Astronomy

AASWOMEN for April 27th, 2012

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of April 27, 2012
eds. Joan Schmelz, Caroline Simpson, and Michele Montgomery

This week's issues:

1. Evaluating How We Present Role Models in STEM

2. Gender Politics

3. Why all astronomy departments should think of themselves as women's astronomy departments

4. German female astronomers, at home and abroad

5. This Week on the CSWA Twitter Feed

6. Physics Trends - Spring 2012

7. Maria Goeppert Mayer Award

8. NASA internships for students

9. Meeting on Exoplanets in Multi-body Systems in the Kepler Era

10. Job Opportunities

11. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

12. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

13. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

1. Evaluating How We Present Role Models in STEM
From: Laura Trouille via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

Univ. of Michigan social psychologists Diana Betz and Denise Sekaquaptewa recently published a thought-provoking article that I thought might be of interest to our readers -- "My Fair Physicist? Feminine Math and Science Role Models Demotivate Young Girls."

To read more:

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2012/04/evaluating-how-we-present-role-models.html

The article itself is at http://spp.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/03/27/1948550612440735.abstract?rss=1

2. Gender Politics
From: Hannah Jang-Condell via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

I would, ideally, like to keep politics out of this blog. However, given that this is an election year, politics seems to be butting its way into everything, so here goes.

The CSWA works hard to advocate for women in science. One issue that comes up over and over again is the problem of balancing career and family -- an issue for any working mother, really. A key to that balance is the ability to plan when and how many children to have -- something that many of us, like myself, take for granted.

So when a Republican-controlled House Committee convenes an all-male panel to discuss coverage for birth control, it's hard not to take it a little personally. It's bad enough that dependent care coverage is a real issue for many young astronomers, particularly grad students and postdocs, but to not even have coverage for birth control?

To read more:

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2012/04/gender-politics.html

3. Why all astronomy departments should think of themselves as women's astronomy departments
From: Bekki Dawson via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

[This week's guest blogger is Bekki Dawson. Bekki Dawson is a graduate student in the Astronomy Department at Harvard University. Her research focuses on the dynamics of planetary systems.]

H. Kim Bottomly, president of Wellesley College, recently wrote a Washington Post editorial "Why all colleges should think of themselves as women's colleges." President Bottomly focused on the mission of universities to produce women political leaders, but many of her arguments could apply to producing women scientists. As women's college alumna and graduate student at a co-educational institution, I began to wonder if the status of women in astronomy would improve if every astronomy department (or physics department or research center) considered itself a "women's astronomy department."

To read more:

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2012/04/guest-post-bekki-dawson-on-why-all.html

4. German female astronomers, at home and abroad
From: Barbara Rojas Ayala via CSWA Facebook page

I found this article in today's arxiv, about the career situation of female astronomer is Germany: "We survey the job situation of women in astronomy in Germany and of German women abroad and review indicators for their career development. Our sample includes women astronomers from all academic levels from doctoral students to professors, as well as female astronomers who have left the field. We find that networking and human support are among the most important factors for success. Experience shows that students should carefully choose their supervisor and collect practical knowledge abroad. We reflect the private situation of female German astronomers and find that prejudices are abundant, and are perceived as discriminating. We identify reasons why women are more likely than men to quit astronomy after they obtain their PhD degree. We give recommendations to young students on what to pay attention to in order to be on the successful path in astronomy."

The article is at: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012AN....333..280F

5. This week on the CSWA twitter feed
From: Caroline Simpson [simpsonc_at_fiu.edu]

A few tweets and retweets from AAS CSWA - go to twitter.com for the embedded links and stories. https://twitter.com/#!/AAS_Women

* Inspiring and Informative Videos about Women in Science http://www.underthemicroscope.com/blog/inspiring-and-informative-videos-about-women-in-science

* The Girls' Guide To Calling Out Sexism Without Being Attacked" http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2012/04/20/the-girls-guide-to-calling-out-sexism-workplace-tech-entrepreneurs

* 8 ways to help end workplace prejudice http://smartblogs.com/leadership/2012/04/19/8-ways-to-help-end-workplace-prejudice

6. Physics Trends - Spring 2012
From: Laura Trouille [l-trouille_at_northwestern.edu]

Forwarded from: Roman Czujko <rczujko_at_aip.org>

The Statistical Research Center has published the spring 2012 set of Physics Trends flyers. These are printable flyers intended for display. The new flyers can be downloaded from our web site at: www.aip.org/statistics/trends/phystrends.html

