Issue of December 1, 2023
eds: Jeremy Bailin, Nicolle Zellner, Sethanne Howard, and Hannah Jang-Condell
[We hope you all are taking care of yourselves and each other. --eds.]
This week's issues:
1. Gratitude and Giving for Holidays
2. Meet Central American-Caribbean Astronomy Bridge Program Fellows - Part 5
3. A Photo Essay: The Untold History of the Women of Yerkes Observatory
4. New Book: "The Exception: Nancy Hopkins MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science"
5. Open U. academic says male-biased culture of naming planetary features after men has to change
6. Women in STEM : 2024 L'Oréal For Women In Science Fellowship - Apply Today!
7. ‘I’ve dedicated my life to this mission’: Sara Sabry on making space exploration more accessible
8. The United Nation’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
9. Large Hadron Collider CMS undergraduate internships
10. Disability accommodations helped me through grad school—and should be available to all who need them
11. Study finds female academics less likely to win prizes, even when the award is named after a woman
12. 6 inspiring women revolutionising science, technology, engineering and mathematics
13. Inside a historic trip to Antarctica, crewed by over 100 women scientists
14. Simons Emmy Noether Fellowship Program
15. Public Release of NASA SMD Bridge Program Workshop Report
16. Job Opportunities
17. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
18. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
19. 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.
By: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
In a tradition going back almost 10 years (and maybe longer), Women in Astronomy is providing a gift-giving guide to help you with your holiday shopping. Links and ideas are listed below and feel free to tell us about your favorite gifts in the Comments section.
Read more at:
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2023/11/gratitude-and-giving-for-holidays.html
By: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
The Central American - Caribbean Bridge in Astrophysics (Cenca Bridge) is a nonprofit organization established in the state of Tennessee in the United States with the mission to create and develop astronomy research opportunities in Central America and the Caribbean. Opportunities to pursue astrophysics in the region are few with only a handful of programs offering master’s in physics with a concentration in astronomy. Cenca Bridge connects undergraduates from Central America and the Caribbean to mentors and advisors overseas in hope that they have the choice to pursue astrophysics as a profession.
Read more at
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2023/11/meet-central-american-caribbean.html
By: Kristine Palmieri, Physics Today
Historical accounts of late 19th- and early 20th-century women in astronomy and astrophysics often focus on human computers, who performed tedious calculations to reduce the large amounts of data from positional observations, photographs, or spectrograms produced by men. Yet the stories of women at Yerkes Observatory challenge that traditional narrative.
New research on the history of the Williams Bay, Wisconsin, observatory has revealed that the women who worked there in the early 1900s were not, in fact, only or always computers. Many participated fully in the work of the observatory as graduate students, visiting researchers, or volunteer assistants.
Read more at:
By: Kate Zernike
In today’s [ed: 11/26/23] AMA Update, New York Times Pulitzer Prize Winning Writer and Author Kate Zernike join to discuss her new book "The Exceptions," which chronicles the true story of 16 female scientists who fought against gender discrimination as tenured professors at MIT. Her new book details how these exceptional women in science faced discrimination and came together to fight against professional inequities. AMA Chief Experience Officer Todd Unger hosts.
Read more at:
By: Philippa Green
Annie Lennox, from The Open University (OU), says the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) guidelines for the naming of planetary features should better represent women and marginalised groups.
Her research paper published in 'Nature Astronomy' (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-023-02124-4) reveals that the IAU’s database of named features show that out of the 1,578 named craters of the Moon just 32, (2%), are named after women.
It also found that on Mars just 5 of the 280 (1.8%) planetary features named bear a woman’s name
Yet women’s representation on Mercury fares slightly better – 49 out of 415 (11.8%).
Read more at:
By: Allison Gonzalez via American Association for the Advancement of Science
Each year, the L'Oréal USA For Women in Science Program attracts talented applicants from diverse STEM fields, representing some of the nation's leading academic institutions and laboratories. The program has awarded 100 postdoctoral women scientists over $5 million in grants to advance their research and careers.
