AAS Committee on the Status of Women Issue of August 10, 2012 eds. Caroline Simpson, Michele Montgomery, Daryl Haggard, & Nick Murphy This week's issues: 1. AASWomen Newsletter Senior Editor 2. Response: Proposal Writing After Family Leave 3. Self Mentoring 4. Space: Women Needn't Apply? 5. Seeking Women of Color Interview(s) for NSF Study 6. APS webpage hosts statistical graphs and data 7. 221st AAS Meeting Child Care Grants 8. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter 9. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter 10. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. AASWomen Newsletter Senior Editor From: AASWomen Editors [aaswomen_at_aas.org] Dr. Caroline Simpson has moved into the role of "Senior Editor" for the AASWomen Newsletter, replacing Dr. Joan Schmelz who has rotated off the editing staff. Dr. Simpson has been an editor since 2007. She is an Associate Professor at Florida International University and works on star formation in dwarf galaxies. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Response: Proposal Writing After Family Leave From: Andrew Hopkins [ahopkins_at_aao.gov.au] [Submitted in response to an anonymous request for advice included in the July 27, 2012 issue of the AASWOMEN Newsletter. -eds.] Hi, I was interested to see this request, and I'm hopeful that you will have floods of advice coming in. I have been in situations where I have successfully mentored women who have dealt successfully with exactly this issue, and hope that my suggestions here are helpful more broadly (and apologize for what has turned into a more lengthy response than I initially anticipated). Basically the advice below boils down to: 1. Count how much of your time has been "research active" (i.e., equivalent full time research), and 2. Present your productivity relative to the time you've *actually* had for doing research. This will always make your case substantially stronger: E.g., if you've been employed in a research only position for three years, then had 12 months to have a baby/care for a sick relative/been seriously ill/etc., then returned to a position where you were doing an 80% admin/teaching load for two years, then had a 50/50 research/support position for two years, you've been "doing research" for 8 years, but you've actually only had 4.4 years of research time. To read more, please see http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Self Mentoring From: Ed Bertschinger via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com A wonderful series of posts on self-mentoring recently appeared at the AWIS group on LinkedIn, pointing to sciencementor's blog. The author is a scientist who balances biofuels research at a national lab with project management. She has made a virtue of her own difficulty finding a mentor who can effectively guide both research and career development, by discovering and sharing means for self-education and career mentoring. Her approach resonates with me and I agree with her summary that "it is vital for science professionals at all levels to take responsibility for their own self-mentoring." To read more, please see http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Space: Women Needn't Apply? From: Michele M. Montgomery [montgomery_at_physics.ucf.edu] In this month's Strange Universe - Astronomy magazine, Bob Berman writes about Debra Elmegreen's challenges in astronomy's anti-female legacy. To read all about it, please see http://www.astronomy.com/Berman or, for the pdf version, http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=9&ved=0CFsQFjAI& url=http%3A%2F%2Fphysicsandastronomy.vassar.edu%2Fdocs%2F1208-astronomy-magazine -elmegreen.pdf&ei=TIcgUInXAYnY9ASHyIDIBQ&usg=AFQjCNHBWu0KUnkohmZ18W4VevH60VpOXQ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Seeking Women of Color Interview(s) for NSF Study From: Lily Ko [Lily_Ko_at_terc.edu] [If you know of anyone suitable for this study, please email Lily Ko at the above email address.--eds.] I work on 'Beyond the Double Bind,' an NSF-funded project whose primary goal is to discover the strategies that enable women of color to achieve higher levels of advancement in STEM education and professions. In order to build our knowledge base on these strategies, we're looking at written and oral narratives, as well as the higher education programs that support their success. We aim to describe individual factors that sustain women of color in STEM fields and programs and other support structures that help them to succeed. We're currently collecting narratives by and about African American, Asian American, Hispanic/Latina and Native American women that are currently (or were formerly) in Physics, Astronomy/Astrophysics, Computer Science, and Engineering. I would like to interview a 'woman of color' (African American, Asian American, Latina/Hispanic or Native American woman) graduate student that has left (or switched out of) Astronomy. Considering the common crossover between Physics and Astronomy, it would be okay if this woman obtained her bachelor's degree in Physics, but continued on to Astronomy or Astrophysics and then left that field or science completely. This can be a person in graduate school or in her very early career. We're limited with the number of interviews we can conduct, so we're ensuring that we get a number of women in the early stages of their STEM careers. Thank you so much for your time and consideration. Best regards, Lily Lily T. Ko | Research Assistant TERC| 2067 Massachusetts Avenue | Cambridge, MA 02140 | www.terc.edu 617.873.9859 | 617.873.9602 /fax lily_ko_at_terc.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. APS webpage hosts statistical graphs and data From: WIPHYS, August 7, 2012 Physicists looking for presentation-ready graphics illustrating general statistics on physics degrees granted in the US, as well as the representation of women and minorities in physics, have a new tool in their repertory. The APS Education & Diversity Department has published a webpage devoted to physics data and statistics http://www.aps.org/programs/education/statistics/ The webpage features more than 10 graphs available in both PDF and Powerpoint formats. In addition to the graphs, the raw data is provided allowing users to recreate or revise the graphs. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. 221st AAS Meeting Child Care Grants From: Michele M. Montgomery [montgomery_at_physics.ucf.edu] Once again the AAS will provide childcare grants during the 221st AAS Meeting to be held 6-10 January 2013 in Long Beach, CA. Child care grant requests are now being taken. All requests are due by December 5, 2012. The application can be found at http://aas.org/meetings/childcaregrants.php and all information provided will be used by the Childcare Committee to determine eligibility for childcare subsidies. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 9. 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) To unsubscribe by email: aawlist+unsubscribe_at_aas.org Join or leave AASWomen, or change your membership settings: https://groups.google.com/a/aas.org/group/aaswlist/ You will have to create a Google Account if you do not already have one, using https://accounts.google.com/newaccount?hl=en Google Groups Subscribe Help: http://support.google.com/groups/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=46606 Please remember to replace "_at_" in the e-mail address above. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 10. Access to Past Issues http://www.aas.org/cswa/AASWOMEN.html Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.