Issue of July 18, 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. Astronomy and geophysics "overwhelmingly white" and failing to attract more women
2. Policy Updates from the AAS
3. Why fewer women study physics: A comparative study
4. The Sun is a Star
5. Mentoring and Wellbeing Workshop
6. ROSES-25 Amendment 1: Restrictions on Interagency Awards
7. Contemporary Physics Education
8. Margaret Burbidge, Trailblazer in Astronomy
9. Assumpció Català, the first female astronomy professor in Spain, reflects on the situation of women in science
10. Women Astronomers' Day
11. Percentage of women as amateur astronomers
12. Maria Mitchell (1818 - 1889)
13. Annie Maunder: The Victorian Woman Who Chased Eclipses
14. Wikipedia list of women astronomers
15. The Only Woman in the Room at Apollo 11's Historic Moon Launch
16. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
17. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
18. 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.
Women and ethnic minority groups are still significantly underrepresented in astronomy and geophysics despite attempts to bring about change over the past decade, research has shown.
Read More At:
https://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2025/07/astronomy-and-geophysics-overwhelmingly.html
The past few months have been a time of rapid change in the science policy landscape. In addition to the advocacy carried out by the AAS public policy team, many AAS members are also taking initiative to address these concerns, share our science highlights and advocate. Multiple AAS members participated in an event titled “The Things We'll Never Know: A Science Fair of Canceled Grants”, held in the foyer of a Congressional office building last week. Adam Riess, who gave a speech at the event, has shared his experience in a post for the AAS policy blog:
Read More At:
https://aas.org/posts/news/2025/07/my-recent-experience-advocating-science
We continue to be concerned by reports that NASA, NSF, and other science agencies are being directed to prepare to operate at the deep cut levels in the President’s Budget Request for FY2026. We have released a new action alert for you to easily write to and call your members of Congress regarding this issue:
Read More At:
https://aas.org/action-alert-protecting-astronomical-programs-fiscal-year-2026
I am Sulabh Khadka. I finished my bachelor’s degree in Physics in Nepal and now work as a research assistant at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. Currently, I’m working on a research project titled "Why fewer women study physics: A comparative study between the USA and Nepal."
As part of the project, I need help with a survey and an informed consent form. I'm looking for women who are currently studying physics at the bachelor's level or higher in either Nepal or the USA, or who have previously studied physics at that level in either of these countries, to complete the survey.
If you qualify, please follow the link below to complete it. I would really appreciate your help. Feel free to also share it with other women in your department, including faculty members and students, who meet the criteria. Please ensure they sign the informed consent form as well and return it to me.
https://weber.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1zBkTAOcOoaSK9w
You will also need to fill out an informed consent form. Please email me at sulabhkhadka_at_mail.weber.edu for a copy of the form.
If you’re tired of all the recent rain and summer storms, we’re here to brighten your day with a focus on the Sun. Catch some of those elusive rays with "Le Soleil", [https://digital.sciencehistory.org/works/1xk5evz] a book by Italian astronomer Angelo Secchi, one of the first scientists to declare the Sun a star. You can also listen to a podcast on the solar eclipse of 1868 that killed King Mongkut of Siam and an oral history interview with MIT chemical engineer Hoyt Hottel, who helped build the world’s first solar houses.
Read More At:
https://www.sciencehistory.org/
The Equity in Graduate Education resource center and the AAS are excited to announce a free workshop opportunity: Mentoring and Wellbeing taking place on July 15 and July 22.
These sessions will provide tools to build equity-minded mentoring cultures, covering topics like work-life balance expectations, support systems, and respectful professional conduct.
Space is limited so please share the registration link as soon as possible: Workshop Info and Registration at
Read More At:
ROSES-2025 Amendment 1 announces restrictions on funding of interagency awards from most proposal opportunities of ROSES-25. For more information, see the research program overviews (A.1 - D.1 & F.1) and Sections I(d)i and III(a) of
Read More At:
Katrina Brown and Cheri Harper are hosting a quick workshop/discussion of the Contemporary Physics Education Project's Fusion & Plasma physics resources on July 30th at 7 pm (EDT). Please see the attached flyer for more details and sign up by July 25th.
To Join:
https://forms.office.com/r/zkr8i3CkEW
One of the early members of The New York Academy of Sciences (the Academy), Margaret Burbidge, PhD was an influential astrophysicist and proponent of women’s equality in science. Margaret Burbidge, PhD was the first woman to serve as director of the Royal Observatory, a recipient of the National Medal of Science, and a designer of instruments carried aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. She was also the first director of the University of California’s Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, paving the way for generations of women in the male-dominated scientific community.
Read More At:
https://www.nyas.org/ideas-insights/blog/academy-member-was-female-trailblazer-in-astronomy/
The central event of the Maria Assumpció Català i Poch year, which commemorates the first female astronomy professor in the State, was held this Monday at the Montsec Astronomical Park with a round table that reflected the state of women in the scientific sector. The event was organized by the Catalan Women's Institute, which promotes the commemoration; the University of Barcelona -where Català i Poch taught- and Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC), which manages the Astronomical Park, located in Àger (La Noguera).
Read More At:
Women Astronomers Day is celebrated annually on August 1. It was created to celebrate the contributions to astronomy made by women and ensure that women in natural sciences get the credit they deserve.
Astronomy is one of the world’s oldest natural sciences. People have studied celestial objects since ancient times; many ancient peoples, including the Babylonians, Chinese, Egyptians, Greeks, Indians, and many indigenous civilizations in the Americas made systematic and methodical observations of the night sky. [Ed: note = this article contains a few errors, e.g. Hypatia was not the first astronomer; there were several earlier women who were astronomers.]
Read More At:
https://anydayguide.com/calendar/5518
How big is the share of women in the amateur-astronomer community? Is this a hobby primarily pursued by men, or is there a significant female presence in this hobby, on this forum or at stargazing events (star parties)?
...about 50% or 30%? A relatively small group? Or a growing group? Does anyone here have any ideas or estimates about this?
Read More At:
https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/970373-man-woman-and-hobby/
The first female astronomer in the United States, Maria Mitchell was also the first American scientist to discover a comet, which brought her international acclaim. Additionally, she was an early advocate for science and math education for girls and the first female astronomy professor. Women Astronomers' Day is held on her birthday August 1.
Read More At:
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/maria-mitchell
Annie Maunder was an astronomer who expanded our understanding of the Sun at the turn of the 20th century. Her passion was photographing eclipses. This is a podcast.
Read More At:
The list of women astronomers on Wikipedia is very incomplete. We invites you to add names that are missing.
Read More At:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_women_astronomers
Launch was on July 16. A famous photo shows the control room at Kennedy Space Center on the day of the historic Apollo 11 launch packed with hundreds of men in white shirts and skinny black ties — and, among them, a single woman sits at a console. As Apollo 11 began its flight to the moon on July 16, 1969, 28-year-old instrumentation controller JoAnn Hardin Morgan became the first woman ever permitted in the launch firing room, which is locked down in advance of a space flight. Morgan, who was the first female engineer at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, would go on to have a 40-year-long career at NASA. While she encountered challenges along the way, including being "the only woman there for a long time" and spending the first 15 years working "in a building were there wasn't a ladies rest room," Morgan says that "I had such a passion that overrode anything else, the lonely moments, the little bits of negative. They were like a mosquito bite. You just swat it and push on."
Read More At:
https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=25702
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