Friday, May 6, 2022

AASWomen Newsletter for May 06, 2022

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Jane Rigby from item #2
AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of May 06, 2022
eds: Heather Flewelling, Nicolle Zellner, Alessandra Aloisi, Jeremy Bailin and Sethanne Howard

[We hope you all are taking care of yourselves and each other. Be well! --eds.]

This week's issues:

1. The Committee On INclusiveness in SDSS (COINS) - an interview with Rachael Beaton and Amy Jones

2. Jane Rigby Named 2022 LGBTQ+ Scientist of the Year

3. Women’s History Month: Dr. Ekta Patel

4. Women Have Been Disappearing From Science for As Long As They’ve Been Allowed to Study Science

5. Scientific collaborations are precarious territory for women

6. RAS Statement on Girls in Physics

7. Advancing Graduate Leadership (AGL) Conference

8. NASA SMD Bridge Program Workshop Organizing Committee Call for Nominees

9. Annual Report of the IAU Women in Astronomy Working Group

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

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


1. The Committee On INclusiveness in SDSS (COINS) - an interview with Rachael Beaton and Amy Jones
From: Jeremy Bailin via http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

“Carnegie-Princeton Postdoctoral Fellow, Rachael Beaton, and Space Telescope Science Institute researcher, Amy Jones, are part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), and co-chairs of the Committee On Inclusiveness in SDSS (COINS). CSWA member and Associate Professor at the University of Alabama, Jeremy Bailin sat down with them over Zoom to talk about inclusiveness in large collaborations.”

Read more at

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-committee-on-inclusiveness-in-sdss.html

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2. Jane Rigby Named 2022 LGBTQ+ Scientist of the Year
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]

By Kerry Hensley (AAS)

“The LGBTQ+ Scientist of the Year Award recognizes an individual who has made outstanding contributions to their field through design, research, or management. This year’s award winner is Dr. Jane Rigby, an astrophysicist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the Operations Project Scientist for NASA’s JWST.”

Read more at

https://aas.org/posts/news/2022/05/jane-rigby-named-2022-lgbtq-scientist-year

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3. Women’s History Month: Dr. Ekta Patel
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]

By Sahil Hegde

“Dr. Ekta Patel is a Miller Postdoctoral Fellow in astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley. She uses computational methods to study the dynamics of satellite galaxies around the Milky Way and our nearest neighbor, Andromeda. She is also passionate about outreach and mentorship, and I had the opportunity to chat with her about her career thus far and any words of wisdom she might have for budding astronomers.”

Read more at

https://astrobites.org/2022/05/01/ekta-patel

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4. Women Have Been Disappearing From Science for As Long As They’ve Been Allowed to Study Science
From: Heather Flewelling [flewelling.heather_at_gmail.com]

By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan and Hossein Taheri

“Scientists knew by the early 1900s that radioactive substances emit some sort of particles. But it was unclear exactly what kind—does uranium produce a vapor of uranium or a totally different gas?

The dilemma was solved by Harriet Brooks, a talented physicist in her mid-20s. In 1901, in a set of experiments in McGill University’s newly established physics laboratory, Brooks showed that radioactivity actually involves the creation of entirely new atomic elements, a kind of alchemy that previously eluded physicists. Along with her mentor, Ernest Rutherford, she identified the element that was later called radon.

Today, for this contribution and others, Rutherford is rightly considered the “father of nuclear physics.” Brooks’ career in physics was, however, cut short, and her contributions to science were mostly forgotten.”

Read more at

https://slate.com/technology/2022/05/harriet-brooks-women-science-sexism-physics.html

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5. Scientific collaborations are precarious territory for women
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]

By Sara Reardon

“Collaborations, particularly across disciplines, are increasingly necessary for performing quality science and for career advancement. ... But for many female researchers, who are in a minority in most fields, navigating this landscape can be tricky. Breaking into the ‘old boy networks’ of senior scientists and their male protégés can be difficult for women. Ensuring that they receive proper credit for their work can also be a challenge. Female scientists, who, as a whole, are more junior than their male counterparts, often have to decide whether they want to collaborate with a well-resourced scientist, who is more likely to be male, or with a peer of any gender whose stature won’t overshadow them. By collaborating with other women, whether through informal mentorships and networks, building diverse lab groups or securing savvy co-authorships, female scientists can push back against the systemic barriers to female-led team research.”

Read more, including advice on how to navigate collaborations, at

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01204-1

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6. RAS Statement on Girls in Physics
From: Sethanne Howard [sethanneh_at_msn.com]

“The Royal Astronomical Society notes with dismay the comments this week by Katharine Birbalsingh CBE, the chair of the UK government social mobility commission, suggesting that girls do not choose to study physics as they dislike “hard maths”.”

Read more at

https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/news/ras-statement-girls-physics?fbclid=IwAR207zQYTQ8TO1g7G49myHn7B2LMlOgqeAdrNKq7aCzHBjgHz7cjCvOe-u4

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7. Advancing Graduate Leadership (AGL) Conference
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]

The AGL Conference organized by the American Physical Society (APS) aims to provide professional development training for women and gender minority graduate students and postdocs to position them as next-generation leaders in physics and astrophysics and ultimately as critical agents in transforming culture. Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in plenary sessions, panels, and workshops that help build inclusive communities and celebrate the roles that women and gender minorities have played in exploring cutting edge science and in shaping our disciplinary culture. Applications for the AGL Conference are due by May 30, 2022.

Read more and apply at

https://www.aps.org/careers/agl/conference2022.cfm

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8. NASA SMD Bridge Program Workshop Organizing Committee Call for Nominees
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]
NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Bridge Program is a new initiative to improve diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility within the NASA workforce and within the U.S. science and engineering community. As part of this program, SMD will be facilitating one or more community planning workshops to collaboratively create the Bridge Program with all stakeholders over the next several months. SMD is now soliciting applications from interested individuals in the community for participation as members of the SMD Bridge Program Workshop Organizing Committee. Non-civil servant committee members will be compensated for their time through an honorarium. Applications are due by May 20, 2022.
Read more at

https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/smd-bridge-program

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9. Annual Report of the IAU Women in Astronomy Working Group
From: Alessandra Aloisi [aloisi_at_stsci.edu]

The 2021-2022 Annual Report of the IAU Women in Astronomy Working Group is now available on line.

Read more and download the report at

https://www.iau.org/science/scientific_bodies/working_groups/122

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10. Job Opportunities

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#howtoincrease

- Post-baccalaureate research fellowship in astrophysics, Maria Mitchell Observatory, Nantucket, MA https://www.mariamitchell.org/post-baccalaureate-research-fellowship

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11. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter

To submit an item to the AASWOMEN newsletter, including replies to topics, send email to aaswomen_at_lists.aas.org .

All material will be posted unless you tell us otherwise, including your email address.

When submitting a job posting for inclusion in the newsletter, please include a one-line description and a link to the full job posting.

Please remember to replace "_at_" in the e-mail address above.

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12. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter

Join AAS Women List through the online portal:

To Subscribe, go to https://aas.simplelists.com and in the "Subscribe" area, add in your name, email address, select "The AASWomen Weekly Newsletter", and click subscribe. You will be sent an email with a link to click to confirm subscription.

To unsubscribe from AAS Women by email:

Go to https://aas.simplelists.com in the "My account and unsubscriptions", type your email address. You will receive an email with a link to access your account, from there you can click the unsubscribe link for this mailing list.

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13. Access to Past Issues

https://aas.org/comms/cswa/AASWOMEN

Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.

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