The L'Oréal USA FWIS Program is seeking five exceptional female scientists to advance their research and serve as role models for the next generation of girls in STEM. You could be awarded $60,000 to advance your career and research! Applications will remain open until January 26, 2024 at 5 PM ET. Candidates must have completed their PhD and have started their postdoctoral research position by the application deadline. Must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident to apply.
Read more at:
https://www.loreal.com/en/usa/pages/group/fwis/
By: Arya Jyothi and Maheshpreet Narula, CNN
Egyptian Sara Sabry made history by becoming the first Arab woman and the first African woman in space. Now she wants others to follow her example.
With a background in engineering and bioastronautics she was chosen by the non-profit Space for Humanity to join five other space tourists aboard a Blue Origin NS-22 sub-orbital space flight in August 2022.
Now pursuing a Ph.D. in aerospace sciences at the University of North Dakota, the 30-year-old says she came to the realization that in space research, “very few opportunities exist if you’re not from the West.” In response, she founded Deep Space Initiative, a Colorado-based non-profit that aims to increase access to the space industry for people of all backgrounds, by providing opportunities for research and education.
Read more at:
By: StaffBet at U. Manchester
The United Nation’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is part of the United Nations Secretary General’s UNiTE by 2030 to End Violence against Women campaign including 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based violence, which runs from 25th November to 10th December 2023.
What will it take for the world to end gender-based violence? The answer is crystal clear: governments must empower and fund women-led organizations worldwide. We must let communities lead.
Read more at:
https://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/news/display/?id=30621 and
https://www.miragenews.com/fund-women-and-girls-empower-communities-to-lead-1130822/#google_vignette
By: Tulika Bose [Tulika.Bose_at_cern.ch]
As part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion, U.S. CMS is excited to announce the next edition of the RENEW-HEP USCMS SPRINT/ USCMS PURSUE combined undergraduate internship program. The internship program is intended to address the under-representation of women and minority students in STEM fields and is open to students pursuing physics, engineering, computer science, mathematics, chemistry, and related fields. The program is sponsored by the Department of Energy (RENEW-HEP: USCMS SPRINT A Scholars Program for Research Internship) and the National Science Foundation USCMS Operations (USCMS PURSUE: Program for Undergraduate Research Summer Experience). The student internship program is offered and administered through Tougaloo College, in collaboration with Brown University, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez, and University of Wisconsin-Madison. See the link to our program Website at https://sites.google.com/upr.edu/uscms-pursue/
Informational Webinar: We would like to ask for your help in encouraging students to participate in our program. We request you to please share this email with the students in your department and encourage them to attend the Webinar on either Dec 5, 2023 (4-6pm US Central) or December 11, 2023 (4-6pm US Central). During the Webinar, students will learn about the program and the application process. In addition, interns and research mentors from previous editions of the program will share their experiences at the Webinar. This would be a great opportunity for prospective students to learn first hand from program alumni. The link to agenda and registration information for the webinars can be found at the link USCMS PURSUE Webinars https://sites.google.com/upr.edu/uscms-pursue/webinars
Focus of internship: The internships will offer female and minoritized undergraduate students an opportunity to perform a project under the mentorship of scientists working at the frontier of physics at one of the 50+ institutions in the United States. Students will use computational tools and data-science methods to learn about fundamental particles and their interactions by analyzing data obtained from the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) located at CERN, Switzerland and/or participating in CMS hardware/software projects.
Program Information: The program will last a period of 10 weeks between May 28, 2024, and August 2, 2024. Students will be paid $600 per week during the 10 weeks of the internship. The internship will be offered in-person mode. For those selected for the internship, housing will be provided. The application will open around the middle of December and until end of January 2023. The link to the program details and application for the internships is at https://internships.fnal.gov/u-s-cms-undergraduate-internship/
Read more at:
https://internships.fnal.gov/u-s-cms-undergraduate-internship/
By: Robert Neubecker at 'Science'
Two months into my Ph.D. program, I attended a focus group to discuss health and disability in graduate school. I asked a professor what accommodations were available to students taking their qualifying exams, the oral tests that are a crucial hurdle in many graduate programs. “I don’t know if we offer any,” they responded. I was startled. As someone with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), I had always received accommodations when taking exams. The qualifying exam wasn’t something I could fail. I soon realized if I wanted to succeed in graduate school as a student with a disability, I would need to speak up for the support I needed.
