Wednesday, August 28, 2019

AAS Board Reflections: Christine Jones

In order to familiarize the astronomy community with the AAS Board and encourage participation, the CSWA created a Reflection Survey for outgoing AAS Board members to complete after their terms ended in June. Over the coming weeks, we will feature the responses we've received on the Women in Astronomy blog. Enjoy!


Photo by Todd Buchanan © 2018 AAS/CorporateEventImages

Christine Jones, PhD is a senior astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. She is currently the past president of the American Astronomical Society and the director of the Smithsonian Institution's Consortium for Unlocking the Mysteries of the Universe. She earned her Ph.D. in Astronomy in 1974 from Harvard and has made significant contributions to the field of high energy astrophysics through her work on X-ray emission from early-type galaxies.





Name: Christine Jones
Current Position: Senior Astrophysicist, Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Degree, Year, Institution: PhD 1975 Harvard University
AAS Board office, term: AAS President 2016 - 2018 (President Elect 2015-2016; Past President 2018-2019); AAS Vice President 2008-2011; AAS Councilor 1989-1992

Why did you choose to serve on the AAS Board?

As the governing body of the American Astronomical Society, the AAS Board serves several important functions for our profession. Each time I was asked to be a candidate for an AAS office, I felt honored to be asked and thought I would be able to contribute to our profession by serving on the Board.

What was one (or more!) Board accomplishment(s) that you are proud of/excited about from your time in office.

The AAS Vice Presidents are in charge of organizing the Summer and Winter AAS meetings. While I was AAS Vice President, two new Prize lectures were introduced. These were the Kavli Lecture and the Lancelot-Berkeley Lecture. In the fall, before the first Kavli Lecture was to be given in January 2011, the Vice Presidents met at the AAS Offices in Washington DC to plan the meeting. That was when we realized that, unlike other AAS Prize lectures (e.g. the Russell lecture) where nominations are submitted and a committee specific tor that prize chooses the prize lecture, similar procedures had not been put in place for the Kavli or the Lancelot-Berkeley Lectures. Since there was not sufficient time to solicit nominations and establish a prize committee to review these for the January 2011 lectures, the Vice Presidents proposed that we should make the decision of choosing who would give the Kavli and the Lancelot Berkeley Prize Lectures. We agreed that Carolyn Porco, the PI of the Cassini mission to Saturn would be an outstanding first Kavli Prize Lecturer and that Bill Borucki and Dave Koch would be outstanding as the inaugural Lancelot Berkley Lecturers. Since that time the AAS Vice Presidents have had the responsibility of choosing both the Kavli and the Lancelot Berkeley Prize Lecturers.

When I was incoming AAS President in 2015, a committee of Dara Norman, Jack Burns and I drafted the AAS Code of Ethics that all AAS members agree to abide by when they renew their membership, attend an AAS or Divisional conference, publish in AAS journals, or serve on AAS committees, task forces or working groups. I believe that the existence of this policy, as well as the AAS Anti-Harassment Policy, has helped to inform our members of what is and isn't appropriate behavior. These policies allow our members to enjoy an environment that is free of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. As stated on the AAS website, "The AAS is dedicated to the philosophy of equality of opportunity and treatment of all members..." As AAS President I was involved in both the AAS Ethics committee and helped to review incidents that were reported under the anti-harassment policy.

Just a month after I became AAS President in 2016, I testified before a Congressional Committee. In addition to the testimony, I wrote a 10 page long paper primarily about AAS activities which became part of the Congressional Record. There is an article about this on the AAS web site.

When I became AAS President in 2016, the AAS membership had just adopted a new Governance policy. Under the prior AAS Governance, the full Council met face-to-face twice a year, before each of the AAS meetings. The AAS Executive Committee, which was composed of five members, all of whom were members of the AAS Council, had an additional two meetings each year. Any decisions that were not made during the two full Council meetings, were made by the Executive Committee. Under the new AAS Governance policy, the Board of Trustees (which was the Council) meets four times a year for face-to-face meetings and holds monthly telecons. This means that all members of the Board of Trustees are involved in making decisions that affect the AAS. This change has had a very important effect on AAS governance. All the members of the Board of Trustees are not just knowledgable about decisions made by the AAS, but are engaged in making the decisions that affect our Society.

What was one (or more!) important thing(s) you saw come from the diversity committees during your term?

