Women and Mars (media coverage)

At least three Women in Planetary Science bloggers attended the Women and Mars Conference last week in Washington, D.C.  I was invited to speak on the first panel, and it was a very interesting one.

Dr. Colleen Hartman, Assistant Associate Administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, moderated the panel, asking us questions about our own background as well as planetary science at large.  Linda Billings from George Washington University contributed statistics on recent Mars missions, noting the gender distribution in various areas.  Cassie Conley, NASA SMD’s Planetary Protection Officer, spoke about planetary protection and its importance for future Mars missions.  Tiffany Montague from Google showed Google’s contributions to providing access to space exploration achievements in innovative ways.  I spoke about the current situation for women in planetary science in particular, calling out several issues and providing some recent statistics that I’d be happy to share with you if there is interest.

Media coverage of the conference was overshadowed by NASA’s announcement of MSL’s launch readiness, but the Agency French Presse did put out an article that was picked up by newspapers and media outlets around the globe, including Cosmos Magazine, France 24, The Times of India, Daily Mail (UK), Hindustan Times, Sri Lanka Daily News, and Emirates 24/7.  Here’s a link to one appearance of the article, published on the web site for Cosmos Magazine.

Did you watch any of the conference in person or (now archived) on Livestream?  What intrigued you, or made you curious to learn more?

Susan Niebur wins NASA Public Service Award

After today’s panel on “Why have so many women become involved/interested in Mars exploration?” at the Women and Mars Conference, a surprise visit by Jim Green was announced to present an award. Today’s award recipient was our own Susan Niebur!

Susan was awarded the Public Service Award from the NASA Planetary Science Division. The text of Jim Green’s acknowledgement was as follows:

NASA’s Planetary Science Division on very special occaisions really recognizes key individuals for their outstanding role model, their ability to work with the community in many different ways, it’s not just all about science, it’s a lot of the other aspects that we want to recognize. We have our highest honor, it’s where we give back to the community, and that is our Public Service Award and I’m here today to recognize Doctor Susan Niebur. Susan, your exemplary leadership abilities have helped many women in the field, both planetary and astrophysics, and by helping them figure out ways to cope with the specific issues and concerns when blending family and career, you richly deserve this award. And it’s really important for us, and for you to know, that you have made a difference. So Susan, let me give you the Planetary Science Division’s Public Service Award.

There’s a fabulous quote on this, it’s from Ruth Benedict, and I’d like to read it. “I long to speak out the intense inspiration that comes to me from the lives of strong women. They have made of their lives a great adventure.” Susan, you are the strongest woman I know.

Congratulations to Susan!

Women and Mars: Conference

Have you heard?  Explore Mars is presenting the Women and Mars Conference on November 9-10, 2011 at the Jack Morton Auditorium at George Washington University.  This conference will bring together women and men from around the space community, as well as educators, industry representatives, and policy experts to discuss topics such as STEM education, policy, science missions, and human exploration.

Women and Mars Conference
November 9-10, 2011
Jack Morton Auditorium
George Washington University

Register today at – www.womenandmars.eventbrite.com

In addition, the conference organizers have arranged a tour of the Lockheed Martin Space Experience Center in Crystal City, VA on November 8 at 6pm.  This tour has a limited capacity.  If you are registered for the Women and Mars Conference and would like to attend this tour, please RSVP at info@exploremars.org.  For additional conference information, including our special hotel rate, please visit –http://www.exploremars.org/page/women-and-mars/practical-info/

Speakers will include –

• Rebecca Keiser (NASA, Associate Deputy Administrator for Policy Integration);
• Cady Coleman  (NASA, Astronaut) – invited;
• Virginia A. Barnes (United Space Alliance, President and CEO);
• Tiffany Montague (Google, Space Projects);
• Simonetta Di Pippo  (European Space Agency; President and Co-founder of Women in Aerospace Europe);
• Mary Voytek (NASA, Director, Astrobiology Program);
• Penelope Boston (Director, Cave and Karst Studies Program; Prof. Earth and Environmental Sciences Dept. New Mexico);
• Darlene Cavalier (Discover Magazine; Science for Citizens, Science Cheerleader); and
• Susan Niebur (Mission Consultant, Niebur Consulting; Founder, Women in Planetary Science).