Read more at:
By: U. Birmingham
A new study shows that female academics are significantly underrepresented in winning academic prizes and having awards named after them.
Analysis of nearly 9,000 awardees and 346 scientific prizes and medals published in Nature Human Behaviour has found that men win eight prizes for every one won by a woman if the award is named after a man. These awards represent almost two-thirds of all scientific prizes.
Read more at:
https://phys.org/news/2023-11-female-academics-prizes-award-woman.html and
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01773-9
Most-cited scientists are still mostly men, but the gender gap is closing. An analysis of 5.8 million authors across all scientific disciplines shows that the gender gap is closing, but there is still a long distance to go. The new research by John Ioannidis of the Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICs) at Stanford University, US, and colleagues, was published Nov. 21 in the journal PLOS Biology.
Read more at:
https://phys.org/news/2023-11-most-cited-scientists-men-gender-gap.html and
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002385
By: Study International Staff
Are you a female student thinking of joining the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) industry but finding it intimidating?
Don’t worry, though. In the ever-evolving landscape of STEM, women have played key roles in shaping its future.
From groundbreaking research to prestigious awards, female scientists, from as early as 7 BC, have left a mark on the world.
Read more at:
https://www.studyinternational.com/news/women-in-stem-fields/
By: Sharmila Kuthunur in Space.com
Since 2007, Michaela Musilová has dreamt of visiting Antarctica.
As an astrobiologist, she has two goals: To identify the limits of life on Earth and to assess the possibility that life as we know it exists elsewhere in the universe. Researching how life behaves in the extreme environment of Antarctica is key for her work; microbes that manage to survive the frozen environment at the end of our world could teach us a lot about their potential beyond Earth, too. Over the years, Musilová has tried a dozen times to set sail to the southernmost continent, but it never worked out.
It wasn't because her mission proposals were lacking, she says.
"Unfortunately, most of the time it was because an older male colleague or professor didn't want to let me go or took my place," she recalled in an interview with Space.com.
Read more at:
https://www.space.com/women-astronomers-antarctica-leadership-climate-action-earth
By: Perimmeter
Emmy Noether was a brilliant scientist whose work underpins much of modern physics.
The Simons Emmy Noether Fellows Program, awarded annually and supported by the Simons Foundation, honours her legacy by supporting and encouraging early- and mid-career women and all under-represented groups in physics.
These fellowships enable visiting scientists to spend up to a year in Perimeter’s thriving, multi-disciplinary community. The scientists gain a unique opportunity to pursue their work intensively, free of teaching and administrative duties, and develop new international peer networks.
Read more at:
https://perimeterinstitute.ca/emmynoether
By: Patti Boyd
We are happy to announce that the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Bridge Program Community Workshop Report is now publicly available. The SMD Bridge Program team is committed to co-creating this program with you, the community. Back in October of 2022, a fantastic group of community leaders organized and led a 5-day virtual workshop to find out what the community needs and wants from a bridge program with NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. Thanks to the hard work from the authors and editors of this report, we can now showcase all of the discussions and key takeaways from last year’s workshop.
To quote the report:
“This informational report is the product of multiple meetings of a diverse set of working groups, many representing communities that have traditionally not engaged with NASA. These groups came together during the week-long NASA SMD Bridge Program Workshop, held in October 2022, and provided multiple opportunities for community input with the purpose of co-creating NASA’s Science Mission Directorate Bridge Program, a new initiative aimed at increasing participation in NASA SMD activities. This report is informed by those discussions and intended to guide NASA in shaping a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) that broadens the participation of students, faculty, and institutions in Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) experiences available within NASA. The purpose of this report is not to address the many issues faced by under-resourced communities but to lay a foundation for NASA to develop a program in which underserved students, faculty, and institutions can receive funding, work with NASA, and use their local expertise to address these issues.”
Read the report and learn more about the Bridge Program at
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
- NTT Lecturer in Physics and Astronomy, Georgia State University
https://jobregister.aas.org/ad/f3019205
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