Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2000 12:27:53 -0500 (EST)
Subject: CSWA Newsletter of 2/23/2000
To: AASMAIL: ;
AAS Committee on the Status of Women
weekly issues of 2/23/2000, ed. by Priscilla Benson
*** send email and addresses to aaswomen
wellesley.edu ***
This week's issues:
1. IBM Research Award
2. Annie Jump Cannon Award and why not AAS Speakers
3. Rate at which Women Get Appointed to Jobs
4. Undergraduate Advising
5. Menstrual Cycle
6. International Conference on Women in Science
7. Jobs
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1. IBM Research Award
From: WIPHYS Posting for Feb 18, 2000
IBM Research Internship Award for Undergraduate Women
This year, IBM is again offering a research internship to
encourage women students to pursue graduate studies in
science and engineering. This includes a $2500 scholarship
per year and a summer internship at IBM's Almaden Research
Center in San Jose, CA. Internship is for 10 weeks during
the summer, starting and ending dates chosen so as not to
conflict with the student's school schedule. Deadline to
apply is March 1, 2000. Details and an application form may
be found at http://www.aps.org/educ/cswp/ibm.shtml
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2. Annie Jump Cannon Award and why not AAS Speakers
From: You-Hua Chu chuastro.uiuc.edu
I am sure every reader of the AASWOMEN Newsletter knows the
existence of the Annie J. Cannon Award. It is awarded
annually to a woman for distinguished contributions to
astronomy or for similar contributions in related sciences
which have immediate application to astronomy.
I saw a good correlation between the Cannon Awardees and the
invited speakers at the AAS meetings in recent years, so I
assumed that it was a rule that Cannon Awardees gave invited
talks in the AAS meetings. I was surprised to find that
this was not the case. When I asked why, I was told that
there were too many prize winners so it was not possible to
give everyone an invited talk.
I am puzzled. The AAS meeting cannot find a slot for a
distinguished young woman astronomer? I look at the list
of the Cannon Awardees, and I think every one of them is
outstanding. What is the problem here? Are there
objections to Cannon Awardees giving invited talks in the
AAS meeting?
Editor's Note: The Annie Jump Cannon Award is not an AAS
award. I believe that only winners of AAS awards are
automatically invited speakers at AAS meetings.
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2. Rate at which Women Get Appointed to Jobs
From: Amanda.Bakerastro.cf.ac.uk (Amanda Baker)
Greetings,
I have a question concerning the rate at which women
get appointed to astronomy jobs. I wonder if anyone can
point me to research results on the effects upon recruitment
of (trying to) always have a woman on an appointments panel,
especially interview panels. Can we _quantify_ the effects?
Is there a good (scientific!) understanding of what the
effects are and why? Is there any quantifiable difference at
different stages of the career level (graduate student
through to full professor)? I have heard lots of _anecdotal_
evidence, some positive, some negative, but what do
statistics and controlled studies say?
Many thanks,
Dr Amanda Baker
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4. Undergraduate Advising
From: Kirsten Larson kirstenphysics.utah.edu
I wanted to put my two cents worth as a graduate student in
physics. I myself am not what you would call a great
student, and I wish that as an undergraduate I had been
advised better. I had never been given the option of
anything BUT graduate school. Now I am in grad school and I
am starting to develop a fairly bitter attitude towards
physics and the world of academia. As soon as I get my
Master's Degree I am bugging out and looking for a job as
far away from physics as I can get. Sometimes I feel that if
I had been given more options as an undergraduate for the
use of my bachelor's degree I wouldn't be so unhappy now. I
know it sounds a bit cruel, but sometimes an advisor needs
to be brutally honest, it saves a student from a lot of
heartbreak in the long run.
**> Kirsten Larson <**
**> UofU Physics Dept. <**
**> 201 JFB <**
**> Salt Lake City, Utah 84112 <**
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5. The menstrual cycle
From: Maren Leyla Cooke marenbloom.harvard.edu
"How the Shaman Stole the Moon" by neurobiologist William H.