I’ll be speaking on the first panel, with Rebecca Keiser, Linda Billings, Tiffany Montague, and Dr. Colleen Hartman.  If you’re in the area, I encourage you to come.  If not, drop us a comment here with specifics that YOU would like to see addressed — as always, I’ll be happy to take your concerns and help you try to make a difference to improve the scientific climate for women and men in planetary science.

In Memoriam: Angioletta Coradini

The planetary science community has lost several senior scientists recently, including Angioletta Coradini, who passed away in early September.  Angioletta worked on the Dawn mission, and I was fortunate to share several meals with her during reviews, during which she always made me laugh — and she always made me think.  Angioletta is missed, I am sure, by so many.

The following announcement was posted in the Planetary Exploration Newsletter.

ANGIOLETTA CORADINI, 1946-2011

Angioletta Coradini, one of the world-recognized leading experts in
Planetary Sciences, with varied interests ranging from minor bodies to
outer planets, and theory on the formation of our Solar system passed
away on September 4, 2011. She started her scientific career in 1969
with her PhD thesis at the Rome University “La Sapienza” on the origin
of glassy particles found in lunar soils.  During the eighties she
collaborated  with the JPL Team who developed the TIMS (Thermal
Infrared Mass Spectroscope), gaining experience that allowed her to
lead the Italian team for the Cassini VIMS Spectrometer visual channel.
She gained further experience in the management of space experiments,
starting with the PI-ship of VIRTIS on Rosetta, and continuing with
other experiments including VIR on DAWN, now in orbit around Vesta,
JIRAM on the Juno mission en route to Jupiter, the infrared
spectrometers on Venus Express, Bepi Colombo, and many other projects.
In recognition of her significant contributions to the planetary
sciences she received many honors and awards. Angioletta will be deeply
missed and remembered by her family, colleagues and friends.

There is also a lovely online memorial posted at the European Geosciences Union web site.

Meteor Crater Field Camp

I had the opportunity the last week of September to participate in the Meteor Crater Field Camp in Arizona.  This camp was put on by the Lunar Planetary Institute and NASA’s Lunar Science Institute  to help train planetary science graduate students.  For a week we hiked around the crater learning about impacts and investigating the geology we found. And it was wonderful to see that 11 of the 16 students there were gals!

Meteor Crater is a fairly young crater, believed to have formed around 50 thousand years ago.  The public normally can only walk a little ways from the museum, but we were able to hike all around the crater including down to the bottom and back.  It was a nice treat to hike along the “Astronaut Trail” where the astronauts trained for moon missions.  After learning about the known geology of the crater, we conducted research outside the crater rim.  We calculated the probable travel times for large ejected boulders and studied layers within a quarry to investigate the formation mechanism.

Now, I’m not a field geologist by any stretch and instead spend most of my research time in front of a computer performing modeling.  However, I found this field experience to be invaluable.  There is just no substitute for getting out and seeing the effects of planetary processes first-hand.  With remote sensing data we often don’t have the resolution or capability to view certain features on the surface and subsurface. This leaves us to use our knowledge of how physical processes occur on Earth and to apply models to attempt at filling in the gaps.

Have you had the opportunity to take a field course or participate in a terrestrial analogue study?  Do you think field courses are valuable for planetary scientists? How have your experience(s) contributed to your research?  What would you say are the most important skills/experiences gained when participating in a field course?

EPSC/DPS Women in Astronomy/Planetary Science Discussion Hour – Register by Wed. 9-28 for a lunch

If you are attending EPSC/DPS next week, please consider joining us for an informal meeting and discussion hour over lunch on Tuesday. We will have a focus on Work-Life Satisfaction with a brief presentation. Please feel free to bring any information/announcements related to women in astronomy and planetary science to share.

All are welcome, but pre-registration at http://bit.ly/WL_2011 is required for this event due to space limitations.