This set of flyers depicts:

The starting salaries for recent physics bachelor's employed in 6 parts of the economy

Women among physics faculty members

Science and Engineering Readiness Index for each state

7. Maria Goeppert Mayer Award
From: WIPHYS, April 25, 2012

Deadline to Nominate is July 1, 2011

The award is designed to recognize and enhance outstanding achievement by a woman physicist in the early years of her career, and to provide opportunities for her to present these achievements to others through public lectures in the spirit of Maria Goeppert Mayer. The award consists of $2,500 plus a $4,000 travel allowance to provide opportunities for the recipient to give lectures in her field of physics at four institutions and at the meeting of the Society at which the award is bestowed and a certificate citing the contributions made by the recipient. Find more info at http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/awards/goeppert-mayer.cfm

8. NASA internships for students
From: WIPHYS, April 25, 2012

Deadline is May 31

NASA offers fall and spring semester paid internships for undergraduate and graduate students. Internships are in a variety of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) disciplines as well as business and finance. The deadline for fall semester internship applications is May 31. Interested students can apply at:

http://intern.nasa.gov

9. Meeting on Exoplanets in Multi-body Systems in the Kepler Era
From: Eric Ford [eford_at_astro.ufl.edu]

Exoplanets in Multi-body Systems in the Kepler Era February 9-16, 2013

Aspen Center for Physics, Aspen, CO, USA http://www.astro.ufl.edu/~eford/meetings/aspen2013

Rationale: For centuries, theories of planet formation were guided exclusively by our solar system. However, the discovery of planets orbiting other stars (exoplanets) in the past two decades has demonstrated that nature often produces planetary systems quite different from our own, neither anticipated by nor well explained by the current theories of solar system formation and dynamics. The diversity of planetary system architectures (the masses and orbital arrangements of planets) has confronted astronomers with many new challenges and reinvigorated the fields of planet formation and orbital dynamics. Among these challenges are planetary systems with multiple planets in close-in orbits, highly eccentric orbits, and planets in binary star systems. In this one week program, scientists from the fields of planetary science, celestial mechanics, astronomy and astrophysics will meet to discuss new developments in the field of extrasolar multi-planet systems. The goal of our workshop is to provide an environment where these scientists can present new ideas, discuss their implications for identifying the most important problems in the field and chart the field's future direction.

Practical Details: The meeting will be held either February 9-15 or February 10-16, 2013. We anticipate nearly 100 participants. The Aspen Center for Physics will coordinate applications, registration and housing. We will update the meeting website with information about how to apply, registration and housing as these details become available. In the meantime, you may see the ACP website for further information about registration, housing and day care for previous winter meetings. Young scientists, women and underrepresented minorities are all encouraged to apply.

10. Job Opportunities

* AURA Solicits Applications and Nominations for the Director, National Solar Observatory http://www.aura-astronomy.org/news/news.asp?newsID=291

* AURA Solicits Applications and Nominations for the Director, Large Synoptic Survey Telescope http://www.aura-astronomy.org/news/news.asp?newsID=292

* One-year Visiting Assistant Professor Position in Physics at Kenyon College http://www.kenyon.edu/x60665.xml

11. 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.

Please remember to replace "_at_" in the e-mail address above.

12. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter

Join AAS Women List by email:

aaswlist+subscribe_at_aas.org

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

Join AAS Women List by link:

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Please remember to replace "_at_" in the e-mail address above.

13. Access to Past Issues

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

Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.

- Aaswomen For May 24, 2013
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- Aaswomen For January 25, 2013
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- Aaswomen For August 17, 2012
AAS Committee on the Status of Women Issue of August 17, 2012 eds. eds. Caroline Simpson, Michele Montgomery, Daryl Haggard, and Nick Murphy This week's issues: 1. Changes to the Women in Astronomy Blog2. Ntampaka and Sampath selected as 2012 Blewett...

- Aaswomen For June 22, 2012
AAS Committee on the Status of Women Issue of June 22, 2012 eds. Joan Schmelz, Caroline Simpson, and Michele Montgomery This week's issues: 1. Feminine Role Models2. Incivility Among Faculty Members3. Why Women Still Can't Have It All4. Firsts...

- Aaswomen May 25, 2012
AAS Committee on the Status of Women Issue of May 25, 2012 eds. Joan Schmelz, Caroline Simpson, and Michele Montgomery This week's issues: 1. The Lack of Women in Science Leadership2. Sheryl Sandberg: Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders3. Academic Campus...

Astronomy