AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of May 11, 2007
eds. Joan Schmelz, Geoffrey Clayton, & Hannah Jang-Condell
This week's issues:
1. Education and Public Outreach Specialist Positions
2. Parental Leave for Graduate Students
3. Postdoc positions in Plasma/Space Physics
4. How women are ruining the BBC
5. Biased NY TImes Science Article
6. Tenure track position at Tennessee State University in Nashville
7. How to submit, subscribe, or unsubscribe to AASWOMEN
[Eds. note: Please be patient as the AAS switches servers and AASWOMEN
experiences some adjustment glitches.]
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1. Education and Public Outreach Specialist Positions
From: Lynn Cominsky (lynnc
universe.sonoma.edu)
Positions are available in the Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) group at
Sonoma State University, under the program direction of Professor Lynn
Cominsky. The group supports E/PO for NASA's Gamma-ray Large Area Space
Telescope (GLAST), Swift and XMM-Newton missions and the upcoming GLAST
launch in late 2007.
Two positions at different levels are available - please see detailed
position descriptions and information about the application process at:
http://www.sonoma.edu/hs/jobs/jobopps.shtml Job #'s 2830 & 2832. Initial
review of applications for the E/PO specialist position will begin May 14;
review for the Educator Ambassador specialist will begin June 1. E/PO
Specialist positions require a Bachelors Degree in related field (astronomy,
astrophysics, physics), knowledge of astronomy plus science education and
2 years directly related experience. Pre-college teaching experience is
desired, plus demonstrated software fluency and web-programming skills.
The Educator Ambassador specialist position requires a Masters Degree in
related field (astronomy, astrophysics, physics) plus two years directly
related experience working with teachers and/or informal educators. PhD
in related field and knowledge of high-energy astrophysics is highly
desirable. The successful candidate will coordinate NASA's Astrophysics
Educator Ambassadors, a cohort of master educators who help the SSU E/PO
group develop, test and disseminate NASA materials through teacher
workshops. Both positions require the ability to work effectively in a
fast-paced, rapidly changing, educational environment with teachers,
students and informal educators, excellent written and oral communication
skills and the ability to use a keyboard up to six hours per day and travel
by automobile and airplane.
For additional information, please contact Prof. Cominsky at
lynncuniverse.sonoma.edu
and check out the SSU E/PO website at http://epo.sonoma.edu
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2. Parental Leave for Graduate Students
From: Meg Urry (meg.urryyale.edu)
At the AAS meeting last January, Hannah Jang-Condell gave a very interesting
presentation on [the general lack of] parental leave policies for graduate
students and postdocs. Since then, several universities have issued new
policies for graduate students in particular, including Yale (see
www.yale.edu/opa/yb&c/story2.html). I believe that MIT and Princeton have
similar policies. At least one of the prize fellowships in astronomy is
considering creating a new policy for parental leave. So there is real
forward motion on this. A public study comparing the available policies
might be a very useful way to help more institutions implement these kinds
of policies.
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3. Postdoc positions in Plasma/Space Physics
From: Ashild Fredriksen (Ashild.Fredriksenphys.uit.no)
Two postdoctoral positions in space - /plasma physics are available at the
Department of Physics and Technology, The Faculty of Science at the
University of Tromso
Job description can be found at:
http://www.uit.no/persok/betenkninger/07-1746.doc
Application deadline: 31.05.07
The position's reference no. 07-1746 must be quoted in your application.
The successful candidates will be working with laboratory experiments
and/or modelling of ion cyclotron heating in plasmas with flow. The
principle objective of the project is to combine aspects of laboratory and
space plasma physics to investigate the role of ion cyclotron resonances
in the solar wind and other space plasmas. We seek in particular candidates
that have experience in laboratory and/or space plasmas, experimental and/or
modelling.
The post doctoral fellowships are three year positions. A doctoral degree
is necessary.
The positions are paid according to the Norwegian State Salary Scale,
Code 1352. Two percent of the salary is withheld for the mandatory
contribution to the Norwegian State Pension Fund.
Further information can be obtained from:
Prof. Ashild Fredriksen
(ashild.fredriksenphys.uit.no),
Prof. Ruth Esser (ruth.esserphys.uit.no),
or Prof. Asgeir Brekke (asgeir.brekkephys.uit.no)
General information: There is a statutory pension contribution from the
gross salary. Questions concerning the organisation of the working
environment, such as the physical state of the place of employment,
health service, possibility for flexible working hours, part time, etc.
may be directed to the telephone reference in the advertisement. According
to personnel policy objectives that the staff shall reflect the composition
of the population in general, both with respect to gender and cultural
multiplicity, women and persons with a minority ethnic background in
particular are encouraged to apply.
The application must be submitted electronically using the application form
available at: jobbnorge.no
All documentation that is to be evaluated, must be certified and translated
into English or a Scandinavian language.