Calvin and found the following:
"And even if animals don't watch the moon's phases in any
obvious way, their bodies often have cycles of activity that
are about 28-30 days long (the menstrual cycle of women, for
example), left over from ancient reproductive rhythms that
synchronized mating or birth with the high tides caused by
the full moon."
------------------- and -------------------
"a biophysicist speculated that lunar rhythms in women could
be a photosensitive response with phases now randomized
because people no longer spend their nights out of doors."
Occam's razor suggests to me to look at nocturnal
illumination, a much more obvious effect than lunar tides
(unless perhaps you live right on the coast). Thus
Michele's biophysicist strikes closer to my personal theory,
but I'm not sure of her wording. "Photosensitive" to me
implies a physiological response (like phototropism or
photophobia in plants or animals). My thought (just my own
hunch, based on no particular research) is that it might
have been more behavioral -- whether it was the dark of the
moon or the bright time which was more conducive to mating
amongst the palm fronds or savannah grasses. That brings us
back to the "easier to catch the (lunatic) criminals
during the full moon" situation, except in this case it
would have been "easier to catch a comely cavewoman."
"I recall reading that it has been demonstrated that women's
cycles *do* correlate with something: the cycles of other
women with whom they have close physical contact."
Now that the phases have been randomized, I suspect that the
physical-contact effect -- e.g., cloistered nuns in phase
with one another -- could be due to an entirely different
(and physiological) effect, pheremones floating around or
some such. Perhaps in prehistoric times there was also
some advantage to being in phase, either plain safety-in-
numbers, or by limiting the days during which a nomadic
tribe might've been pinned down by cramps or taboos, or more
attractive to predators.
On the hurricane & Tuesday spikes in births:
Here in Miami, every hurricane season we have to deal with
the belief that an approaching hurricane may induce labor in
pregnant women -- a pseudo-scientific reason of "lower
atmospheric pressure" is usually given. Again, this just
isn't true. It's a reaction of people to the announcement
that very pregnant women should go to a hospital in advance
of a hurricane - this is in case it really hits, they're
already where they need to be. It's a transportation issue,
not a scientific one!
------------------- and -------------------
"I recall that there was no spike at the full
moon, but there was a Tuesday spike."
Consider the influence of the medical establishment itself -
- once one is at a hospital, there's a slippery slope toward
induced birth even if it wouldn't have happened yet
naturally -- doctors tend to put time limits on the process.
With drugs, first pitocin to speed up labor and then
anesthesia to deal with the harsher contractions caused by
the artificial hormone and then possibly surgery because the
fetus and/or mother can't handle the buffeting or drugs).
Caroline's hurricane case speaks for itself, and as for
Tuesdays, I can imagine a woman putting off a trip to the
hospital over the weekend when her practitioner is more
likely to be unavailable. Rather than going through birth
with whoever happens to be on call on the weekend, she might
stick out early labor at home and then go in some time on
Monday (perhaps leading to more births on Tuesday) in order
to work with her chosen birth attendant. Even among the
group of five midwives I worked with, I had preferences and
made sure to find out who was on call which days. (That
didn't actually work, as my waters broke after the first 21
hours and then things had to happen faster than I'd hoped.
Evidently the baby hadn't signed on to my preferences!)
That said, there was a truly RAGING thunderstorm going on
outside by the time I gave birth -- but it had no effect as
far as I could tell on what was happening inside, and was
not a factor in our transportation timing.
-- Maren Cooke.
-------------------------------------
From: Beth Hufnagel hufnadlererols.com
To respond to Lynda Williams question about why women
who live together menstruate together, that's been shown to
be due to female pheromones. That is, they are sychronized
by odors given off by each other's armpits. This was
reported by major newservices at the time, last year I
think.
