Issue of December 20, 2024
eds: Jeremy Bailin, Nicolle Zellner, Sethanne Howard, and Hannah Jang-Condell
[We hope you all are taking care of yourselves and each other. –eds.]
This week’s issues:
1. CSWA Sessions & Events at AAS National Harbor 2025
2. Explore Employment Committee Resources and Workshops
3. Career Profile: From Science Research to Science Education
4. Neta Bahcall will deliver the Henry Norris Russell Lecture
5. Job Opportunities
6. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
7. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
8. Access to Past Issues
An online version of this newsletter will be available at http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/ at 3:00 PM ET every Friday.
1. CSWA Sessions & Events at AAS National Harbor 2025
From: Karly Pitman, CSWA Chair [kpitma1_at_gmail.com]
We look forward to seeing you at the 245th American Astronomical Society meeting, to be held January 12-16, 2025 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.
CSWA will be hosting and co-hosting several events early in the week. Please come by to meet your CSWA representatives, network, and support the advancement of women in our field.
Sun. Jan. 12:
AAS Grad School & REU Fair
Prince George’s Exhibit Hall E
5:30-7:00 p.m. ET
Come hear about CSWA’s strategic plan and current activities and how you can get involved with AAS at the CSWA table!
Mon. Jan. 13:
CSWA Hackathon – Take Action for Equity
Chesapeake 6
1:00-3:15 p.m. ET
The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy (CSWA) has recently authored several papers with recommendations by and for our community on ways to support gender equity and the success of women in astronomy. In this interactive, solutions-oriented session, attendees will choose from a menu of canonical and systemic problems facing women in our field (e.g., issues impacting employment pipeline and retention, compensation, two-body problem, workplace civility, barriers to power and leadership, etc.) and collaborate in real time to brainstorm practical and tactical solutions to address them. We all know what the problems are – what we need is dedicated time together to solve them. If you don’t have time to volunteer for a committee but want to effect change and take action, this is your opportunity.
Tue. Jan. 14:
1400 Degrees and AAS CSWA Networking Event at AAS245
(Offsite event at Rosa Mexicano, RSVP link below; 6:30-9:00 p.m. ET)
1400 Degrees is partnering with the American Astronomical Society’s Committee for the Status of Women in Astronomy for an evening networking and community-building event at the AAS245 meeting in National Harbor, Maryland, on January 14th, 2025. Connect over dinner and beverages with scientists from different institutions, career stages, and scientific sub-disciplines within physics and astronomy, in a casual and comfortable environment. Feel free to share this invitation with your (21+) women and gender minority colleagues attending the AAS conference. Space is limited, so make sure to RSVP quickly. We hope to see you there!
Link to Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1400-degrees-and-aas-cswa-at-aas-2025-tickets-1083319611119
Hosts: Karly Pitman/CSWA and Gabriele Betancourt-Martinez (Heising-Simons Foundation; 1400 Degrees: https://1400degrees.org/)
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2. Explore Employment Committee Resources and Workshops
From: Chelsea Sharon and Amit Vishwas via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
In the lead up to the AAS January meeting, the Committee on Employment invites you to explore some of the resources we provide to the AAS community, both at the meeting and throughout the year! We’re excited to bring you a wealth of online resources and upcoming events designed to support your career journey. Whether you’re seeking guidance on job searches, professional development, or networking opportunities, we have plenty to explore.
For those attending the Winter Meeting in National Harbor, the Employment Committee is putting on two workshops that you could benefit from:
“How To Give Great Presentations: A Scientist’s Guide to Effective Communication” on Saturday January 11th from 9am to 5pm. If you’re nervous about giving your first talk at an AAS meeting, this workshop would be particularly timely for you!
“Effective Project Management for Everyone: How to Get Things Done” on Sunday January 12th from 8am until noon. This workshop will cover many of the tools and best practices for project management that astronomers can adopt from our friends in industry! So if you are struggling to juggle multiple projects, are applying to faculty positions and want to have skills in place to manage your group, or are thinking about transitioning to industry and want to learn some useful skills for outside academia, this workshop is for you!
And don’t forget about the Beyond Academe career panel and roundtable discussion groups during the meeting on Tuesday the 14th at 2pm and 3:30pm, respectively!
Read more at
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2024/12/explore-employment-committee-resources.html
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3. Career Profile: From Science Research to Science Education
From: Nicolle Zellner via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy has compiled dozens of interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers, planetary scientists, etc. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths.
Below is our interview with Mallory Conlon, the Outreach Astronomer at Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. She earned her M.S. in astronomy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has been engaged in science education and outreach for most of her career. She describes her current position as a collaboration of science education, astronomy, public outreach, and event management
Read more at
https://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2024/12/career-profile-from-science-research-to.html
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4. Neta Bahcall will deliver the Henry Norris Russell Lecture
From: Neta Bahcall [neta_at_astro.princeton.edu]
Neta Bahcall (Princeton) will deliver the Henry Norris Russell Lecture at the 245th AAS meeting in DC, on Wednesday, January 14th, 11:30am: “The Cosmic Triangle: Probing the Dark Side of the Universe”.
Abstract:
I will briefly review the unveiling of the dark-side of the Universe — from NO dark-matter or dark-energy sixty years ago, to the ‘Standard Cold Dark Matter’ (SCDM) with Omega_m = 1 in the 1980s, to the discovery of the ‘Light-Weight Universe’ in the 1990, and our currently improving measurements of the LCDM cosmology. I further discuss our new results on the distribution of dark-matter in the Universe, showing that while the observed mass distribution is considerably more extended than light on galactic scales – representing the large dark-matter halos around galaxies = this trend changes dramatically on scales larger than a few hundred Kpc, where mass, light, and stars trace each other remarkably well, indicating the ‘end’ of the dark-matter distribution. In contrast with previous expectations, our results suggest that most of the dark-matter in the Universe may be located in large halos (~300 Kpc) of galaxies, with no significant increase in the relative amount of dark-matter on larger scales. Groups, clusters, and large scale structure appear to be made up mostly by the total mass of their individual galaxies, including their extended halos. We find that the stellar mass fraction is constant on these large scales, with stars comprising only ~1% of the total mass.
How can stars, which represent only ~1% of mass, follow the total mass so well? Where are the rest of the baryons? I will discuss the connection between baryons, stars, and mass on these scales, and the implications for cosmology, the mass-density of the Universe, and the cosmic baryon cycle.
Read more at
https://submissions.mirasmart.com/AAS245/Itinerary/EventDetail.aspx?evt=436
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5. Job Opportunities
For those interested in increasing excellence and diversity in their organizations, a list of resources and advice is here:
https://aas.org/comms/cswa/resources/Diversity#howtoincrease
– Directory of Astronomy, Maria Mitch Association
https://www.mariamitchell.org/job-opportunities
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6. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
To submit an item to the AASWOMEN newsletter, including replies to topics, send email to aaswomen_at_lists.aas.org .
All material will be posted unless you tell us otherwise, including your email address.
When submitting a job posting for inclusion in the newsletter, please include a one-line description and a link to the full job posting.
Please remember to replace “_at_” in the e-mail address above.
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7. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
Join AAS Women List through the online portal:
To Subscribe, go to https://aas.simplelists.com/aaswlist/subscribe/ and enter your name and email address, and click Subscribe. You will be sent an email with a link to click to confirm subscription.
To unsubscribe from AAS Women by email:
Go to https://aas.simplelists.com, in the “My account and unsubscriptions”, type your email address. You will receive an email with a link to access your account, from there you can click the unsubscribe link for this mailing list.
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8. Access to Past Issues
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/search/label/AASWOMEN
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