Issue of October 6, 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. Women Eclipse Chasers
2. Update to IAU policy on harrassment
3. WGAP Women and Girls in Astronomy Program
4. Two asteroids named for two women in astronomy
5. ESA PowerPoint on History of Women in Astronomy
6. Girls STEAM Ahead with NASA Resources in Action
7. Informational Webinars on Anti-DEI Legislation
8. The Problem with Nobel's "rule of three"
9. Evelyn Fox Keller, Who Turned a Feminist Lens on Science, Dies at 87
10. Journal-based measures of impact make many influential scientists ‘invisible’
11. CSMA Micro-Grants Program Applications - Deadline Oct 13
12. Astronomy and Physics Departments Invited to Apply to P&A SEA Change
13. Job Opportunities
14. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
15. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
16. 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.
By: Thomas Hockey
The trans-continental 7 August 1869 total eclipse of the Sun was the first for which scientific observation was expected to have a spectroscpic component. It also was the inaugural in the United States at which a significant number of women participated in its study.
Read more at
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2023/10/women-eclipse-chasers.html
By: Sarah Wild
Update, 2 October 2023: The IAU executive committee further revised its code of conduct on 29 September. It removed the controversial paragraph that is discussed in the article and added a sentence: “Furthermore, we emphasize that any form of physical or verbal abuse, bullying, or harassment of any individual, including complainants, their allies, alleged or sanctioned offenders, or those who have worked with them, is not allowed.”
Read more at:
https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/online/42744?utm_source=Physics%20Today&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=14143084_NQ%20-%2025-29%20Sept&utm_content=TWIP&dm_i=1Y69,8F4VG,E1OBOU,YR70R,1
By: IAU WGAP
The Women and Girls in Astronomy Program (WGAP) will inspire and support women, girls, and underrepresented genders in the field of astronomy. The program, implemented by the IAU North American Regional Office of Astronomy for Development (NA-ROAD), will target aspiring astronomers and current professionals alike establishing a network to uplift, educate, connect with, and promote astronomy for development in women and girls.
Read more at:
https://naroad.astro4dev.org/na-road-projects/women-and-girls-astronomy-program/
By: Donna Ferguson
They charted the stars for pitiful wages, knowing their observations about the universe would be attributed to male colleagues, and died in relative obscurity, their scientific achievements unrecognised and overlooked.
Now, in a tribute to trailblazing British female astronomers, two asteroids have been named for Annie Maunder and Alice Everett, among the first women in the world to earn a living in astronomy.
Read more at:
By: Antonia M Varela Perez
This ESA powerpoint covers the history of women in astronomy covering almost 4000 years. It was produced in 2009. It is useful for teaching.
Read more at:
By: National Girls Collaborative Project
The Girls STEAM Ahead with NASA program, part of NASA’s Universe of Learning, provides resources and experiences that enable youth, families, and lifelong learners to explore fundamental questions in astrophysics, experience how science is done, and discover the universe for themselves. The webinar is October 17, 2023, 12:30 PM Pacific / 3:30 PM Eastern
Register at
https://ngcproject.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/ngcproject/event.jsp?event=725&
By: AAS
In April 2022, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law HB7, the “Stop W.O.K.E. Act,” prohibitingworkplace training or school instruction that teaches topics relating to race- or gender-based privilege or oppression. Similar legislation targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices, programs, and policies has since expanded nationally, withat least 40 bills across 22 states. This has potential impacts on higher education, K-12 classrooms, and professional society programming.
The American Physical Society (APS), the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT), andthe National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP) have partnered to host two informational webinars to help the science community better understand how these policies and bills might impact their professional lives. AAS members are invited to both webinars.
Register for 4 October:
https://apsphysics.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_9fnHswh6QXe3iDEEk5ZaSg#/registration
By: CNN
Martin Rees said one challenge for the Nobel committees is the increasingly collaborative nature of most scientific research. The image of the lone genius having a eureka moment is long gone, if it ever truly existed. Additionally, discoveries can be made simultaneously by different teams.