I also thought the comment that our month-long menstrual
cycle was a relic of high tides to be another piece of
evidence supporting the theory that humans differentiated
from other primates due to a water-based environment. This
also made us similar to whales and dolphins in our lack of
hair, under-skin fat layer, communication by sound rather
than sight, and (most interesting to me!) large brains.
Beth Hufnagel
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6. International Conference on Women in Science
WIPHYS Posting for Feb 16, 2000
The Role of Women as an Intellectual Reserve for the 21st
Century: An Interdisciplinary Investigation into the
Challenges and Perspectives , St. Petersburg, Russia, June
30-July 2, 2000. The St. Petersburg Women Association in
Science (SPWAS) with the cooperation of the St. Petersburg
Association for Scientists and Scholars (SPASS) and the St.
Petersburg Research Centre of the Russian Academy of
Sciences are planning to organize the International
Conference. This is intended to provide a forum for women
scholars, from a number of disciplines from the Humanities
and Sciences, to voice concerns and articulate views on a
number of both scientific and non-scientific challenges.
The conference will consist of several sessions and round
table discussions, depending on the range and interests of
the conference participants. Speakers and participants are
welcome. All international conference participants will be
asked to pay a modest registration fee of $60 US.
For further details, please send any correspondence to:
St. Petersburg Association of Women in Science
199034 St. Petersburg
University Embankment 5, office 113 , Russia
Email: lanzovVvicom.ru
Dr. Nelly Didenko, didenkospbrc.nw.ru
Deputy Chairperson on the Organization Committee
Co-Chairperson of SPWASS
http://www.nw.ru/SPWAS/
www.spass.st.-petersburg.ru
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7. Jobs
From: Wendy Horton whortonseti.org
Senior Software Scientist/Engineer
The One Hectare Telescope Project, a joint effort of the
SETI Institute and the University of California at Berkeley,
seeks an unusually talented person to start its software
development effort. When completed in 2004, this telescope
will be nearly the size of the VLA and much more flexible.
The successful candidate must be:
*experienced (at least 5 years) in designing, coding, and
maintaining large program packages in a Unix environment,
*adaptable, productive, and very intelligent,
*able to lead software development in a small-team setting,
* familiar with complex instrumentation projects.
Knowledge of object oriented programming, real-time
programming, signal processing, and/or radio-astronomy
arrays would be major pluses. Position will require travel
between Berkeley, Mountain View, and the Hat Creek
Observatory in northern California.
Send resume, names of references, and salary history by 2000
April 15
to: SETI Institute, 2035 Landings Dr., Mtn. View, CA 94043.
For further information contact Dr. John Dreher
(dreherseti.org). EOE
------------------
From: John Dreher dreherseti.org
Postdoctoral Position Radio Astronomy Laboratory
at the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY
Berkeley, CA 94720-3411
The Radio Astronomy Laboratory at Berkeley will have a
position for a radio astronomer to work on the new One
Hectare Telescope (1hT). This project, a joint venture with
the SETI Institute, aims to build an array with a collecting
area comparable to the VLA using 500 or more small parabolic
antennas. This project is now in its R&D phase. The position
is intended to be primarily for instrumentation development
with an opportunity to pursue science as well.
Opportunities for work on the design and development of the
1hT include antenna design, fiber optics, signal processing,
software, and RFI removal techniques. Prototypes, including
a seven-element Rapid Prototyping Array, are currently being
built.
The construction of the 1hT will begin in 2003 and be
completed in 2005. The starting date for this position can
be as early as this spring, but should not be later than
September 1 for a period of two years with the possibility
of a renewal for a third year.
The successful applicant must have completed the
requirements for the Ph.D. degree prior to her/his arrival.
The position includes expenses for publication charges,
travel support, a workstation and adequate disk space.
Applicants should send a curriculum vitae, list of
publications, a statement of research interests, Leo Blitz,
RAL director at the above address before March 31, 2000 for
full consideration.
Three letters of recommendation should be requested by the
applicant and sent to Berkeley. AAE/EOE.
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End of CSWA Newsletter of 2/23/2000