In addition, the application including curriculum vitae, certified copies
of certificates and testimonials, and the list of scientific papers must
be submitted in five copies, within the application deadline, to:
University of Troms NO-9037 Troms, Norway
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4. How women are ruining the BBC
From: Andrea Schweitzer (schweitzfrii.com)
Patrick Moore is a British amateur astronomer who has been hosting the "Sky
At Night" television program for 50 years. He has also written numerous
books on astronomy. In the article cited below
( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6634255.stm )
Moore blames women for deterioration of British television. He is quoted
as saying, "The trouble is the BBC now is run by women and it shows soap o
peras, cooking, quizzes, kitchen-sink plays. You wouldn't have had that in
the golden days," and "I would like to see two independent wavelengths - one
controlled by women, and one for us, controlled by men."
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In a fun twist of irony, the TV shows that Sir Patrick Moore used to like
but now he faults for becoming "PC - making women commanders, that kind of
thing" were created only because of women's leadership, and one began
originally with a female character as second-in-command.
Sir Patrick Moore said to the BBC, "I used to watch Doctor Who and Star
Trek, but they went PC - making women commanders, that kind of thing. I
stopped watching."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6634255.stm
Sir Patrick obviously did not realize that he was being historically
incorrect while also being politically incorrect.
Both of the TV shows he mentioned came about in the early 1960's because
of determined female producers and female studio executives who were willing
to take risks that the men weren't. Fans should appreciate the foresight
and talents of Verity Lambert (for Doctor Who) and Lucille Ball (for Star
Trek).
In the pilot episode of Star Trek, the second-in-command was a capable
woman character, Majel Barrett, who was demoted to become Nurse Chapel
in the series (she was also Gene Roddenberry's wife). They wanted to
show a woman in a leadership role, but that was considered too unrealistic
for the times.
"Star Trek was rejected by MGM, Warner Brothers, and Columbia as being too
expensive and unconventional. In 1962, Lucille Ball and Desilu Studios
hired Gene Roddenberry as executive producer for a starting fee of
$1,250 per episode plus 37.5% of the profits. Star Trek became one
of television's greatest successes, and Desilu and Roddenberry earned
millions of dollars."
-- from "Money Secrets of the Rich and Famous" by Michael Reynard, 1999
"[Lucille Ball's] work running a studio ... brought us such major television
series as MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE and STAR TREK, Ball's true legacy can be
found in her understanding of the possibilities of television before it
understood itself."
-- PBS
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/ball_l.html
"Verity Lambert OBE is a British television and film producer. She is best
known as the founding producer of the science-fiction series Doctor Who,
a programme which has become a part of British popular culture. Lambert
was a pioneer woman in British television; when she was appointed to Doctor
Who in 1963, she was the youngest and only female drama producer working
at the BBC."
-- Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verity_Lambert
(While Wikipedia should be fact-checked, this info appears to be correct,
based on my preliminary research and on other websites such as
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/550923/index.html )
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How women are ruining the BBC, by Sir Patrick Moore
Last updated at 11:00am on 8th May 2007
The BBC has been ruined by women producing 'terrible programmes', according
to Sir Patrick Moore.
The astronomer said the corporation needed to revert to the 'golden days'
when the news was presented by men with impeccable English.
Sir Patrick, 84, made the comments in an interview with the Radio Times
to celebrate 50 years presenting The Sky At Night.
He was asked whether television had got better or worse during his career.
He replied 'much worse' and added: 'The trouble is that the BBC is now run
by women and it shows - soap operas, cooking, quizzes, kitchen-sink plays.
'You wouldn't have had that in the golden days.' Asked about female
newsreaders, he said: 'There was one day (in 2005) when BBC News went
on strike.
'Then we had the headlines read by a man, talking the Queen's English,
reading the news impeccably. Oh, for the good old days.'
He also compared EastEnders to diarrhoea, saying: 'I suppose it's true
to life. But so is diarrhoea - and I don't want to see that on television.'
Such is Sir Patrick's derision of women, he wants to create a
gender-segregated corporation.
'I would like to see two independent wavelengths - one controlled by
women, and one for us, controlled by men.'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=453392&in_page_id=1773
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5. Biased NY TImes Article
From: Yilen Gomez Maqueo Chew (yilen.gomezVanderbilt.Edu)
There was an article in the NY Times this weekend (reprinted below) about
RHIC, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, at Brookhaven National Lab.
At the top it shows a picture in one of the labs where both men and women are
present. Regardless of the analogy to Star Trek throughout the article,
women are not even mentioned except in the very end when they talk about
helping the professors' daughters with their science homework.
I think people should email the author, Corey Kilgannon, and let him know
how biased is his article against women in science. The email at the end
of the article is: theislandnytimes.com.
-----------------------------------
May 6, 2007
The Island
Getting the Most Bang Out of Quarks and Gluons
By COREY KILGANNON
THERE'S nothing unusual about grown men gathering around wide-screen TVs
to watch collisions, whether between players in cleats or on skates or
between cars on a racetrack.
But a group of men viewing wide-screen monitors in a control room at
Brookhaven National Laboratory the other day were rooting for very different
collisions, ones made by the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, or
RHIC (pronounced rick).
These images showed up spectacularly on screens like fireworks, depicting
the aftermath of atomic collisions. The subatomic particles shooting
out left trails of different colors depending on their speed. One of
the six researchers in the control room, Jim Sowinski, 52, a physicist
from Indiana University, compared the analysis of the collisions with
police investigation and reconstruction of traffic accidents.