However, the Nobel selection committees, according to the rules laid down by Alfred Nobel in 1895, can only honor up to three people per prize. This requirement can prove to be a headache, Rees said.
Read more at:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/29/world/nobel-prize-rule-of-three-diversity-scn/index.html
by: Clay Risen
Evelyn Fox Keller, a theoretical physicist, a mathematical biologist and, beginning in the late 1970s, a feminist theorist who explored the way gender pervades and distorts scientific inquiry, died on Sept. 22 at an assisted living home in Cambridge, Mass. She was 87.
Dr. Keller trained as a physicist and focused much of her early work on applying mathematical concepts to biology. But as the feminist movement took hold, she began to think critically about how ideas of masculinity and femininity had affected her profession.
Read more at
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/30/science/evelyn-fox-keller-dead.html
By: The Life Academic
Journal impact factors are supposed to reflect how influential the science being published is. But they often don’t. At least that’s the conclusion Salsabil Arabi, a metaresearcher with the Information School at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her Ph.D. adviser Ian Hutchins came to when they, along with their colleague Chaoqun Ni, dug into the data. Up to 90% of the most highly cited biomedical papers are published in so-called low-impact journals with impact factors below 15, they report in a bioRxiv preprint. That means a whole lot of scientific research isn’t getting the credit it deserves, the team says.
Read more at:
By: AAS
The AAS Committee on the Status of Minorities in Astronomy (CSMA) Micro-Grants Program is accepting applications! The Micro-Grants Program sponsors Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), and other students who are suffering from the effects of financial scarcity. Yearly through 2023, the program will offer ~10 one-time grants of at least $500 each to support BIPOC undergraduates to pay graduate school application fees, GRE testing fees, and other expenses associated with applying to graduate programs in astronomy or physics. The 2023 Micro-Grants Program applications opened on 28 August and will close on 13 October.
Read more at:
https://aas.org/posts/news/2023/09/deadline-approaching-csma-micro-grants-program-applications
By: AAS
The Physics and Astronomy (P&A) STEMM Equity Achievement (SEA) Change Departmental Program is recruiting for its third cohort! P&A SEA Change is a collaboration among many physics and astronomy professional societies, including the American Astronomical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Postsecondary education departments work through a comprehensive self-assessment of policies, practices, culture, climate, and outcomes that informs a 5-year action plan. Departments then apply for a Bronze award; if awarded, they will need to complete their 5-year plan.
Physics and astronomy postsecondary education departments in the United States or US territories are invited to apply to join the third P&A SEA Change cohort; the deadline to apply is 22 November 2023.
Read more at
https://aas.org/posts/news/2023/09/astronomy-and-physics-departments-invited-apply-pa-sea-change
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
- Assistant Professor in Extragalactic Astronomy at Georgia State University
https://jobregister.aas.org/ad/9a47c251
- Tenure track Assistant Ptofessor in solar physics and astro-informatics at Georgia State University
https://jobregister.aas.org/ad/8f247639
- Assistant/Associate/Full Professor in Observational Astronomy, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL
https://jobregister.aas.org/ad/021eb74e
- Tenure track at American University (Washington DC) Department of Physics
https://jobregister.aas.org/ad/63a96905
- Postdoctoral research positions as Flatiron Research Fellow at Center for Computational Astrophysics
http://apply.interfolio.com/132546
http://apply.interfolio.com/132547
- planetary astronomer/archivist at SETI
https://www.seti.org/jobs/planetary-astronomer-and-archivist
- Tenure-track Assistant Professor at Michigan State
https://jobregister.aas.org/ad/45d9fbc3
- New job opportunity to work at AUI-EPE:
https://jobs.jobvite.com/nrao/job/oIJvofw4
- AAAS section on Astronomy (D) - Nominees requested for section leadership positions
https://airtable.com/app2brVc2LjdbUBqM/shrOCjDzn0VnO8IE6
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.
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.
https://aas.org/comms/cswa/AASWOMEN
Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.
No comments :
Post a Comment