[We hope you all are taking care of yourselves and each other. --eds.]
This week's issues:
This post marks the launch of Women of Arecibo, a new blog series highlighting the achievements and experiences of women who built their careers around the 305-meter telescope at Arecibo Observatory. In this entry, Allison Smith details the legacy of the observatory, what the fall of the 305-m telescope meant to her, and what comes next.
I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Arecibo Observatory, and I study the diffuse interstellar medium of our galaxy with the goal of investigating the atomic to molecular transition of gas as well as how our galaxy accretes gas for star formation. I’m thrilled to have a chance to share with the AASWomen community my story and my experience at the observatory. Please note that I’m sharing my personal perspective only (not my employers), but that the impacts of the observatory and the effects of the loss of the 305-m telescope are far reaching. I look forward to (and am honored to be featured alongside!) other women from many different backgrounds in our community sharing their perspectives during this series of featured posts.
Read more at
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2021/03/women-of-arecibo-allison-smith.html
Mentoring is the process of forming, cultivating, and maintaining relationships that support and advance mentees in their pursuits. As physicists, we mentor undergraduate and graduate students in diverse settings: when we teach them in various courses, when we advise students in their research, or when we counsel them about academic and non-academic issues. For example, we give advice on what courses to take, whom to do research with, how to live a balanced life while managing academic and non-academic responsibilities, and how to apply for financial support, scholarships, and jobs.
While effective mentoring can improve the outcome for all students in research and education, appropriate mentoring of students plays a critical role in ensuring that students from underrepresented groups (e.g., women and racial and ethnic minority students) thrive since physics is one of the least diverse STEM disciplines with stereotypes related to who can excel in it.
Read more from Dr. Chandralekha Singh (U-Pittsburgh) at
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2021/03/crosspost-inclusive-mentoring-mindset.html
I wanted to share two short summaries. Directly motivated by a gender equality law coming into power this month in an Aussie State, the Multicultural Centre for Women's Health has released two very powerful guides for how workplaces can support gender equality through understanding intersectionality (5 rich, but spaced-out pages of main content each).
Find them at
In an op-ed in USA Today, Kim Churches (American Association of University Women) and Andrea Silbert (Eos) write that data from their report show “that the highest-earning professionals at the nation’s leading colleges and universities — arguably those wielding the most power — are still overwhelmingly white men.”. This is despite the observation that “diversity and inclusion seem to be sacrosanct values at our nation’s colleges and universities”.
Read the op-ed at
Find the report at
Upcoming launch of $8.8 billion telescope places women’s leading roles in center focus
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2021/03/19/webb-telescope-astronomy-women-sxsw/
[Requires subscription. --eds]
"Given the serious barriers that women face, it's important to celebrate the women who challenge the stereotypes and rise to the top of their STEM fields. Doing so can provide inspiration for girls and boys alike.
And there is no shortage of role models to choose from, as women in STEM hail from all corners of the globe. Seven outstanding women in their fields served on a special Women in STEM panel as part of a recent Forbes Technology Council event. They—and their incredible work—are worth celebrating."
Read more at
"The literature has failed to acknowledge many female researchers, especially those from marginalized backgrounds. But a new generation of historians is changing the narrative."
Read more at
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00770-0
Parisa Mostafavi and Elena Provornikova will talk about their respective research areas, heliophysics and the interstellar medium, in the next webinar of SHIELD’s “Young Voices” series.
Learn more about this webinar at
https://sites.bu.edu/shield-drive/outreach-2/webinars/
Register for this webinar at
https://bostonu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJArde-tqz8qGNeJxsf7r3WQHKD8agy9-Ikv
“Ninety years ago today (Feb. 18), astronomer Clyde Tombaugh gathered the data that proved the existence of what would eventually be dubbed Pluto — but it wouldn't have been possible, astronomers have since realized, without the calculations of a mathematician whom history has forgotten.”
Read more at
https://www.space.com/human-computer-elizabeth-williams-pluto-discovery.html
“A new biography, Vera Rubin: A Life, documents her many accomplishments. The authors, astronomers Jacqueline Mitton and Simon Mitton, tell of how Rubin was born into an immigrant family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her family was impoverished by the Great Depression of the 1930s, yet she enjoyed a happy childhood with parents who supported her natural gifts for science. As a young teenager, she took part in meetings of the local amateur astronomy club.
The book chronicles her career choices, from her studying at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, one of the few women’s universities to teach astronomy at undergraduate level in the 1940s, to her appointment in 1965 to the Carnegie Institution of Washington, where she remained until her retirement. She published her last paper in The Astrophysical Journal in 2005, when she was 77.”
Read more at
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00734-4
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
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