Issue of October 23, 2026
eds: Jeremy Bailin, 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. Join the CSWA and Support Women in Astronomy
2. Call for AASWomen Newsletter Editors
3. AAS Employment Committee - share your career experience on the AAS website!
4. For women academics, feeling devalued can be a fatal career blow
5. The SAIR Prize: nominations open
6. L’Oréal USA Names 2026 For Women in Science Awardees, Supporting the Future of Scientific Discovery
7. Job Opportunities
8. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
9. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
10. 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.
The American Astronomical Society’s (AAS) Committee for the Status of Women in Astronomy (CSWA) is currently soliciting applications for new committee members. We welcome applicants at all career stages, from individuals within and outside academia, regardless of gender, identity, or background.
The Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy (CSWA) is a standing committee of the American Astronomical Society dedicated to supporting and encouraging women in the field. What Do CSWA Members Do?
Meet online once a month to discuss current issues and plan for upcoming events, particularly with the AAS winter and summer conferences. Publish the weekly electronic newsletter AASWomen, highlighting astronomy news focused on women and current job opportunities. Publish the Women In Astronomy Blog, which includes original interviews with women in astronomy and astronomy-adjacent fields. Conduct community surveys and formulates recommendations on reducing workplace harassment, improving ethics, and supporting career development. Organize networking sessions and special events at AAS meetings (such as AAS 247 in Phoenix).
CSWA members are volunteers who serve staggered, three-year terms. If you have any interest in joining or finding out more about what it means to serve on the committee, please fill out the following interest form by November 15th, 2026, to indicate your interest.
Read more at
https://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2026/10/join-cswa-and-support-women-in-astronomy.html
AASWomen is the CSWA's weekly electronic publication. It consists of timely news items, advice solicitations and responses, and job postings relevant to women in astronomy. Relevant contributions are welcome from anyone, and anyone may subscribe.
About being an editor:
The AASWomen editorial team consists of 4-5 editors who rotate responsibility for preparing and sending out the weekly newsletter from the news items, job postings, etc. that have been sent in by members of the community and the editorial team, as well as communications from the CSWA and AAS. It typically takes less than an hour to prepare the newsletter, and each editor averages about one per month.
If you'd like to volunteer to be an editor on the newsletter, please fill out the form below. You do not need to be a CSWA committee member to be a newsletter editor, but you can volunteer for both if you'd like to.
Read more at
https://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2026/10/join-cswa-and-support-women-in-astronomy.html
Are you willing to share your career experience on the AAS website? If so, the AAS Employment Committee asks you to please answer some these questions on this form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScOjULjt8PPZUpPWW8-H1EBt4XUsCdpfJ1MkN-BiNjhvx6Ueg/viewform
By Ailie McWhinnie
Held to higher standards. Left off invitations. Pointed to as “diversity” but ignored. These are just some of the hundreds of examples of devaluation women faculty in the United States shared with computational social scientist Katie Spoon. These experiences, more common for women than men, are to blame for the higher rate of attrition for women faculty, Spoon, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, and colleagues report in an analysis published today in PNAS Nexus.
The new study “gets at things that are hard to measure, which is the climate in academia,” says Donna Ginther, an economist at the University of Kansas who studies the academic workforce. “It speaks to the subtle experiences of women not feeling like they belong.”
The work builds on an enormous survey of 10,000 U.S. current and ex-faculty, spanning institutions and fields, which found that women leave because they feel pushed out—not pulled toward another opportunity.
Read more at
https://www.science.org/content/article/women-academics-feeling-devalued-can-be-fatal-career-blow
Read the journal article at
https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/5/10/pgag306/8907487
The Foundation for Science and AI Research has launched the SAIR Prize, the first major prize dedicated to AI achievements in physics and astronomy. It recognizes early-career scientists (under 40, as a guideline) working in the United States, in academia, industry or government, whose AI-driven work has already verifiably advanced physics or astronomy. It rewards completed achievement and does not fund proposals. The prize carries $100,000 each year, shared by up to three recipients.
Anyone may nominate, and candidates may nominate themselves. An independent committee selects the recipients. Its first members are Steven Chu (Stanford), Kyle Cranmer (UW–Madison) and Andrew Connolly (University of Washington). Barry Barish, Nobel laureate in Physics, presents the prize and does not select. Nominations close January 10, 2027, and recipients are announced in April 2027.
Details and nominations: https://sair.foundation/prize Questions: milo_at_sair.foundation
List of five includes Dr. Clarissa Do Ó – Astronomy & Planetary Sciences – California Institute of Technology. Developing technologies and observing strategies for the direct imaging of exoplanets – planets that orbit stars outside our Solar System. This work develops techniques to enable the detection of Earth-like exoplanets, which are 10 billion times fainter than their stars, helping us understand our place in the Universe.
Read more at
https://www.loreal.com/en/usa/press-releases/groupe/fwis-2026-awardees/
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
- Deputy Director of the International School for Young Astronomers (ISYA), International Astronomical Union (IAU) and Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (NASL)
https://www.iau.org/IAU/News/Ann2026/Vacancy-ISYA-Deputy-Director.aspx
- Astronomy and/or Physics Instructor, SUNY New Paltz, New Paltz, NY
https://www.newpaltz.edu/hr/displayjobdetails.php?id=3080
To submit an item to the AASWOMEN newsletter, including replies to topics, send email to aaswomen_at_lists.aas.org .
All material will be posted unless you tell us otherwise, including your email address.
When submitting a job posting for inclusion in the newsletter, please include a one-line description and a link to the full job posting.
Please remember to replace "_at_" in the e-mail address above.
Join AAS Women List through the online portal:
To Subscribe, go to https://aas.simplelists.com/aaswlist/subscribe/ and enter your name and email address, and click Subscribe. You will be sent an email with a link to click to confirm subscription.
To unsubscribe from AAS Women by email:
Go to https://aas.simplelists.com, in the "My account and unsubscriptions", type your email address. You will receive an email with a link to access your account, from there you can click the unsubscribe link for this mailing list.
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