AASWomen Newsletter for October 9, 2026

Vera Rubin at work

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of October 9, 2026
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. Crosspost: Anna Quider advises the STEM community on federal policy
2. David Byrne Awakens the Story of Dark Matter
3. Margaret Hamilton, computing pioneer who led software development for the Apollo program, dies at 90
4. APS expands programming to support women and gender minorities in physics
5. Beth Willman Named Interim Director of NSF NOIRLab
6. Women astronauts are challenging the image of who belongs in science through fashion, family, and pop culture
7. 9th International Conference on Women in Physics (ICWIP2027)
8. IAU Women in Astronomy STEM Ambassador Awards 2025–2026 Announced
9. Federal Research Grant Awards Fall to a Six-Year Low
10. Applications open for new CSWA members
11. Job Opportunities
12. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
13. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
14. 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.

Crosspost: Anna Quider advises the STEM community on federal policy

Today's crosspost comes from Physics Today and was originally posted July 30, 2026 and written by senior editor Toni Feder.

Q&A: Anna Quider advises the STEM community on federal policy

By Toni Feder

A love of science and ease in communicating led her to start a consulting firm that aims to broaden opportunities in science and technology.

While working on her PhD in astronomy at the University of Cambridge, Anna Quider realized that although she loved knowing and promoting science, discovering something like a new stellar population wasn’t motivating for her; she would be happy to be “the champion for the person who is making those discoveries.” She earned her PhD in 2011, ditched her plans to pursue an academic career, and pivoted to science policy.

In 2023, she launched her consultancy, the Quider Group, through which she advises research and higher-education organizations on science policy, congressional and agency engagement, grantsmanship, and advocacy.

Read the full Q&A with Anna Quider at Physics Today.

Anna Quider
Photo: Anna Quider (via Physics Today)

AASWomen Newsletter for October 2, 2026

Maria Mitchell spotting the comet through her family's 2-inch reflecting telescope. Credit: H. Dassell/ Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of October 2, 2026
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. Call for Nominations for the 2027 Gruber Cosmology Prize
2. Spotlight on Astronomer Laurie Rousseau-Nepton
3. First Samoan astrophysicist encourages Pasifika students to reach for the stars
4. The young women guiding tourists through India's night sky
5. From Asteroid Research to Asteroid Alyankovic: Spotlight on Dr. Allison McGraw
6. Astrophysicist France A. Córdova Named 2026 Nierenberg Prize Recipient
7. Women astronauts use social media to reframe science and femininity together
8. October 1, 1847, Maria Mitchell discovered comet C/1847 T1, later known as “Miss Mitchell’s Comet.
9. Funding opportunities for Gender Equality & Women’s Empowerment
10. Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day: A Woman’s Pursuit of Astronomy and Independence
11. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
12. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
13. 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.

Spotlight on Astronomer Laurie Rousseau-Nepton

Dr. Laurie Rousseau-Nepton made history when she became the first Indigenous woman in Canada to obtain her PhD in astrophysics. Since Rousseau-Nepton finished her doctoral dissertation and graduated from Université Laval in 2017, she has forged her own path as an astronomer and a science communicator.

Rousseau-Nepton worked as a Resident Astronomer at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope for six years. Her work as the principal investigator of SIGNALS (Star Formation, Ionized Gas, and Nebular Abundance Legacy Survey) drew enough attention that the National Film Board of Canada made a short five episode docuseries of Rousseau-Nepton's life and work on the project.

Since then, Rousseau-Nepton joined the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto, where she continues to explore the universe, teach, and find ways to communicate science to the community.

She received the Qilak Award in 2023 from the Canadian Astronomical Society for her outstanding contributions to astronomy education and outreach. One of Rousseau-Nepton's favorite topics is how her research aligns with Innu traditions, which says that humans originate from and return to the stars.

In September 2026, the University of Toronto announced Rousseau-Nepton was one of eight recipients of the Connaught Community Partnership Research Program Awards. With the award money, Rousseau-Nepton will continue her current research into how ancient Indigenous peoples observed, understood, and tracked celestial events using stone circle alignments.

On October 16, 2026, Rousseau-Nepton and a team of astronomy students will present Aurora Ancestors & Teachings of the North at Calgary's Telus Spark Science Center. The science center is hosting Stones, Stories, & Stars: Experience Astronomy from the Stone Ancestors. This evening of astronomy and explorations into indigenous oral storytelling takes place from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. 

Learn more about Laurie Rousseau-Nepton's career through her Let's Talk Science Career Profile.

Watch Rousseau-Nepton's interview with Spotlight with Scientists in School, where Rousseau-Nepton speaks about her work and her outreach encouraging kids to stay in STEM. 

AASWomen Newsletter for September 25, 2026

Henrietta Swan Leavitt,
illustration by Olivia Angelozzi, item 6.

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of September 25, 2026
eds: Jeremy Bailin, 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. Science grant funding continues to fall in 2026
2. Crosspost: We All Share the Same Sky (as told by Amina Helmi)
3. The Physics and Astronomy SEA Change is looking for application reviewers
4. Share your story with the AAS Employment Committee
5. Ladakh Hanle Dark Sky Reserve: How Women Lead India’s Astro-Tourism Revolution
6. Henrietta Swan Leavitt: The Woman Who Measured the Universe
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

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

Science grant funding continues to fall in 2026

Grant funding across the sciences continues to fall in 2026, as noted by several in the scientific community.

On August 31, AAS reported "a 57% reduction in the number of awards between FY25 and FY26. This reduction in awards in the astronomical sciences is even more severe than the overall 30% decrease in FY26 awards at NSF reported by Nature."

Photo: AAS

Read the AAS full report at https://aas.org/posts/news/2026/08/nsf-astronomical-sciences-grants-reduced-over-50-fiscal-year-2026.

The NSF did publish five new NSF MPS funding opportunities for core research programs, initiating a new rolling admission period, ending the third Monday in November. A full description of these funding opportunities can be found at https://www.nsf.gov/mps/updates/new-nsf-mps-funding-opportunities-core-research-programs.

Casey Dreier, Chief of Space Policy at The Planetary Society, wrote this week that NASA "is on track to award the fewest scientific grants in 15 years. With only two weeks to go in the U.S. government’s fiscal year, NASA has awarded ​​1,188 new grants for basic scientific research. That’s roughly 15% fewer than the historic baseline, and almost exactly equal to 2025."

Read Dreier's full letter in the September edition of The Space Advocate at https://www.planetary.org/space-advocate/space-advocate-september-2026-2.

The AAS policy team encourages all members to "contact your members of Congress today and urge them to exercise their oversight authority and support robust funding levels for NSF, in addition to the NASA Science Mission Directorate and the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science."

AASWomen Newsletter for September 18, 2026



AUI 2026 Women and Girls in Astronomy Program mini-grant awards announced

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of September 18, 2026
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. Crosspost: Dara Norman to Receive 2026 Arthur B.C. Walker II Award
2. NA-ROAD Announces the 2026 Women and Girls in Astronomy Program Cohort
3. Emily Levesque Named Next Editor in Chief of AAS Journals
4. CSWA accepting applications for new members
5. IAU Equity and Inclusion Survey 2026
6. New oral histories: Women’s experiences in moving into science
7. In an Age of AI, a Physicist Seeks What Endures
8. Job Opportunities
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.