When I was President-elect there was a meeting of members of the AAS Diversity Committees at the AAS headquarters in Washington, DC. This meeting gave the Diversity Committee members a chance to begin to have a dialogue addressing common issues and beginning to think about future actions the committees could take. I also called each of the chairs of the Diversity committees and talked with them about their priorities and what I could do to help them accomplish those goals. To follow on these activities, and continue the conversations that were started at when the Diversity Committees met in Washington, while I was President, at each of the AAS meetings I would invite members of the AAS diversity committees to meet together on one of the evenings during the meeting in my hotel suite. This gave the committees a chance to talk informally with each other and learn what each of the diversity committees was planning for the future, and how the committees could work together. Also, the AAS Committee on the Status of Women held the Women in Astronomy IV conference in Austin, Texas following the 2017 summer AAS meeting. I gave an opening welcome to the conference members.

Is there an initiative (or initiatives!) you hope that the AAS pursues or continues to pursue in the future?

While the AAS Executive Office is very supportive of the AAS committees and the membership, it is the various AAS committees and the Board of Trustees that define and pursue different initiatives. (These also include the many advisory and standing committees. This list is from the AAS web site). I saw part of my role as AAS President to help the AAS committees achieve their goals and to help the different Diversity committees to interact with each other.

With the reduction in the size of the AAS Board of Trustees, neither the publications chair or the education officer are currently members of the Board of Trustees. The publication of astronomical results through the Astrophysical Journal and the Astronomy Journal is among the most important functions of the AAS. It's important that the AAS Board of Trustees continue to have regular updates from the Editor in Chief of all the AAS publications (Ethan Vishniac). Also of great importance are the educational activities of the AAS members. While I was AAS President, the Education Committee, chaired by Charles Liu completed a comprehensive report on the status of astronomy education including a number of recommendations and a collection of white papers by members of the community. It is important that the Board continue to review progress in achieving the recommendations made by the education task force.

What advice do you have for continuing and incoming AAS Board members?

The AAS Board members that I had the privilege of working with were all hard-working and very committed to the success of our Society. While some Board members have specific duties (e.g. the Vice Presidents organize the AAS meetings), other Trustees have more time to focus on other specific areas (e.g. undergraduate and graduate education in astronomy, diversity in our Society.) I would urge the newly elected members of the Board to think about what they would like to accomplish during their terms. I also would urge current Board members to talk with the incoming members about ongoing AAS initiatives and involve them in these efforts.

What suggestions do you have for people who are considering serving on the AAS Board in the future?

I would recommend that people who are considering serving in the future on the AAS Board talk with one or two astronomers who have served on the Board in the recent past, especially in the position that they are interested in. Those considering serving on the Board, especially in some offices, should be aware that it can be a substantial commitment of time, so it is important that your "real" job will allow you the time to fulfill your AAS responsibilities. For newly elected Board members, I would suggest they learn as much as possible about the different functions of the Board, particularly the areas where they are most interested in working. Finally expressing these interests to the AAS President who assigns Board members to the various AAS committees is very useful.

Friday, August 23, 2019

AASWomen Newsletter for August 23, 2019

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of August 23, 2019
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Maria Patterson, JoEllen McBride, and Alessandra Aloisi

This week's issues:

1. AAS Board Reflections: Adam Burgasser
2. What's Up With MeTooSTEM?
Bearded Lady Scientists
Image by Kelsey Vance (2017)
3. Ten simple rules for a successful remote postdoc 
4. Girls Who Code CEO: Men Need to Be Brave in the Service of Women 
5. Women in STEM college programs under attack for male discrimination 
6. Berkeley FEMALE profs wear BEARDS to protest alleged gender bias
7. If NASA Wants to Land the 1st Woman on the Moon, Her Spacesuit Better Fit
8. Why Equal Access to the Academic Stage is Still an Upward Battle
9. Peer reviewers need a code of conduct too
10. Job Opportunities
11. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter
12. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter
13. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

AAS Board Reflections: Adam Burgasser

In order to familiarize the astronomy community with the AAS Board and encourage participation, the CSWA created a Reflection Survey for outgoing AAS Board members to complete after their terms ended in June. Over the coming weeks, we will feature the responses we've received on the Women in Astronomy blog. Enjoy!

