women in science
sciencewoman | August 11, 2009While I'm working on my course design stuff, please help some of my lovely bloggy friends conduct some research on how women geoscientists use blogs.
Over the past several years, the geoscience blogosphere has blossomed so much that this fall, the Geological Society of America (GSA) will be convening a Pardee Keynote Symposium called "Google Earth to Geoblogs: Digital Innovations in the Geosciences." Kim Hannula started wondering how blogs serve women geoscientists. Kim recruited the rest of us and we decided to approach this problem as scientists - by collecting data and analyzing the…
khannula | August 6, 2009Geoscientists: we (Anne Jefferson, Pat Campbell, Suzanne Franks, and me) are looking for participants in a survey about the ways in which women geoscientists use blogs (both as readers and as writers). Here's the official request:
Over the past several years, the geoscience blogosphere has blossomed so much that this fall, the Geological Society of America (GSA) will be convening a Pardee Keynote Symposium called "Google Earth to Geoblogs: Digital Innovations in the Geosciences." Kim Hannula started wondering how blogs serve women geoscientists. Kim recruited the rest of us and we decided…
sciencewoman | August 4, 2009A wonderful and alert reader writes:
i know you have lots of astronomer readers, so you probably already know about this, but just in case not: http://wia2009.gsfc.nasa.gov/
this is a conference whose title is "women in astronomy 2009: meeting the challenges of an increasingly diverse workforce."
i expect that there will be a lot of emphasis on astronomy, but also a lot of general discussion about life as a woman in science in general.
The conference is in College Park, MD in October and it sounds fantastic! If any of my legions of astronomer readers attend the conference, will you please…
khannula | July 29, 2009Earth Science Week 2009 will be October 11-17 (ending on the 20th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake!). This year's theme is "Understanding Climate." There are photo, visual arts, and essay contests, and Thursday is going to be the first "Women in Geosciences" day. (And then Friday will be "frantically put posters together for GSA" day. Maybe the people who prefer AGU can make this year's Earth Science Week happen...)
The Association for Women Geoscientists has a new website (at the old address). They're now collecting dues online, but the transition to a paperless world has been…
khannula | July 23, 2009I'm going to take a vacation tomorrow. I'm going to get up early in the morning, ride my bike to my office, and hunker down in front of my computer, putting some of my collaborators' contributions into a grant proposal.
What? That doesn't sound like your idea of a vacation?
What about last week, when I spent a glorious two days in my office while my husband and six-year-old went camping and swimming in a hot spring? No?
They actually do feel like vacations to me. See, I'm spending this summer at home with my six-year-old. There are a few options in town for summer childcare, but I decided not…
sporte | July 11, 2009There aren't many reports of 14 year-olds making scientific contributions. Even in the field of astronomy, Caroline Moore, the youngest person to discover a supernova, is a bit unusual.
This supernova comes from Astronomy Picture of the day. Photo credits: High-Z Supernova Search Team, HST, NASA
HT: National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation reported that Moore has found an supernova candidate that may be as unusual as she is.
"It's really a strange supernova," said Moore. "A supernova is a huge explosion deep in the core of a star, whereas a nova is an explosion on the…
sporte | July 11, 2009One of my all time favorite books is South: The Last Antarctic Expedition of Shackleton and the Endurance (The Explorers Club Classic) . It's an amazing adventure and an incredible story. It's a comfort to know that any challenges I face will be easier than those conquered by Shackleton.
Luckily, traveling to Antarctica these days is far less hazardous. And we're glad of that because we'd really to send one of our favorite bloggers there as our surrogate eyes and ears.
We're also glad because the we won't have to worry about her getting eaten by polar bears.
Help send Grrl to the far south,…
khannula | July 9, 2009Geophysicist Marcia McNutt, currently President and CEO of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, is going to be the next director of the US Geological Survey. She will join this group of people, who (as Andrew Alden pointed out), are all men. (Cian Dawson points out on Twitter that the current acting director is also a woman - but it's still cool to see Marcia McNutt in a list with John Wesley Powell!)
Andrew points out that Dr. McNutt will also be the first geoscientist to be the science advisor to the Secretary of the Interior.
(And check out the profile published by Geotimes in…
skookumchick | July 7, 2009Patchi at My Middle Years has put together a great Scientiae carnival, reflecting (as it were) on Mirror, Mirror on the Wall. It's great -- go give it a good read, and share some link love for Patchi. Thanks, Patchi!
And wait until you see who the next Scientiae host is.... :-)
sciencewoman | July 3, 2009After the weekend, I'll be back with a follow up to the post on my progress towards tenure, and I'll try to address some of the substantive and thought-provoking comments that you all have raised. But, here in the States, it's already a holiday weekend, and so for today, I'll punt and take on a side issue from that comment thread.
Comrade Physioprof commented:
"hir" is a total ...abomination! It is so ...distracting it totally ruins the flow of reading, because it is NOT A REAL ...WORD!
