Issue of August 2, 2024
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. Woman Astronomers Day
2. History of Women Astronomers Day
3. 25 years ago this month: Eileen Collins Broke Barriers as America’s First Female Space Shuttle Commander
4. The woman who discovered black holes
5. Rana Dajani, a Palestinian scientist building a more inclusive future
6. Giving history’s most overlooked mathematicians their due
7. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
8. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
9. 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.
Today is Woman Astronomers Day!
We celebrate you, our readers, and your discoveries and achievements.
We also celebrate the dozens of people who have volunteered to support the Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy (CSWA) and its weekly newsletter, AASWomen.
Read more at
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2024/08/woman-astronomers-day.html
By National Today
"Woman Astronomers Day is celebrated on August 1 every year. This holiday celebrates the many achievements of women in science that have long gone unrecognized. The contributions that female astronomers have made are even more impressive considering they practiced astronomy as a hobby, having been denied a chance at formal education. The most well-known is Maria Mitchell, who made a name for herself not only by her accomplishments in astronomy but by her dedication to furthering women’s education. This holiday celebrates her achievements and sheds light on the importance of recognizing women’s contributions to science."
Read more at
https://nationaltoday.com/woman-astronomers-day/
By Jennifer Ross-Nazzal
"At the end of February 1998, Johnson Space Center Deputy Director James D. Wetherbee called Astronaut Eileen Collins to his office in Building 1. He told her she had been assigned to command STS-93 and went with her to speak with Center Director George W.S. Abbey who informed her that she would be going to the White House the following week.
Selecting a female commander to fly in space was a monumental decision, something the space agency recognized when they alerted the president of the United States. First Lady Hillary Clinton wanted to publicly announce the flight to the American people along with her husband President William J. Clinton and NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin.
At that event, on March 5, 1998, the First Lady noted what a change it would be to have a female in the commander’s seat. Referencing Neil A. Armstrong’s first words on the Moon, Clinton proclaimed, “Collins will take one big step forward for women and one giant leap for humanity.” Collins, a military test pilot and shuttle astronaut, was about to break one of the last remaining barriers for women at NASA by being assigned a position previously filled by men only."
Read more at
By Marcus Chown
"A black hole is a bottomless pit in the fabric of space-time into which stuff, including light, plummets, never to be seen again. The term paints so vivid an image that it has entered everyday language, and we commonly talk of losing this or that “down a black hole”. Ironically, such a metaphorical black hole has swallowed up the name of the woman who co-discovered these celestial objects: Louise Webster."
Read more at
https://newhumanist.org.uk/articles/6296
By Christina Szalinski
"Rana Dajani is Palestinian, and grew up in neighbouring Jordan, where she is now a professor of biology and biotechnology at the Hashemite University in Zarqa. She always loved science, but circumstances prevented her from pursuing a PhD until after she had spent ten years teaching and was pregnant with her fourth child.
In recent years, Dajani has initiated research partnerships between Jordan and centres around the world, launched a mentorship programme for mid-career women in the Arab world, created a reading programme to spark kids’ curiosity, served as president of the Society for the Advancement of Science and Technology in the Arab World (SASTA) and been a role model for Muslim women in science.
Her research focuses on epidemiology and genetics, such as identifying a new risk factor for type 2 diabetes for people in two minority populations in Jordan, as well as investigating genes and other biomarkers associated with trauma among refugees. Dajani talks to Nature about how she became a scientist, her efforts to promote diversity at the individual and institutional levels, why she stands up for justice and how she supports women in science."
Read more at
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02509-z
Find out about her mentoring programme for female scientists at
By David Smith
"Pythagoras. Isaac Newton. Alan Turing. John Nash. Mathematicians rarely become famous but those who do receive celebrity treatment are invariably white men. Turing was played by Benedict Cumberbatch on the big screen; Nash by Russell Crowe.
That lens has been missing an infinitely richer, more nuanced, more multicultural story. A new book, The Secret Lives of Numbers, by Kate Kitagawa and Timothy Revell, shines a light on overlooked contributions to maths by women and men in China, India, the Arabian peninsula and other parts of the world.
“When we think of the history of mathematics, it is not just about ancient Greeks and bearded white men,” says Revell, 34, a British journalist, speaking via Zoom from London. “This isn’t about tearing anyone down. This is about explaining that the history of mathematics is way more complex, chaotic and amazing than you may have known. My hope is that our book goes some way to illuminating that.”"
Read more at
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