Our first participant in our AAS Board Reflections project is Adam Burgasser, PhD. Dr. Burgasser is a professor in the department of Physics at UC San Diego, and an observational astrophysicist, whose research interests include the lowest mass stars, low-temperature brown dwarfs, and extrasolar planets. He also conducts research in Physics Education and Art-Science collaboratories. Adam received his PhD in Physics at Caltech, followed by a Hubble Postdoctoral Fellowship at UC Los Angeles, and a Spitzer Postdoctoral Fellowship at the American Museum of Natural History. He was on the faculty at MIT before coming to UC San Diego in 2009, where he directs the Cool Star Lab. Adam is committed to addressing inequities in Physics and Astronomy, and has served as member and Chair of the American Astronomical Society Committee on the Status of Minorities in Astronomy, co-organized the 2015 Inclusive Astronomy Conference, and co-directs the UCSD-Morehouse-Spelman UC-HBCU Physics Pathways program, among other activities. He has also served on the AAS Board of Trustees. He has been awarded UC San Diego’s Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action & Diversity Award, Outstanding Mentor Award, and Distinguished Teaching Award. Dr. Burgasser is a member of the International Astronomical Union, American Astronomical Society, National Society of Black Physicists, and SACNAS.

Name: Adam Burgasser
Current Position: Professor, UC San Diego
Degree, Year, Institution: PhD, 2001, Caltech
AAS Board office, term: Board member, 2016-2019

Why did you choose to serve on the AAS Board?

I was very interested in both understanding how an organization like the AAS worked, and to be both a voice and an activist for making our community more inclusive. The AAS has played a significant role in my own career, from connecting me to a network of scientists - and friends - to enabling me to share and learn about what’s happening in my field. But I had only a small understanding of how the Society actually functioned, and particularly how decisions were made, so this was an important learning experience for me. I had served as the CSMA Chair before my Board service, and we had had disagreements between our Committee and the AAS governance at large, so I felt it important to try to change things “from the inside”, or at least better understand why some issues (e.g., police violence targeting black men) seemed to be avoided by the Society leadership. I think I made some progress on both fronts.

What was one (or more!) Board accomplishment(s) that you are proud of/excited about from your time in office?

I was (and still am!) involved in the Ethics working group. This long-term committee follows an initial task force formed by former AAS President Meg Urry to establish better policies and procedures for addressing a range of issues, from harassment and bullying to inappropriate publication practices to establishing reasonable guidelines of ethical behavior among scientists. It’s important to remember that this effort started soon after several high-profile cases of sexual harassment, but there are all kinds of incidents and interactions that don’t get that kind of attention but can nevertheless be devastating personally or professionally. This effort is a work in progress, but we have learned a lot (with much input from the community) on the importance of appropriate transparency, accessibility, communication, and timely response to incidents; as well as how individual ethics violations are embedded in the climate of the Society, structural discrimination, practices of remediation and restoration, etc. This work has been both intellectually stimulating and personally important to me, and I am proud that the AAS is a leading the effort to establish norms of ethical practice for scientific organizations.

This is a very specific thing, but I was also very proud to play a role in arranging Ka’iu Kimura’s plenary presentation on A Hua He Inoa at the 233rd AAS in Seattle in January 2019. It is so important to remind our community that we don’t work in a vacuum - well, maybe our space telescopes do! This means both recognizing Astronomy as a cultural practice and by definition a diversity of practices; and also that the practice of Astronomy affects people around the world, both positively and negatively, and in ways we might never imagine. Ka’iu’s talk was a reminder that to be inclusive in our science is to acknowledge the contributions from many cultures, disciplines, people, and places.

What was one (or more!) important thing(s) you saw come from the diversity committees during your term?

My term started soon after the Inclusive Astronomy 2015 conference and Nashville recommendations, and it was great to see some of those recommendations become reality within the AAS organization. In particular, WGAD came into existence and has been exceptionally active in making astronomy more accessible to all. I retained my committee membership with CSMA (as their Board representative), and this committee has seen a real resurgence in young, brilliant minds taking action to address the barriers our minority colleagues continue to face. This includes invigorated relationships with SACNAS and NSBP, and a lot more attention to the mental health of “young” (including undergraduates, graduates, postdocs and junior faculty) astronomers of color, thanks in large part to the current co-chair Nicole Cabrera-Salazar. Finally, we had a lot more communication between the diversity committees through shared reps, and I think that helped coordinate some of our activities and goals (e.g., the Women in Astronomy IV conference in 2017 felt much more inclusive of intersectional issues).

Is there an initiative (or initiatives!) you hope that the AAS pursues or continues to pursue in the future?

In addition to the Ethics work described above, I am encouraged that the AAS is making efforts to support young career astronomers in pursuing a broader range of careers. As a graduate student, it was made clear to me that not becoming a professor was considered a “failure” in terms of career, but this is a pernicious myth. There are far more rewarding, important, and remunerative jobs in both the private and public sectors that our training is well suited for. To support these, there are aspects of career preparation that we can do better, and we need to ensure that employers understand the value of an Astronomy degree. Another issue is that our system has become one of “postdoc holding pattern” between PhD and career position - for up to a decade or more! - which is extremely disruptive, particularly for families. We need to develop a system that gives young astronomers more permanent career options sooner and eliminates “professor” or “faculty” as status symbols.