In terms of identifiability of an anonymous individual, how much difference does a factor of two make in…
sciencewoman | June 16, 2009Retweeting Zuska:
Kim at All of My Faults Are Stress Related asks:
I've got a question for women readers, especially those in the geosciences, environmental sciences, or field sciences: what do you get out of reading blogs? And if you have a blog yourself, what do you get out of writing it?
I'm asking because there's a session at this year's Geological Society of America meeting on "Techniques and Tools for Effective Recruitment, Retention and Promotion of Women and Minorities in the Geosciences" (and that's in the applied geosciences as well as in academia), and I wondered whether blogs…
khannula | June 14, 2009I've got a question for women readers, especially those in the geosciences, environmental sciences, or field sciences: what do you get out of reading blogs? And if you have a blog yourself, what do you get out of writing it?
I'm asking because there's a session at this year's Geological Society of America meeting on "Techniques and Tools for Effective Recruitment, Retention and Promotion of Women and Minorities in the Geosciences" (and that's in the applied geosciences as well as in academia), and I wondered whether blogs (whether geo-blogs or women-in-science blogs or both) help. Although…
skookumchick | June 10, 2009
Do you know a woman in science or engineering who has taken a career break
from her academic position?
The NSF-ADVANCE program at George Washington University is doing a study of women in career breaks, whether voluntary or not, to understand the pipeline of women professors in science and engineering we are conducting a NSF-sponsored survey on women in career breaks. They are interested in women who have completed their PhD or DSc, have been employed in an academic setting and were, or have been, in a career break for less than five years. They are seeking to interview such women to help…
skookumchick | June 7, 2009
Was that the train? Was it? The Scientiae train? Oh damn, I was in the bathroom!
A couple of posts were left off the train completely inadvertently, so please accept the conductors' apologies, and enjoy a pretty open compartment on the bullet train to catch up to the main locomotive.
Photo from Frogandviking on Flickr
Penny Richards sent in a link that she thought was worth including in Scientiae -- the Australian War Memorial blog described the story of Valerie Briggs who worked at the CSIR Radiophysics Division. Briggs worked at the Center for Scientific and Industrial Research in…
sciencewoman | June 5, 2009
All month the Scientiae train has been loading at platform 37.7*, and now we're pulling out of the station on a wonderful journey on the rails. I'm picturing a Harry Potter-esque train running through the Scottish countryside, complete with cozy compartments and carts full of goodies, comforting tea, and chocolate frogs.** But most importantly, this train is full of amazing people sharing confidences, celebrations, frustrations, and encouragement. Alice and ScienceWoman will be your conductors for this journey, and we're going to drop in on some of the conversations.
We'll start up near…
skookumchick | June 2, 2009Cornelia Dean at the New York Times reports on a new report by National Research Council on the status of women faculty in STEM fields. I haven't read it yet (just ordered a copy), but Dean reports one particular item of note, "The panel said one factor outshined all others in encouraging women to apply for jobs: having women on the committees appointed to fill them."
Hark at this, faculty search committees. And please figure out ways to value women faculty members' time on search committees, because everyone will ask the few women there are to serve on all the search committees, which can…
sciencewoman | May 26, 2009The email below announces this year's "Negotiating the Ideal Faculty Position" workshop run by Rice University's ADVANCE program. I've heard great things about this workshop and they've run it for several years. In fact, I applied two years running and didn't get in, so it must be popular for a reason.
Dear Colleague:
A recent study of diversity in engineering notes that "the most
accurate predictor of subsequent success for female undergraduates is
the percentage of women among faculty members at their college [1]."
At Rice University we are strongly committed to increasing the
diversity of…
khannula | May 18, 2009Andrew Alden at about.com received a question from a reader. She's in her second year studying geology in Australia, she likes hard rock stuff, she thinks mining and petroleum sound interesting, and she's worried about juggling it all with a small child.
I teach a fair number of non-traditional students, and I've got a number of advisees with small children. We talk about how to juggle coursework and kids a lot (especially when kids are sick, or schools have vacations), but I haven't had that many long talks with them about jobs (yet). There are geology jobs near my town - engineering geology…
sciencewoman | May 12, 2009Alice and I are teaming up to host the June edition of Scientiae, the carnival by, for, and about women in science, engineering, technology, and math. As is the norm for the monthly Scientiae carnival, I get to choose a theme to help inspire and unite you all to write posts, though submissions on any topic related to women in STEM are always welcome.
At this time of year, some of us are just emerging from the end of the semester, while others still have another month to slog through before getting a reprieve. Some people are within spitting distance of finishing their research project or…
khannula | May 8, 2009So you're a fairly new professor, done with classes for the summer, ready to dive into research. And then you get your course evaluations back. What do you do?
If the course evaluations were excellent, yay! You can walk around feeling good about yourself for a while, and then go back to the research. (Even at a teaching-intensive school, you've got to publish something to get tenure.)
If the course evaluations weren't so good, well...
First, put them aside and do something that makes you feel good. Talk to someone who likes you. Go for a run. Garden. Read your favorite novel. Go to a movie.…