Issue of March 21, 2025
eds: Jeremy Bailin, Sethanne Howard, Ferah Munshi, Stella Kafka, and Ben Keller
[We hope you all are taking care of yourselves and each other. --eds.]
This week's issues:
1. Women in Astronomy: Space for Students - Elizabeth Apala
2. AAS Announces 2025 Election Results
3. AAS Policy Update (18 March 2025)
4. Call for SGMA Committee Members
5. A Century Ago, Pioneering Astrophysicist Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Showed Us What Stars Are Made Of
6. What's Stopping Women From (Literally) Aiming for the Stars?
7. Alycia Weinberger: Vera Rubin Would 'Find It Fun' That Nvidia Named New Chip After Her
8. NSLC High School Summer Engineering Programs
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.
In our popular Career Profile series, the AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy has compiled dozens of interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers, planetary scientists, and those in related fields. In a twist on this series, we video-interviewed students and recent graduates in astronomy and astrophysics to highlight their personal and academic career paths. The purpose of this series is three-fold. It aims not only to give a voice and exposure to those who are up and coming in the field but also to give feedback to the Astronomical community at large about the experiences of students who identify as women. The hope is that these interviews will not only share advice and lessons learned but will shed light on how to encourage and inspire more women, from various backgrounds and skill sets, to follow space trajectories and reach towards the stars.
Below is our interview with Elizabeth Apala, an early career astrophysicist. After graduating with her master’s in applied physics with a focus on astronomy from Towson University in 2019, she worked as a senior research assistant at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Elizabeth is a member of the American Physical Society (APS) and serves as an adjunct professor at Eastern Oklahoma State College. A resident of Oklahoma and a member of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, she is also involved with the Choctaw Nation’s YES program. This program, aimed at older teenagers and young adult tribal members, focuses on increasing social mobility by providing hands-on experiences through internships and work opportunities. Elizabeth believes that with grit and determination, anything can be accomplished and any goal can be achieved. Outside of astrophysics and her outreach work, Elizabeth and her family raise goats on their farm in Oklahoma.
Watch or read the interview at
https://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2025/03/women-in-astronomy-space-for-students.html
The 2025 AAS Election began on 3 January 2025 and wrapped up on 18 February. In total, 2,078 members (out of the 7,634 eligible to vote) submitted votes. Many thanks to everyone who participated!
See the results at
https://aas.org/posts/news/2025/03/aas-announces-2025-election-results
NASA will be closing three offices in response to the presidential administration’s workforce optimization executive order.
Read more at
https://aas.org/posts/news/2025/03/policy-update-18-march-2025
The AAS Committee for Sexual-Orientation and Gender Minorities in Astronomy (SGMA) works to promote equality for sexual orientation and gender minorities within our profession, including those identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, questioning, queer, or asexual.
We welcome applications to join the SGMA committee for a three-year term starting in June 2025. This year, we expect to have two openings on the committee. Please feel free to forward this message to others who may be interested. The deadline to apply is 15 April at 11:59 pm ET.
Read more at
https://aas.org/posts/news/2025/03/call-sgma-committee-members
By Elizabeth Landau
Astronomer Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin spent nearly a year in “utter bewilderment” after arriving at the Harvard College Observatory in the early 1920s. She often worked into the late evening and felt “in a state of exhaustion and despair,” she later wrote in her autobiography.
The fruits of her labor would earn her an important place in the history of astronomy. A century ago this year, her 1925 doctoral thesis presented a controversial idea: that hydrogen and helium dominate stars.
“She was the one who really broke down for the first time: What are stars made out of?” says Natalie Hinkel, a planetary astrophysicist at Louisiana State University.
But Payne-Gaposchkin faced resistance both to her revelation and in her career as an astronomer more generally. Today, we know that she was right, and that these elements also constitute the vast majority of the ordinary matter in the universe. Her thesis paved the way for the modern study of stars and galaxies, and contributed to the search for habitable planets, and even life, beyond our solar system.
Read more at
By Tilda Gladwell
If you are a keen stargazer, you will know that many constellations derive their name from Greek mythology, particularly its vicious monsters and the men who felled them. The women of Greek mythology were not afforded such an opportunity. Out of the 88 modern constellations, only three are named after females.
Gender representation in other areas of astronomy is equally sparse. There are nearly 1600 craters dotting the moon’s surface, many of which honour the memories of renowned scientists like Einstein and Newton, or philosophers like Plato and Aristotle. Only 33 (or two per cent) are named after women, many of whom you will have never heard of. Elsewhere across our solar system, just 1.8 per cent and 11.8 per cent of craters on Mars and Mercury respectively honour women, while Venus is the only planet to be named after a female.
Read more at
https://www.shoutoutuk.org/2025/03/20/whats-stopping-women-from-literally-aiming-for-the-stars/
By Omar Gallaga
Nvidia recently revealed details about its new AI graphics processors, and one of them is named for a scientist familiar to many space fans. Vera Rubin, the namesake for one of Nvidia's new AI GPU platforms, was the American scientist credited with discovering dark matter early in her career. The nod to Rubin would have been appreciated by the late astronomer, said one of her mentees, Dr. Alycia Weinberger, a staff scientist and astrophysicist at Carnegie Science, where Rubin worked for a time.
Read more at
Discover a career in engineering. At the NSLC on Engineering, you’ll design prototypes and build robots alongside your team as you explore career paths in civil, mechanical, and chemical engineering.
Read more at
https://www.nslcleaders.org/youth-leadership-programs/engineering-summer-programs/ ---
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