I also hope the AAS will continue to work with our collaborative coding community (e.g., astropy, dot-astronomy, etc.) to support these efforts, which have become so important to the research and teaching activities in our community.

Incidentally, these issues - and others - are very well covered in the recent state of the profession white paper contributions to the Astro2020 decadal survey, and I encourage both the AAS - and readers of this post! - to read these and advocate for positions that will improve our community.

What advice do you have for continuing and incoming AAS Board members?

The best advice I can pass on was given to me by Dara Norman, who was outgoing from the Board when I came in: “Your time will be surprisingly short, so choose one or maybe two important objectives and focus on those”. I also recognize that, even after leaving the Board, I have many opportunities to advance our Society through its various committees; the Board is not the only place to have an impact.

What suggestions do you have for people who are considering serving on the AAS Board in the future?

This is a good way to see how the Society works from the inside, and (in small ways) steer the ship to assure it serves the community well and succeeds as an organization. It is a real learning experience in leadership, so I encourage early- and mid-career folks to consider serving. It is also a reasonable level of commitment: monthly phone meetings and in-person meetings at the conferences, plus a day or two per month of work outside the meetings. Plus you learn a lot more about the resources and opportunities that the Society provides; e.g., the WorldWide Telescope, book publication, etc.

Anything else you’d like to add?

Thank you for doing this! It helps make the governance of the AAS much more transparent.

Monday, August 12, 2019

Happy 100th Birthday Margaret Burbidge!

AP Photo | Annie Gracy [CC BY-SA 4.0] via Wikimedia Commons

August 12 is the 100th birthday of Dr. Margaret Burbidge. Her contributions to the field of astronomy include verifying nucleosynthesis in stars, measuring redshifts to some of the first quasars, and helping develop the Faint Object Spectrograph onboard the Hubble Space Telescope &emdash among many others. In 1971, Margaret Burbidge refused to accept the AAS Council's Cannon Prize because "the prize, available only to women, was in itself discriminatory." The Council's response was to set up a committee, the "Special Committee on the Cannon Prize," which not only dealt with this issue but also recommended that the AAS review the status of women in astronomy. These events were the catalyst that started the Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy (CSWA).

Dr. Burbidge impacted astronomy in so many ways. She is not only a brilliant researcher but also an inspiration to future astronomers. Today, the CSWA is honoring Dr. Burbidge by sharing stories that show her impact in advancing both discovery and community in the field of astronomy.

Tuesday, August 6, 2019

Summary of the Symposium Honoring Vera Rubin

By Jessica L. Rosenberg

A symposium honoring the legacy of Vera Rubin was held at Georgetown University June 24-26, 2019. Rubin, who passed away in 2016, was a pioneer in astronomy who used measurements of the rotation curves of galaxies to infer the presence of large amounts of matter out to their observed edges. She found that her measurements of the motion of stars around the centers of the galaxies implied the existence of an unknown type of matter, now called dark matter, in amounts exceeding that of the observed matter.

Friday, August 2, 2019

AASWomen Newsletter for August 2, 2019

AAS Committee on the Status of Women AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of August 02, 2019

eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Maria Patterson, JoEllen McBride, and Alessandra Aloisi
< br />[AAS has migrated their email system to Microsoft Exchange, so please check your spam folder if you did not receive the newsletter this week. It is no longer possible to subscribe or unsubscribe to the AASWomen newsletter by means of Google Groups. We have updated our subscribe and unsubscribe instructions below. Please follow us on social media for updates and thank you for bearing with us as we work out all the kinks.
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This week's issues:

1. Astro2020 Decadal Survey White Papers

2. Still Soliciting Memories of Margaret Burbidge

3. Working Scientist podcast: Why physics is still a man’s world, and how to change it

4. What not to do in graduate school

5. Tales of the 28 lunar craters named for women offer a chance to reflect on women’s struggle for scientific recognition

6. In science, questions matter a lot. Men are more likely than women to ask them

7. Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy awarded for gender advancement

8. Women In Optics events at SPIE Optics + Photonics 2019

9. NASA analyst crowned Miss Universe Ireland

10. Wikipedia bios for women scientists are more likely to be flagged for removal

11. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

12. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

13. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter