Friday, April 7, 2023

AASWomen Newsletter for April 7, 2023

 

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of April 7, 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. NASA unveils Artemis 11 crew
2. Equity for women in science: the role of gatekeepers
3. The science meritocracy myth devalues women
4. First a Bridge Program Graduate, Now a NASA Astrophysicist
5. Astroparticle Physicist Wins 2023 Valley Prize for Work on Dark Matter
6. Glorious Women of Astronomy
7. Women in Science: Astronomical Instrumentation
8. Multimessenger astronomy inclusive training
9. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
10. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
11. 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. NASA unveils Artemis 11 crew
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]

By: A.L. Lee, UPI & Simon Drunker, UPI

NASA unveils Artemis II crew including first woman, person of color to orbit moon. NASA officials Monday revealed the four names that will make up a team astronauts from the United States and Canada that will journey around the moon next year as part of the first crewed flight of the Artemis mission.

The four include a woman and a person of color, NASA and the Canadian Space Agency confirmed during the joint announcement at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Read more at:

https://www.accuweather.com/en/space-news/nasa-unveils-artemis-ii-crew-including-first-woman-person-of-color-to-orbit-moon/1507790

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2. Equity for women in science: the role of gatekeepers
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]

By: Jocalyn Clark, Lancet

A new book by Cassidy Sugimoto and Vincent Larivière, Equity for Women in Science: Dismantling Systemic Barriers to Advancement, is aptly timed given concerns about the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic damaged women's productivity, visibility, and recognition within the research–publishing ecosystem. Equality within systems of knowledge production is not only right, as this book shows, denying such equality is also harmful.

Read more at:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)00625-6/fulltext

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3. The science meritocracy myth devalues women
From: Sethanne Howard [sethanneh_at_msn.com]

By: Fernanda Staniscuaski, Science magazine

"As Women’s History Month comes to a close, we shouldn’t overlook the women who contribute so much to science and yet continue to be devalued, ignored, and discouraged from pursuing an academic career. Women researchers are cited less often than men and are substantially less likely than men to be credited with authorship within research teams. A variety of factors contribute to gender disparity in science, including harassment, conscious and unconscious gender bias, and motherhood. One often-overlooked obstacle is the myth of meritocracy, a set of assumptions that obscures the challenges faced by women and other underrepresented groups."

Read more at (you need a subscription)

https://www.sciencemagazinedigital.org/sciencemagazine/library/item/31_march_2023/4091427/?Cust_No=60135846&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=TXSCI2230330002&utm_content=gtxcel

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4. First a Bridge Program Graduate, Now a NASA Astrophysicist
From: Sethanne Howard [sethanneh_at_msn.com]

By: Liz Boatman at APS

Astrophysicist Laura D. Vega remembers when she first fell in love with stars. She grew up in San Antonio, Texas, and her parents, originally from Mexico, often took the family on road trips to Coahuila and Zacatecas to visit relatives. On those long, overnight drives, Vega — peeking out the backseat window — would watch the dark sky glitter. “San Antonio is a big city,” she says. “You can only pick out the really bright stars … but in the desert, it’s just dark. You can really see the stars.” Vega had questions — and she took them straight to the library. By sixth grade, she was tackling Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time. "Laura D. Vega has her eyes on the stars — the pulsating giants and red dwarfs, to be specific. She graduated with her physics doctorate from Vanderbilt University in 2021.

Read more at:

https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/202301/bridge.cfm?fbclid=IwAR3AimbWboaWgq3YdlEYpt0SSW2Jz41mmDpbD7n1eeeEaUwXJbPF-tL0HRQ

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5. Astroparticle Physicist Wins 2023 Valley Prize for Work on Dark Matter
From: Sethanne Howard [sethanneh_at_msn.com]

By: Liz Boatman

"As a child in Tunisia, Lina Necib PhD ’17 watched the 1997 film “Contact” and decided to become an astrophysicist. Now at MIT, she studies dark matter’s shadowy clues."

Read more at

https://physics.mit.edu/news/astroparticle-physicist-wins-2023-valley-prize-for-work-on-dark-matter/?fbclid=IwAR0HE_Ov_hr4HJ0Ul7YRQMJs4zjXP-LdvoaZHjtOJGKgxOvInFu9YjOaWm8

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6. Glorious Women of Astronomy

By: LIGO-India

The LIGO-India project will be built by by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, with a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Science Foundation (NSF), USA, along with several national and international research and academic institutions. The project is being led by four institutions.

Read more at:

https://www.ligo-india.in/gloriouswomen/

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7. Women in Science: Astronomical Instrumentation
From: Sethanne Howard [sethanneh_at_msn.com]

By: Frontiers - Astronomy and Space Science

"We are delighted to present the 2022 Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences “Women in Science: Astronomical Instrumentation” article collection. At present, according to UNESCO less than 30% of researchers worldwide are women. Long-standing biases and gender stereotypes are discouraging girls and women away from science-related fields, and STEM research in particular. Science and gender equality are, however, essential to ensure sustainable development as highlighted by UNESCO. In order to change traditional mindsets, gender equality must be promoted, stereotypes defeated, and girls and women should be encouraged to pursue STEM careers."

Read more at:

https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/35845/women-in-science-astronomical-instrumentation

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8. Multimessenger astronomy inclusive training
From: Sethanne Howard [sethanneh_at_msn.com]

By: Kelly Holley-Bockelmann, Steve Taylor, Aaron Stemo, Olivia Greene, Lauren Campbell

The EMIT program (Establishing Multimessenger astronomy Inclusive Training) is working to train the next generation of leaders in multimessenger astronomy. Our vision is to create a collaborative and vibrant scientific community that values equity and promotes excellence along many axes. We aim to seed multimessenger astronomy with a critical mass of leaders who will spread inclusive values and achieve better science.

We are launching our inaugural summer school this year for anyone, from undergrad to senior faculty, who would like to learn about multimessenger astronomy and is keen to develop a more inclusive mindset. There are more details included at the top of the following google registration form (including a draft syllabus).

https://forms.gle/DZhUPL1tHo7PVKJY9

The prospective summer school dates are July 17th to July 28th, 2023. If you are interested, please complete this form no later than May 1st. If you have any questions, please email emit.vanderbilt@gmail.com.

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9. 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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10. 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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11. Access to Past Issues

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

Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.

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