Sciencewomen

Here’s my take on the top 10 women in science stories of 2007. It’s highly biased toward blogospheric developments. Many thanks to skookumchick, Tara, Pat, and Karen for helping me compile items for inclusion on this list.

10. Microbiologist Rita Colwell received the National Medal of Science. Tara at Aetiology gives us the scoop, but Zuska points out that still only two of the eleven winners were women.
9. Girls won all of the top awards at the Siemens competition for research by high school seniors.
8. Women make out of this world astronauts. 2007 saw the first time that a woman has commanded the international space station and there were two women aboard the space shuttle Endeavor; too bad NASA won’t be making the next round of space suits in women’s smaller sizes.
7. Women engineering students thought they were combating stereotypes by stripping for a calendar fundraiser. Skookumchick and her commenters weren’t so sure.
6. Scientific American recently published an article on “Sex, Math, and Scientific Acheivement.” This article is part of the on-going response to Larry Summer’s remarks in January 2005 and the NAS Beyond Bias and Barriers report issued in 2006. Pat at Fairer Science promises to blog about the article soon.
5. Younger female scientists are breaking into academia: Dr. Shellie, skookumchick, Janus Professor, and I all got tenure-track positions in 2007. We have the opportunity to make things better for the next generation of women scientists.
4. Women scientists are achieving positions of power. Two universities named women scientist president: immunologist Kim Bottomly at Wellesley College and astrophysicist France Córdova at Purdue University. (Bonus! Harvard University replaced Larry Summers with historian Drew Gilpin Faust.)
3. Zuska conducts a course on Feminist Theory and the Joy of Science on her blog enabling everyone to read along and participate. Here’s a blurb from the course syllabus: “The implications for an adequate feminist theory of science, and for attracting members of underrepresented groups to science and engineering, will be a focus of the course.” If you missed out when the course was offered, all the reading summaries and discussion posts are still available, so click on over and partake.
2. Sometimes child TV stars grow up to be great role models. Such is the case of Danica McKellar (Winnie from the Wonder Years). She graduated summa cum laude with a mathematics degree from UCLA. In July 2007, McKellar’s book “Math Doesn’t Suck: How to Survive Middle School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail” was released. Tara C. Smith at Aetiology has details about the book and an interview with the author. And at FairerScience, Pat posted a review by a 12-year-old girl, the book’s target audience, who gave it a thumb’s up.
1. Scientiae debuts! The carnival devoted to “stories of and from women in science, engineering, mathematics, and technology” held its first soiree back on March 1st thanks to the vision and hard work of skookumchick. I think this carnival has really fostered a strong community and support network for women in STEM.

scientiae-carnival

Comments

#1 Sara
December 26, 2007

on the subject of role model child TV stars, dont forget Mayim Bialik (aka Blossom) who got a undergrad degree in neuroscience and and either has or just about has (depending on what website you believe) her PhD.
She should write a book too!
#2 Abel Pharmboy
December 26, 2007

ScienceWoman, I also wrote earlier this year (with a post on Scientiae, in fact!) about the news of Nancy Andrews, MD, PhD, being appointed the first female dean of a top 10 medical school. Frankly, I was bewildered that this was even “news” since at least one big medical school surely would’ve appointed a woman dean sometime in the last century or so. This post cites Andrews’ own NEJM article confirming that I am not crazy: she also felt it was a sad commentary that her appointment was marked by such a big media event.

And, hey, congratulations to all of you in #5 for your tenure-track faculty appointments this year! Be sure to not overlook male faculty colleagues who also share your mission – there are a few out there!
#3 Tara C. Smith
December 26, 2007

Two universities named women scientist president

Actually, I was remiss in pointing out that our own university did that as well, naming Sally Mason, a biologist, our newest president at the University of Iowa.
#4 and...
December 26, 2007

And, unfortunately, another crop of top-notch female postdocs finally give up the academic ghost after reaching the breaking point with the bullshit. Speaking from personal experience.
#5 Lost Clown
December 29, 2007

Thanks for this, I hadn’t read all of these. I’m looking forward to some nice readings during break
#6 Flicka Mawa
December 31, 2007

Nice post. I look forward to checking out some of the links. I share your sentiments about the creation of Scientiae!
#7 Zuska
January 2, 2008

Wonderful list, Sciencewoman! I’m not sure my mini-course actually warranted inclusion with all the other fabulous events, but thank you. In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I actually did not finish the course as planned, and one of my New Year’s resolutions is to pick it up again and work through the rest of the syllabus. Someday soon…after I get back to my normal life…