Issue of October 4, 2024
eds: Jeremy Bailin, Sethanne Howard, Hannah Jang-Condell, and Ferah Munshi
[We hope you all are taking care of yourselves and each other. --eds.]
This week's issues:
1. Remembering Amber Stuver
2. Career Profile: From Physics Student to Independent Scientist and Business Owner
3. Democratic Merit: What Separates Good from Great in Astronomy?
4. Great Women of Science: First Woman Nobel Laureate in Theoretical Physics, Maria Goeppert Mayer
5. The story of the pride flag made from NASA imagery: Bluesky’s most-liked image
6. Science Mission Directorate's 2025 PI Launchpad Event Dates Announced
7. Education Program Support
8. You can count female physics Nobel laureates on one hand – recent winners have wisdom for young women in the field
9. Women win a fraction of scientific Nobels. Marie Curie offers fixes.
10. Girls STEAM Ahead with NASA: 2024 Resources in Action
11. Job Opportunities
12. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
13. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
14. 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.
We are saddened to share the news that Dr. Amber Stuver has passed away. Amber was an astronomer, faculty member at Villanova University, and member of the CSWA.
We remember Amber fondly, both as an enthusiastic supporter and advocate for the advancement of women in Astronomy and for her work in championing and promoting the needs of women from historically marginalized groups. Her work on the CSWA was tireless and invaluable. Amber was a genuinely kind person who was generous with her time, always willing to volunteer and was someone who could be counted on to help students and colleagues alike. She will be missed professionally and personally.
Add your remembrances of Amber at:
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/triblive-tribune-review/name/amber-stuver-obituary?id=56299141
Read more at
https://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2024/10/remembering-amber-stuver.html
The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy has compiled dozens of interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers, planetary scientists, etc. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths.
October 3, 2024 is National Women-Owned Business Day. Below is our interview with Sally Seaver, a space scientist, book author, business owner, scholar, and polymath. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California at Irvine and has had a self-proclaimed unconventional career path that was shaped by strong curiosity, courage, determination, confidence that solutions exist, and entrepreneurial spirit. Sally’s curiosity has taken her theoretical research in multiple directions, including investigating what force opposes gravity and understanding the initial conditions of Earth. She is the author of Mass Vortex Theory; Development of a Solar System From Atoms To Star and the accompanying website.
Read more at
https://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2024/10/career-profile-from-physics-student-to.html
By Julie Posselt
One of the most consequential elections in United States history is quickly approaching. Among the questions this election asks Americans to consider is: How much do we value the people and activities that promote a healthy, diverse democracy? Over the last 15 years, I have been fortunate to conduct research within astronomy and STEM that has permitted me the privilege of seeing, firsthand, how some academic departments ask themselves versions of the same question:
- What practical actions can we take to make good on the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) recommendations in reports emerging from astronomy, physics, and STEM?
- How should we train students in the skills and dispositions that large collaborations in astronomy require?
- How can we promote diversity in admissions following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard?
- What does it really mean for us to create an inclusive department climate?
- How might we value contributions to inclusive learning environments?
If you or your department are among the growing number that are asking such questions, you may find the concept of democratic merit useful in developing answers.
Read more at
https://aas.org/posts/news/2024/09/democratic-merit-what-separates-good-great-astronomy
By Barbara Pfeffer Billauer
In 1903, Marie Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize (in experimental Physics). It took another sixty years for the second woman to become a Physics Nobel Laureate. That was Maria Goeppert Mayer, the first (and only) woman to win the award for theoretical physics. (It would take another 60+ years for Donna Strickland to become the third woman physics laureate in 2018).
Like her female colleagues, Dr. Mayer had a tough time getting a paying teaching job. Indeed, after working for free at various universities, including the University of Chicago and Columbia, and barricaded by the same nepotism rule favoring her scientist husband that impeded Dr. Gerti Cory, Dr. Mayer’s first paid full-time position at the University of California, came in 1960 - thirty years after she got her doctorate and three years before she won the Nobel Prize, sharing it with a colleague for proposing the nuclear shell structure of atoms.
Read more at
By David Shiffman
Last June, a striking image of a pride flag made up of NASA imagery became the most-liked post on the new social media network Bluesky, a post it held for 2 months. I spoke with its creator Rachel Lense about how it was made, and what it’s reception means for inclusion in science.
Read more at
By NASA
Are you thinking about developing your first space mission proposal to NASA in the next few years but have no idea where to start? If so, then this forthcoming, in-person workshop is for you!
The Science Mission Directorate (SMD) expects to support a PI Launchpad event from August 11th to 15th, 2025 at NASA Ames Research Center, in Mountain View, California. https://www.nasa.gov/ames/
Details about previous workshops, including workbooks, presentations, and videos, can be found here
https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/pi-launchpad/
Learn Astrophysics mission design from JPL experts in NASA’s 3-month 2025 Astrophysics Mission Design School. Eligible science & engineering grad students, postdocs & junior faculty apply by November 4; Register here for Q&A Oct. 7, 2024.
Learn more at
http://go.nasa.gov/missiondesignschools
By Filomena Nunes
Out of 225 people awarded the Nobel Prize in physics, only five have been women. This is a very small number, and certainly smaller than 50% – the percent of women in the human population.
Despite several studies exposing the barriers for women in science and the many efforts to increase their representation, physics continues to be a male-dominated field. Only 1 in 5 physicists are women, a number that has not moved since 2010.
Three of the five Nobel Prizes in physics awarded to women have been in the past decade. As a woman physicist, I am beyond excited to see three women join the cadre of Nobel laureates in Physics in just a handful of years.
Read more at
By Dava Sobel
In the century-plus history of the Nobel Prizes, women have received only 13 awards in physics and chemistry. But, while gender equity in science is far from solved, things are looking up: More than half of those women won within the past six years. How can this trend be continued? Marie Curie’s life offers some ideas.
Read more at
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/10/01/marie-curie-nobel-women-science/
The Girls STEAM Ahead with NASA program, part of NASA’s Universe of Learning, provides resources and experiences that enable youth, families, and lifelong learners to explore fundamental questions in astrophysics, experience how science is done, and discover the universe for themselves. Hear directly from the 2024 GSAWN Stipend recipients who are using these free resources and get ideas to implement in your own programs.
October 17, 2024, 12:30 PM Pacific / 3:30 PM Eastern
Register at
https://ngcproject.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/ngcproject/event.jsp?event=772
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
- Margaret Burbidge Visiting Professorship, UC San Diego, San Diego, CA
https://astro.ucsd.edu/research/burbidge/index.html
- Percival Lowell Postdoctoral Fellowship, Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ
https://lowell.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/2024-35-Percival-Lowell-Postdoctoral-Fellowship-Position-Announcement-1.pdf
- Tenure-Track Faculty Position in the Field of Remote Sensing, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
https://apply.interfolio.com/153727
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