Issue of May 16, 2025
eds: Jeremy Bailin, Sethanne Howard, Ferah Munshi, Stella Kafka, and Ben Keller
[We hope you all are taking care of yourselves and each other. --eds.]
This week's issues:
1. Cross-post: More Than a Name – Why Women in Physics Deserve Context
2. Stand up for Science Funding
3. Peer-reviewed journal for advancing women in academic STEM loses funding
4. Reviewers Needed for Appendix 3: MUREP Aeronautics Community Engagement Impact Research (ACEIR2.0)
5. Apply for WGAP 2025 mini-grants to support women and girls in astronomy
6. WOMEN IN SCIENCE From astronomy to radioactivity: women scientists
7. Wang Zhenyi
8. Mapping the Trajectories of Women in Astronomy
9. Making Space for Women in Astronomy
10. WIA: Women in Astronomy
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.
This cross-post from astrobites features an interview with Dr. Claire Davies from the University of Exeter on how female role models in STEM are presented in the media and why they deserve more context for their success.
Read more at:
https://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2025/05/cross-post-more-than-name-why-women-in.html
By: Sigma Pi Sigma
Tell Congress why Science Matters The recent Presidential Budget Request proposes cutting the Department of Energy’s Office of Science by 14%, NIST by 28%, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate by 47%, and NSF by more than 50%. This deeply impacts scientific research, both current and future, the career stability of your peers, and has been debilitating for students whose summer internships and REUs were dependent on federal grants. Use the American Physical Society’s customizable pre-written email portal (https://www.aps.org/initiatives/advocate-amplify/policy/support-federal-science-funding-budget) to contact your Congressional representatives and tell them why scientific funding is essential.
The 2025 Physics & Astronomy Congress is for Students and Alums.
NSF funding for ADVANCE Journal, a peer-reviewed journal focusing on gender equity in academic STEM has been canceled. The journal published research on the current status of inequities, and descriptions and assessments of projects and initiatives tackling them.
Read More At: https://msmagazine.com/2025/05/13/national-science-foundation-funding-women-science-stem-health/?nonitro=1
By:NASA HQ
NASA Research and Education Support Services (NRESS) is seeking persons willing to serve as peer reviewers for the Engagement Opportunities in NASA STEM 2025 (EONS-2025)Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO): Appendix 3: MUREP Aeronautics Community Engagement Impact Research (ACEIR2.0).
The peer review process is completed in two stages:
1. THE ONLINE REVIEW is tentatively scheduled for June 24 - July 8, 2025 Online reviewers will be expected to carefully read each proposal assigned and complete an online evaluation form. Each proposal should be reviewed on its own merit and should not be compared to others you have been assigned. Every effort will be made to assignno more than 5 proposals per online reviewer. Eligible non-civil servant online reviewers will receive $75 for each proposal review completed and submitted in NSPIRES prior to the close of the review period.
2. THE VIRTUAL PANEL REVIEW is tentatively scheduled for July 22-24, 2025 The panel will be comprised of a group of peers, discussing the strengths and weaknesses of each proposal. The duration of the panel might change depending on the number of proposals being reviewed, but for scheduling purposes, plan on a full-day commitmentfor all three days. One evaluation form will be completed by the group for each proposal, resulting in documents that will aid the Program Manager with selecting which proposal(s) should be recommended for funding. Eligible non-civil servant panelists willreceive a $200/per day honorarium.
If you are interested in serving as an online reviewer and/or virtual panelist, complete and submit the form found HERE, by May 30, 2025. Requires a google login. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdM7PkEGfklD0b5BWp206mTMBiAXKPSnk8Vm479KlLYlXmCRg/viewform?pli=1
By: Johanne Sande
Sponsored by the Heising-Simons Foundation and the IAU, this program provides funding and mentoring to innovative programs that challenge gender underrepresentation in astronomy.
Read More At: https://opportunitiesforyouth.org/2025/05/08/apply-for-the-2025-wgap-mini-grants-to-support-women-and-girls-in-astronom
This book is by Dava Sobel and was awarded the PUlitizer Prize.
Read More At: https://lofficina.eu/event/women-in-science-pulitzer-prize-280125-2100/
It’s made to believe, Women are the same as Men; Are you not convinced, Daughters can also be heroic?
— Wang Zhenyi
Wang Zhenyi (1768–1797) was born in the Qing dynasty in East China to a family of scholars. They supported her learning, despite the feudal customs of the time barring women from education.
Her grandfather introduced her to astronomy, while her grandmother taught her poetry, and her father taught her medicine, geography and mathematics. Inspired by the works of the famous scholar Mei Wending (1633-1721), she chose to focus mainly on the latter.
Read more at: https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mathematics/2025/02/04/astronomy-week-2025-honouring-the-life-and-legacy-of-wang-zhenyi
By: María P. Gómez-Arizaga
Astronomy is critical for human development, driving technology and innovation, and creating knowledge that allows humanity to understand the universe more fully. Women, however, remain underrepresented in this field. Many women leave the field before becoming established, yet little is known about women who persist and succeed. The purpose of this study was to explore the abilities, experiences, milestones, and individuals that have contributed to women’s talent development along their trajectories in astronomy, in the specific case of Chile. In-depth interviews were conducted with five talented women in astronomy, who have developed their academic and professional careers in Chile. The results show that micro, meso, and macro levels of influence, in conjunction with different time periods, were critical for the participants’ trajectories and have impacted the direction of women’s paths. The astronomers highlight early experiences, mentor support, validation, and gendered experiences as they navigate their own insecurities and develop self-confidence. Implications for the study of talent development in female astronomers are discussed.
This paper is puboished in Gifted Child's Quarterly, also the Sage Publications. The full paper requires purchase.
Read More At: https://investigadores.uandes.cl/en/publications/mapping-the-trajectories-of-women-in-astronomy-influences-and-mil
Sometimes a picture is worth more than a thousand words: it’s worth a thousand stories. The recent New York Times piece about the first successful imaging of a black hole highlights the technology that went into making that picture possible: eight radio telescopes scattered around the world were synced together, making them able to see far better than with a single telescope. These images were then combined into the final picture with the help of code developed by a team that included postdoctoral research fellow Kate Bouman. Her surprised and delighted reaction on seeing the black hole went viral along with the image itself. Then sexist trolls began to attack Bouman and minimize her work. It’s disheartening to know that even in the 21st century, women scientists are still treated very differently than their male counterparts.
Read Mmore At: https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/making-space-for-women-in-astronomy/
By: Gayandhi da Silva
"Last week I attended the WiA Workshop here in Sydney. I found the workshop very good, even if I didn’t get to attend it fully (because of issues related to being a mother)!
Having missed the first talk, because I really had to be a parent helper at Year 1 Maths groups, I got there in time to hear the talk by Nicole McKenna from the National Foundation for Australian Women. The point that struck me most was the ‘unconscious bias’ against female achievers, by both genders. She mentioned a study where students were asked to comment about a story involving the career of Heidi / Howard. The story was the same, but some students were told it was Heidi, and others were told it was Howard. All other aspects were identical. But at the end, students founds Howard more like-able than Heidi??? Why?? This made me consider occasions where I may have had similar unconscious biases"
Read More At: http://cosmicdiary.org/gsilva/2011/05/16/wia-women-in-astronomy/
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