get the world talking about why equal opportunities aren't enough. People start from different places, so true inclusion and belonging require equitable action.

Read more about this at https://www.internationalwomensday.com/EquityEquality.

Embracing Equity (image credit: IWD website)

Friday, March 3, 2023

AASWomen Newsletter for March 3, 2023

Dr. Valerie Thomas

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of March 3, 2023
eds: Jeremy Bailin, Nicolle Zellner, Sethanne Howard, and Hannah Jang-Condell

[We hope you all are taking care of yourselves and each other. --eds.]

This week's issues:

1. Crosspost: Women and Girls in Astronomy project
2. Crosspost: This Astrophysicist Will Make You Believe In Your Dreams All Over Again
3. Women in Astronomy: a comprehensive bibliography
4. Mother–daughter duo work together to find new worlds
5. The annual report of the International Astronomical Union Women in Astronomy (WiA) WG 2022-2023 is out.
6. The true story of 16 women who fought gender discrimination in elite science
7. A gender perspective on the global migration of scholars
8. Meet the woman behind early Landsat images: Dr. Valerie L. Thomas.
9. Job Opportunities
10. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
11. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
12. Access to Past Issues

An online version of this newsletter will be available at http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/ at 3:00 PM ET every Friday.

1. Crosspost: Women and Girls in Astronomy project

From: Hannah Jang-Condell via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

By Suzana Filipecki Martins [suzana.filipecki_at_oao.iau.org]

From 11 February to 8 March 2023, the IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach (OAO) will hold a series of activities to celebrate Women and Girls in Astronomy. This annual project recognises the role of all women in advancing science and encourages youth on and off the gender spectrum to consider careers in the field.

2. Crosspost: This Astrophysicist Will Make You Believe In Your Dreams All Over Again

From: Nicolle Zellner via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

By Priyamvada Kowshik

"One of the foremost astrophysicists in the country, Prof Shastri specialises in supermassive black holes at the centre of distant galaxies and the jet streams emerging from them. She is equally passionate about dismantling the patriarchy in science, and the inequities and systemic barriers for women in physics. Shastri wants to build an inclusive physics community, where people of all backgrounds can thrive."

3. Women in Astronomy: a comprehensive bibliography

From: Sethanne Howard [sethanneh_at_msn.com]

By: Ruth S. Freitag, Library of Congress, Science Refernce Services

She has complied an alphabetical list of women in astronomy as a resource. Each person listed has a reference. There is a method to ask to have additional women entered in the list. However due to staffing shortages at the loc this project will not be updated.

4. Mother–daughter duo work together to find new worlds

From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]

By Sophia Chen

"This week, Nature is highlighting a package of five papers analysing the James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST’s) observations of WASP-39b, a hot exoplanet with a Saturn-like mass, that Natalie Batalha and her daughter Natasha contributed to as part of the JWST Early Release Science programme.

They both study exoplanets — planets outside our Solar System — using NASA’s JWST, the largest optical telescope in space, which launched in 2021. Natalie, an astronomer at the University of California (UC), Santa Cruz, specializes in observations of faraway light to discover these new worlds. Natasha, an astronomer at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, then uses such observations to simulate exoplanet atmospheres to understand the climate and chemical composition. The papers describe the exoplanet’s atmosphere, including its ratio of carbon to oxygen, which offers information about the planet’s formation and potential to host life. Natalie and Natasha talk about what it’s like to work together, and how to make the more than 300 team members feel that their individual contributions matter.”

5. The annual report of the International Astronomical Union Women in Astronomy (WiA) WG 2022-2023 is out.

From: Sethanne Howard [sethanneh_at_msn.com]

By: Mamta Ponmier (Chair of the IAU Committee)

Read the full study at

https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/health-equity

8. Meet the woman behind early Landsat images: Dr. Valerie L. Thomas.

From: Sethanne Howard [sethanneh_at_msn.com]

By: Yvette Smith, NASA

A self-taught programmer, she managed the development of early Landsat image processing. Her work in the 1970s helped show for the first time that global crop monitoring could be done with Landsat satellite imagery.

Thursday, March 2, 2023

Cross-post: This Astrophysicist Will Make You Believe In Your Dreams All Over Again

By Priyamvada Kowshik, for 101Reporters, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters that brings out unheard stories from the hinterland.

Prajval Shastri at work (Credit: 101Reporter)

Women in science represent an important societal intersection and among the sciences, physics has one of the largest gender gaps among science disciplines. To address this inequity, Prof Shastri founded and chaired the Gender in Physics Working Group (GIPWG) of the Indian Physics Association (IPA). She also conceived and led the drafting of the Hyderabad Charter for Gender Equity in Physics, a call to action to the Indian physics community to address gender disparity."

Read more at

https://feminisminindia.com/2023/02/23/this-astrophysicist-will-make-you-believe-in-your-dreams-all-over-again/