AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of January 25, 2019
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Maria Patterson, JoEllen McBride, and Alessandra Aloisi (guest ed.)
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| Photo by Douglas Sonders |
This week's issues:
1. Cross-post: Women in Planetary Science, Summary of DPS 2018 Planetary Allyship Meeting
2. CORRECTION: Making Waves: 6 Women in Hawaii with Careers in STEM Share Their Stories
2. CORRECTION: Making Waves: 6 Women in Hawaii with Careers in STEM Share Their Stories
3. Nancy Roman, the American space agency NASA's first Chief Astronomer
4. Typical physics Ph.D. admissions criteria limit access to underrepresented groups but fail to predict doctoral completion
5. Influenster Now Accepting 2019 Women in STEM Academic Scholarship Applications
6. Women in space: Roscosmos sets sights on creating female crew of cosmonauts, says source
7. Mind The Gap: Women Underrepresented In Awarding Of Prestigious Prizes
8. When Bankwest's female tech staff are told "girls don't hack", this is what they do...
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 of the AASWomen Newsletter
Today's guest editor is Alessandra Aloisi. Alessandra studies stars and gas in nearby star-forming galaxies with UV/optical/NIR imaging and UV/optical spectroscopy to infer their chemical and evolutionary state. She received her PhD from Bologna University (Italy) in 1999. She then landed in the US and launched her career as postdoc at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), and as associate research scientist at Johns Hopkins University. Alessandra joined the research staff at STScI in 2003, working first for the European Space Agency (ESA) and transferring to a position with the Association of the Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) in 2009. At STScI, Alessandra started as instrument scientist for the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope, and became the lead for the team responsible for the calibration, operations, and user support of these spectrographs just before the Hubble Servicing Mission 4. She then moved to be the Deputy Division Head of the Operations & Engineering Division, and is now the Head of the Science Mission Office where she oversees the science career and infrastructure of STScI as well as HST and JWST science policies.
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1. Cross-post: Women in Planetary Science, Summary of DPS 2018 Planetary Allyship Meeting
From: Cristina Thomas via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
2. CORRECTION: Making Waves: 6 Women in Hawaii with Careers in STEM Share Their Stories [AAS Committee on the Status of Women – Issue of January 11, 2019]
From: Cristina Thomas via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
The Women in Planetary Science blog this week featured a summary of last fall's Planetary Allyship Meeting at the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) conference. The group held their fourth annual DPS event where they discussed "how people from non-marginalized groups can support equity in the scientific community". In the blog entry, the event organizers summarized the discussion and provided action items for those interested in working toward change.
Read more at:
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From: Kelly Lockhart [k.e.lockhart_at_gmail.com]
"Hawaiian" is used to denote someone of Native Hawaiian descent; "Hawaii resident" or "women in Hawaii" would be more appropriate to describe the women in this article.
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3. Nancy Roman, the American space agency NASA's first Chief Astronomer
From: Kimberly Arcand [kkowal_at_cfa.harvard.edu]
By Matthew Bannister
Roman was known as the mother of the Hubble Telescope.
See podcast at
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4. Typical physics Ph.D. admissions criteria limit access to underrepresented groups but fail to predict doctoral completion
From: John Mather [johncm12_at_gmail.com]
By Casey W. Miller, Benjamin M. Zwickl, Julie R. Posselt, Rachel T. Silvestrini, and Theodore Hodapp
This study aims to understand the effectiveness of typical admissions criteria in identifying students who will complete the Physics Ph.D. Multivariate statistical analysis of roughly one in eight physics Ph.D. students from 2000 to 2010 indicates that the traditional admissions metrics of undergraduate grade point average (GPA) and the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) Quantitative, Verbal, and Physics Subject Tests do not predict completion as effectively admissions committees presume.
Read more at
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5. Influenster Now Accepting 2019 Women in STEM Academic Scholarship Applications
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
Influenster, the leading product discovery and ratings and reviews platform, is now accepting applications for scholarships that will be awarded to five undergraduate and graduate women pursuing a degree in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math).
Read more at
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6. Women in space: Roscosmos sets sights on creating female crew of cosmonauts, says source
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
Roscosmos, the Russians space agency, has announced that it will create a female crew of cosmonauts that will perform duties on the International Space Station and also be trained for future missions to the Moon. The Orlan spacesuit will be upgraded for women, who are too small to fit in the current sizes. Meanwhile, spacesuits to fit women under 5'5" are being designed by Dava Newman (MIT). "We make them for females because I'm in charge," Newman said.
Read more on the Russian announcement at
Read about Dava Newman's designs at
https://www.businessinsider.com/dava-newmans-skintight-spacesuit-could-be-nasas-future-2013-12
and
https://www.space.com/42373-spacesuit-designs-dava-newman.html
and
https://www.space.com/42373-spacesuit-designs-dava-newman.html
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7. Mind The Gap: Women Underrepresented In Awarding Of Prestigious Prizes
From: Alessandra Aloisi [aloisi_at_stsci.edu]
By Maya Margit
Female scientists remain significantly underrepresented in the awarding of prestigious prizes, a new study has revealed. This was recently reinforced with the release of a list of all-male winners for Israel’s 2019 Wolf Prize. Leading academics contend that the thorny issue of gender parity could be resolved if institutions take a proactive approach to the problem and widen the pool of candidates.
Read more at
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8. When Bankwest's female tech staff are told "girls don't hack", this is what they do...
From: Alessandra Aloisi [aloisi_at_stsci.edu]
By Lou Tovey
Imagine being the only woman in the room and being told by an authority figure that you don’t belong. It’s the kind of thing we might have expected a good few years ago at a men-only event at a golf club but what if this was the experience of a colleague at a conference who was told by a course leader that “girls don’t hack.”
Read more at
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9. Job Opportunities
- Assistant Professor, Astrobiology, Florida Institute of Technology (Melbourne)
- Instructor, Physics & Astronomy, Texas Christian University
For those interested in increasing excellence and diversity in their organizations, a list of resources and advice is here: https://cswa.aas.org/#howtoincrease
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12. Access to Past Issues
Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.
