Issue of May 24, 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. Seeking CSWA Members
2. AMP-UP Mentorship Program
3. The Empowering Internet Safety Guide for Women
4. Advancing the agenda in gender equity
5. Demographics on Astronomey
6. Williamina Fleming
7. Mary Watson Whitney
8. Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation
9. Job Opportunities
10. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
11. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
12. 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. Crosspost: Seeking CSWA Members
From: Nicolle Zellner via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy, CSWA, is recruiting new members. Everyone is welcome to apply! The deadline for applications is July 1, 2024.
Read more at:
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2024/05/seeking-cswa-members.html
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2. AMP-UP Mentorship Program
From: ZJ Zhang [zzhan485_at_ucsc.edu]
The 2020 Decadal Survey underscores the vital role of astronomers in dismantling barriers to career advancement in astronomy. The Astronomy Mentorship Program for Upcoming Postdocs (AMP-UP) program is designed to engage current and former postdoctoral fellows from all fellowship programs in providing professional and academic support to senior graduate students and junior postdocs involved in astronomy-related research.
Read more at
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeV6R76UAX88qWD5i8NXPIDI_9efGgf0ZPEOYBO5NqL3TfX6Q/viewform
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3. The Empowering Internet Safety Guide for Women
From: Shelly Robinson [shelly_at_onlinesafetymasters.com]
By: Sara Levavi-Eilat
Have you ever been harassed in the street? Received a crass message on a dating app? Had a coworker make a comment about your appearance that just didn’t sit right?
You’re not alone.
According to a study by the Pew Research Center, the majority of victims of online harassment say their most recent experience took place on social media. Although men are also subject to online harassment – which includes name calling, derision, and physical threats – the study found that online, women are more than twice as likely as men to experience sexual harassment.
Read more about the tools to protect yourself at
Read more at:
https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/the-empowering-internet-safety-guide-for-women/
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4. Advancing the agenda in gender equity
From: Sethanne Howard [sethanneh_at_msn.edu]
By: The National Girls Collaborative Project
In May 2023, practitioners across the informal STEM landscape gathered in Washington, D.C., to challenge the ways we conventionally scale informal STEM programs and collaboratively brainstorm new paths forward that center equity. Now, a year later, we will share a set of emerging guidelines and a new tool that supports equitable approaches to scaling informal STEM programs. To learn more about the project and findings, visit the webpage.
Read more at:
https://ngcproject.org/events-announcements and
https://ngcproject.org/ScalingInformalSTEMPrograms
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5. Demographics on Astronomey
From: Sethanne Howard [sethanneh_at_msn.com]
By: Zippia staff
This web site covers overview, jobs, skills, education, demographics, and FAQs.
Zippia is a company that helps you find and pursue the job that’s right for your career. Other job sites display jobs, but they don’t care how those jobs fit into your longer term career goals. They believe that every job seeker should have access to a full set of career information to evaluate and choose a job.
The site has an interesting set of demographics and statistics on astronomy as of 2021.
Read more at:
https://www.zippia.com/astronomer-jobs/
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6. Williamina Fleming
From: Sethanne Howard [sethanneh_at_msn.com]
By: Scottish Women of Science
The National Lilbrary of Scotland maintains a list of scientists, including Williamina Fleming (she was Scottish). She was one of the computers in Pickering’s group at Harvard College Observatory around 1900. She was the first to find the Horsehead Nebula.
Read more at:
https://www.nls.uk/learning-zone/science-and-technology/women-scientists/williamina-fleming/
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7. Mary Watson Whitney
From: Sethanne Howard [sethanneh_at_msn.com]
By: Linda Hall Library
Mary Watson Whitney, an American astronomer, was born Sep. 11, 1847. Mary was very bright and well educated as a child, and she had the extreme good fortune to graduate from high school in 1863, when Matthew Vassar was in the process of founding VassarCollege for women in Poughkeepsie, New York. Were it not for Vassar, Mary would have had no prospect for higher education in the sciences, which was her main interest. Matthew Vassar was so interested in the sciences, and especially in astronomy, that he hadan Observatory constructed on campus even before any other buildings were erected, in the hopes of landing Maria Mitchell of Nantucket, the most famous woman astronomer of the time, as a professor of astronomy. He even underwrote the cost of an expensive lens, so that Henry Fitz of New York could construct a large 12-inch refractor, at that time the second largest telescope in the United States, second only to the Great Refractor at Harvard.
Read more at:
https://www.lindahall.org/about/news/scientist-of-the-day/mary-watson-whitney/
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8. Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation
From: Sethanne Howard [sethanneh_at_msn.com]
By: SPIE
SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation is the most prestigious event for developers of ground-based, airborne, and space-based telescopes, the supporting technologies, and the latest instrumentation. Taking place every two years, the 2024 conference will be held in Yokohama, Japan. No other draws the number of elite researchers, innovators, and companies, whose collective efforts push the frontiers of space and enable the building and maintaining of the important telescopes of the world. We need more women working in instrumentation. The event will be June 16 – 21, 2024. Register at the web site.
SPIE – The International Society for Optics and Photonics
Read more at:
https://spie.org/conferences-and-exhibitions/astronomical-telescopes-and-instrumentation
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9. 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
– Division Director, National Science Foundation
https://jobs.chronicle.com/job/37656588/division-director
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10. 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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11. 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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12. Access to Past Issues
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/search/label/AASWOMEN
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