Monday, March 14, 2011

AASWomen for March 11, 2011

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of March 11, 2011
eds. Joan Schmelz, Caroline Simpson, and Michele Montgomery

This week's issues:

1. Resources for Women in Astronomy

2. Seeking Advice for Starting Women's Issues Group

3. Top 100 Women

4. We are Equals. Aren't we 007?

5. Unconscious Bias

6. Psyche-Out Sexism

7. History of Women in Astronomy

8. NOAO DECam Community Workshop

9. Conference on Understanding Interventions

10. How to Submit to AASWOMEN

11. How to Subscribe, or Unsubscribe to AASWOMEN

12. How to Access to Past Issues of AASWOMEN


1. Resources for Women in Astronomy
From: Nancy Morrison [nancy.morrison_at_utoledo.edu]

Dear AASWomen,

The CSWA has begun compiling resources on topics of interest to students and professional women, especially women in astronomy. Web pages have now been published on the first two topics, the two-body problem and work-life balance. Additional pages are planned, and a page on the next topic, sexual harassment, is now in preparation. An index and a list of general resources are here:

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

If you know of any web resources that should be included on any of these topics, please send them to the CSWA Webmaster (me).

Regards, Nancy

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2. Seeking Advice for Starting Women's Issues Group
From: Lisa Frattare [frattare_at_stsci.edu] & Cristina Oliveira
[oliveira_at_stsci.edu]

We are looking for advice on starting up a women's group (lunch, coffee, chocolate, etc.) venue to allow people at our institution to come together to discuss women's issues. We have over 200 career women at our institution that range in disciplines from science, engineering, support, to business. In addition, we have a rolling number of postdocs, grad students, undergraduate and occasionally high school interns. Women in science groups have started up in the past, but end up dissolving, or being exclusive. Our main concern is to have a place where we can discuss issues prevalent to women, and where friendships or professional relationships can grow. I am curious to know what has worked at other institutions. What do you call yourselves, what is the venue for meeting, how frequent are the meetings, are the meetings structured, do you rotate concerns/discussions or allow the main group to be a sounding board for other smaller discussion meetings that are topic based? And most of all, how do you create group longevity? Does it make sense to pass the organization every semester for fresh thinking? Any advice is helpful. Thanks!

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3. Top 100 Women
From: Rick Fienberg [rick.fienberg_at_aas.org]

An interesting article appears in the Guardian (U.K.):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/series/top-100-women

Jocelyn Bell Burnell is among those cited in science and medicine:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/series/top-100-women-science-medicine

Eileen Collins, who commanded the shuttle mission that launched Chandra, is among those cited in sport and adventure:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/series/top-100-women-sport-adventure

Rick

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4. We are Equals. Aren't we 007?
From: Michele M. Montgomery [montgomery_at_physics.ucf.edu]

Narrated by Judith Dench and performed by Daniel Craig (in a dress, blond wig, makeup, and heels, no less!), this YouTube video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkp4t5NYzVM

by WeAreEquals.org points out some basic facts including women are responsible for 2/3 of the work done worldwide yet earn only 10% of the total income. The women in astronomy blogspot reviews some of the video's statistics in this week's blog:

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

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5. Unconscious Bias
From: Meg Urry [meg.urry_at_yale.edu]

[Can a Woman be a "Great American Novelist?" is the main title of the article by Meghan O-Rourke of Slate. "If you doubt unconscious bias exists, you live in a man's world" is the subtitle. Thank you Meg Urry for pointing this article to us. -- eds.]

http://www.slate.com/id/2267184?wpisrc=obinsite

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6. Psyche-Out Sexism
From: [meg.urry_at_yale.edu]

One of our grad students brought this article to my attention, the second page of which describes some pretty interesting experimental results in undergraduate math classes. The 4th paragraph from the end summarizes things well.

http://www.slate.com/id/2286671

[Less than 1/5 professors of science and math are at top research universities in the USA. For the 2007 NSF report, please see below. -- eds.]

http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/nsf07315.pdf

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7. History of Women in Astronomy
From: Carolina Brühl [bruhlita_at_gmail.com]

Hello my friends, on the following link I will share my conference about the women in the history of astronomy at the International Congreos of Astronomers in Chile the last year!! I hope you share!!! Hugs from Colombia!!

[Note, the following YouTube videos are in Spanish - eds.]

http://www.seti.cl/ciclo-charlas-astronomia-maria-carolina-bruhl

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8. NOAO DECam Community Workshop
From: David James [djj_at_ctio.noao.edu]

Seeing the Big Picture: DECam Community Workshop, 18-19 August 2011, Tucson, Arizona, USA

The NOAO is proud to announce a two-day community workshop on the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), a 3-sq degree array of 62 2Kx4K CCD detectors, which is to be installed on the Cerro Tololo InterAmerican Observatory's 4m Blanco telescope during mid-to-late 2011.

The workshop will take place on 18-19 August, 2011, at the Marriott University Park hotel in downtown Tucson [Az], about 10-minutes walk from the National Optical Astronomy Observatory [NOAO] offices.

The workshop discussions will give the DECam team an overview of the community interest in DECam, thus allowing us to optimize commissioning, operations and data reduction. This is also a unique opportunity for prospective users to meet and form collaborations based upon common or complementary interests in DECam data and capabilities. This conference will bring together researchers and scientists from the DECam community who are interested in the DECam and the ways in which it can be applied and used.

For further information, please contact Dr David James <djj@ctio.noao.edu>, or on +56 51-205358, preferably before 01 May, 2011. Due to logistical constraints, participation is limited to 50 attendees. Women, persons with disabilities and people from minority-rich backgrounds are especially encouraged to participate.

For more extensive information concerning the workshop, please visit

http://www.noao.edu/meetings/decam

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9. Conference on Understanding Interventions
From: Michele M. Montgomery [montgomery_at_physics.ucf.edu

Registration is now open for the 4th Annual Conference on Understanding Interventions. This conference was established to facilitate dissemination and exchange of hypothesis based research on interventions and initiatives that broaden participation in science and engineering research careers. The conference is to be held May 26-28, 2011 at Vanderbilt University

http://www.UnderstandingInterventions.org

Target audiences for this conference are research scholars and graduate students interested in research, institution leaders and faculty who develop and direct programs and initiatives, and program directors and leaders from federal agencies, professional associations, and foundations that build and shape the next generation of scientists.

Abstracts are being accepted for posters (on intervention research, effective strategies/best practices, and program evaluation design), oral presentations on research results (15-20 minutes), and workshops (1-2 hrs) on effective strategies and evaluation approaches. The deadline for all abstracts and travel grants is April 1.

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10. How to Submit to AASWOMEN

[Please remember to replace "_at_" in the below e-mail addresses.]

To submit to AASWOMEN: send email to aaswomen_at_aas.org All material sent to that address will be posted unless you tell us otherwise (including your email address).

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11. How To subscribe or unsubscribe to AASWOMEN

Go to:

http://lists.aas.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/aaswlist

and fill out the form.

If you experience any problems, please email itdept_at_aas.org

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12. How To Access to Past Issues of AASWOMEN

Past issues of AASWOMEN are available at

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

Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.

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