Friday, May 2, 2014

AASWOMEN Newsletter for May 2, 2014

AAS Committee on the Status of Women AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of May 2, 2014
eds. Michele M. Montgomery, Daryl Haggard, Nick Murphy, & Nicolle Zellner

This week's issues:

1. Report: Gender in AAS Talks

2. Promoting Diversity - UK's Athena SWAN Program

3. Wyoming Women

4. Career Profiles: Astronomer to Faculty and Entrepreneur

5. Cosmos Episode 8 Preview: Female Astronomers

6. 2014 Gerald A. Soffen Travel Grant for Students

7. Women More likely to Burnout

8. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

9. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

10. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter


1. Report: Gender in AAS Talks
From: Jim Davenport via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

Today I'm proud to announce that my AAS 223 Hack Day project is finally finished! Our "paper" (really an informal report) on the study of gender in AAS talks has hit astro-ph: http://arxiv.org/abs/1403.3091

This all started about 6 months ago when I was attending a different astronomy conference. I observed that the gender ratio for speakers seemed well balanced, as did the audience. Both were perhaps 60%/40% (Men/Women). However, the questions mostly seemed to be asked by men!

So I decided to organize a volunteer effort to study this. We collected data using a simple web-form (that Morgan Fouesneau graciously helped me make), and asked conference attendees to record the gender of every speaker and every question asked for talks they attended.We got over 300 submissions! I was going to be happy with 100, and figured I'd have to beg a few friends to participate. This was enough data to make some interesting plots... and also just enough data to know that we need more data!

To read more, please see

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2014/04/report-gender-in-aas-talks.html

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2. Promoting Diversity - UK's Athena SWAN Program
From: Joan Schmelz via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

Imagine a world were research funding was dependent on diversity! If a science department had no tenured women, for example, then (at least in this particular fantasy) it would not qualify for $$ from NASA, NSF, DOD, NIH, etc. If a laboratory employed no people of color, then it would have a lot of work to do before it could even think about applying for grants. Proposals would be returned without review to principle investigators from organizations where the gender and ethnic breakdown of the scientific staff did not reflect that of the population at large. Crazy, huh? It’s a pipedream, you say, a fantasy, a delusion, a hallucination. This is just the kind of thing a person like me would dream about at night or fantasize about in all my spare time.

But wait! Believe it or not, there is an organization in Britain that is working to level the playing field for women in the STEMM disciplines (includes medicine in addition to the US STEM list). The organization is called Athena SWAN . The amazing thing about this organization is that unless a university or department has at least a Silver ranking with Athena SWAN, funding organizations such as the British National Health Service will not consider the institutions eligible for research grants!

To read more, please see

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2014/04/promoting-diversity-uks-athena-swan.html

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3. Wyoming Women
From: Hannah Jang-Condell via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

I was recently invited to speak at an event in celebration of Women's History Month, along with a number of other women in the area both from the University of Wyoming and the surrounding community. It was a wonderful event, where I got to meet a lot of amazing local women and hear about their varied experiences. In the five minutes I was allotted, I talked a bit about myself and reflected on some of the challenges I face being a woman in science. This is a synopsis of what I said, stated perhaps a bit more eloquently now that I've had a chance to review it in my mind.

To read more, please see

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2014/04/wyoming-women.html

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4. Career Profiles: Astronomer to Faculty and Entrepreneur
From: Laura Trouille via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy and the AAS Employment Committee have compiled dozens of interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths.

Below is our interview with Douglas Arion, an astronomer turned faculty and entrepreneur. He has worked both in academia and business and has been very satisfied with his work and work-life balance.

To read more, please see

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2014/05/career-profiles-astronomer-to-faculty.html

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5. Cosmos Episode 8 Preview: Female Astronomers
From: Michele M. Montgomery [montgomery_at_physics.ucf.edu]

Episode 8 of the Cosmos series will air this Sunday May 4, 2014 and will highlight the contributions of Anne Jump Cannon and Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin. For a preview, see the video at

http://www.ibtimes.com/cosmos-episode-8-preview-female-astronomers-shine-sisters-sun-video-1576908

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6. 2014 Gerald A. Soffen Travel Grant for Students
From: Michele M. Montgomery [montgomery_at_physics.ucf.edu]

The Gerald A. Soffen Memorial Fund will offer two $500 Travel Grant application opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students pursuing studies in fields of space science, including astronomy and astrobiology. The travel grants are to enable students to attend professional meetings and present their research. The first of two grant application deadlines is May 15, 2014. For more information, please see

http://www.nasa-academy.org/soffen/travelgrant

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7. Women More likely to Burnout
From: Michele M. Montgomery [montgomery_at_physics.ucf.edu]

Work affects women's home life more than men. As such, women are more susceptible to burnout. To read more on the study and the results in Nature, please see

http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/articles/10.1038/nj7497-557b

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8. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter

To submit an item to the AASWOMEN newsletter, including replies to topics, send email to aaswomen_at_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.

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9. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter

Join AAS Women List by email:

Send email to aaswlist+subscribe_at_aas.org from the address you want to have subscribed. You can leave the subject and message blank if you like.

Be sure to follow the instructions in the confirmation email. (Just reply back to the email list)

To unsubscribe by email:

Send email to aawlist+unsubscribe_at_aas.org from the address you want to have UNsubscribed. You can leave the subject and message blank if you like.

To join or leave AASWomen via web, or change your membership settings:

https://groups.google.com/a/aas.org/group/aaswlist

You will have to create a Google Account if you do not already have one, using https://accounts.google.com/newaccount?hl=en

Google Groups Subscribe Help:

http://support.google.com/groups/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=46606

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10. Access to Past Issues

http://www.aas.org/cswa/AASWOMEN.html

Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.

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