"The difference is, we're putting all the cars in the same lane running
straight at each other," he said. "Then we watch the results. Some
are fender benders, and some are head-ons."
Thomas A. Trainor, 62, a physics professor from the University of
Washington, who was at the control panel, invoked another metaphor,
likening the control room to the bridge of the Enterprise in "Star Trek."
"That's Captain Kirk over there," said Dr. Trainor, pointing to the
shift leader, a spry 81-year-old physics professor from U.C.L.A.,
George Igo. He was accumulating collision data from the experimental
run and amassing an impressive pile of pistachio shells on his desk.
"I'm just the bookkeeper," Dr. Igo said.
Dr. Trainor continued, "You could say I'm Sulu, at the controls, but
when the captain tells me, 'I want things run this way,' I do it."
"He's Chekov," Dr. Trainor said, pointing to Jan Kapitan, 26, a doctoral
student in nuclear physics from the Czech Republic. Then he turned to a
tall man monitoring the alarm systems, Peter Filip, who works for a
research group from Moscow.
"He's Scotty," Dr. Trainor said, "because if something goes wrong, he has
to respond."
It's spring, which means another season of smashing atoms in the pine
barrens. Every spring, thousands of scientists, engineers and researchers
worldwide, eager to investigate the early universe, come to this collider
just off the William Floyd Parkway, which lab officials have long called
the only manmade structure on Long Island visible from outer space.
Since its first official runs in 2000, the $1 billion RHIC, which is the
most powerful heavy-ion collider in the world, has been at the forefront
of competitive physics research. But things are especially urgent this year,
since a powerful particle accelerator in Geneva is set to open as a research
rival. Lab officials feared that federal financing cuts and delays might
have prevented RHIC from running this year. But in March, $108.6 million
came through, enough for a shorter than usual 21-week run.
With huge supermagnets, RHIC accelerates beams of gold nuclei at almost
the speed of light in opposite directions through two rings, each 2.4 miles
around. As the nuclei collide, quarks and gluons and other basic constituents
of matter are briefly liberated, and a shower of subatomic particles
provides clues to their identities and energies.
These collisions approximate the first few milliseconds after what
scientists postulate was the Big Bang creation of the universe 14 billion
years ago. They create a fireball up to 10,000 times as hot as the sun,
making a small part of Upton briefly the hottest spot in the universe.
Researchers are interested in the quark-gluon plasma made up of loosened
particles, the hottest and densest matter there is.
A chamber called the STAR detector photographs and records the collision.
Researchers spend months here shut out from daylight, searching for the
origin of the universe by peering into the detector's time projection
chamber. It is a trip back to the beginning of time through quantum
chromodynamics and a rarefied bubble of highly theoretical research
that seems as alternate a reality as science fiction, which may help
explain Dr. Trainor's affinity for an old TV series.
"The 'Star Trek' metaphor is very appropriate," Dr. Trainor said. "Did
you know the idea for the show was actually based on the voyages of
Captain Cook? It is evocative of what we do here. The detector is not
actually moving, but this is a voyage."
Onboard Dr. Trainor's Brookhaven Enterprise, the role of Spock falls
to Dr. Sowinski, who coordinates the research teams.
"The experimental run is like a Ouija board, with many hands on the
Ouija," Dr. Sowinski said. He and William Christie, a Brookhaven
staff scientist and operations coordinator for the STAR detector, say
that working in a lab where six Nobel Prizes have been won and the origin
of mass and matter is pondered does not always translate to real-world
situations, like tutoring their daughters, both of whom are struggling
with high school physics.
"When I try to help my daughter, she complains, 'But the teacher doesn't
do it that way,'" Dr. Christie said.
Dr. Sowinski laughed and said, "My daughter says: 'Oh forget it.
I'll just ask one of my friends.'"
E-mail: theislandnytimes.com.
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
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6. Tenure track position at Tennessee State University in Nashville
From: Geoffrey Burks (burkscoe.tsuniv.edu)
We are searching for an astronomer at Tennessee State University in Nashville.
We are searching for a tenure track/tenured astronomer for our physics
program, preferably for someone qualified to teach BOTH Physics and
Astronomy.
TSU is a Historically Black University and 2/3 of our students are women.
We hope to increase the diversity level of our Astronomy faculty. Applications
from minorities and/or women are thus desirable. With our student body you
can make history by increasing the minority representation in astronomy.
Our present complement is one Astronomy person in the department and 3 full
time astronomy researchers at the Center of Excellence for Information
Systems. The Nashville area contains a lively community of astronomers at
several of its colleges and universities.
TSU has a large collection of automated photometric telescopes and a
2-meter telescope with an echelle spectrograph. More information on these
instruments is available at http://schwab.tsuniv.edu/ . We especially want
to encourage undergraduate research and hope to find someone who can make
use of these facilities in the context of undergraduate teaching. Make
history, come to TSU!
The position is listed at www.tnstate.edu under employment opportunities.
It is position number 006380 in the Department of Physics and Math.
Applications must be submitted online by May 30.
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