Lunches are available for purchase for 17€, payable with cash upon arrival. Lunches must be requested by Wednesday, Sept. 28th. You are welcome to register without a lunch request after that date.

Event Details:

Date: Tuesday, Oct. 4th

Time: 12:00-13:30 (we will begin the formal program at ~12:15)

Where: Mars Room

Do you love what you do?

Do you love what you do? I’m assuming you love space science, or you wouldn’t be sitting there at your desk reading this, or catching a moment to look at it on your ipad over break or lunch.  But do you love what you *do* everyday?

It’s an interesting question, one that was brought to mind by the words of the gentleman scientists over at The Finch and the Pea.  Mike  speaks of graduate students running repetitive experiments or tending cell cultures, and he makes the point that there are several ways to do science – precision data taking being only one of them.  In our field, the opportunities are even larger, with our day jobs consisting of everything from spectroscopy on nm size interstellar dust to field work to driving a rover on Mars or planning the next mission to just about any target in the Solar System.

Planetary Science is a wide-ranging field, with many different ways to contribute.

What do you find yourself doing most, and is that the part of your work that you most enjoy?

It starts early….

Why are sites like Women in Planetary Science and women-only scholarships still necessary?  Because society’s messages STILL tell girls that it’s not necessary to do well in school, that they’re not smart enough to do science, and that they’re “too pretty to do homework.”  Seriously — that’s exactly what the t-shirt below, on sale yesterday at J.C. Penney, says:

I’m too pretty to do homework, so my brother has to do it for me.

What does that tell our elementary-aged girls and middle schoolers, say, girls’ size 7-16?

Is that a message of equal opportunity?  Of encouraging girls just as much as boys?  Of saying that it’s cool to be smart and study?

Or does it instead tell them, just one time of many possible times over childhood and adolescence, that science is just for the boys and, ahem, not-as-pretty girls?

The message on that t-shirt is disgusting– and wrong.

Girls, you can be pretty AND smart.  You can.  And when you get your Ph.D. and go to work studying the solar system and wonders beyond, email me.  I’ll add you to our Pinterest board featuring over 350 women in planetary science.

Image from J.C. Penny’s website.  Read how the t-shirt was pulled from the store at Care2.com.

Eugene M. Shoemaker Impact Cratering Award – for students

The following announcement was sent over the Lunar and Planetary Institute’s mailing list for planetary scientists.  Students, if you aren’t on this list, check out their meeting portal — there should be a place to sign up there.

Applications for the GSA Planetary Science Division’s Eugene M. Shoemaker Impact Cratering Award are due September 9, 2011.

The Eugene M. Shoemaker Impact Cratering Award is for undergraduate or graduate students, of any nationality, working in any country, in the disciplines of geology, geophysics, geochemistry, astronomy, or biology. The award, which will include $2500, is to be applied for the study of impact craters, either on Earth or on the other solid bodies in the solar system. Areas of study may include but shall not necessarily be limited to impact cratering processes; the bodies (asteroidal or cometary) that make the impacts; or the geological, chemical, or biological results of impact cratering. Details about the award as well as an application form for interested students can be found at

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/science/kring/Awards/Shoemaker_Award/index.html

David A. Kring, Ph.D.
Email:  kring@lpi.usra.edu

Welcome, Astronomical Society of the Pacific!

On Monday, I presented a poster on the resources and opportunities available here at Women in Planetary Science to the annual meeting of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.  Unfortunately, I was too ill to stay and talk to people about the poster (I was in the hospital last week, when they found a significant recurrence of cancer in my spine, neck, ribs, and hips, and I’m now undergoing chemotherapy again), but I invited all to visit us here at WomeninPlanetaryScience.com.

To learn more, please visit any or all of the following internal links:

• 51 Women in Planetary Science (original interviews);
• 351 Women in Planetary Science (gallery and links);
• Graduate Student run section with open commenting;
• Undergraduate Student run section;
• Studies on women in space science;
• Twitter presence and @WomenPlanetSci stream; and
• Archives, sorted by category and labeled “hot topics” to the right.

We also have a Facebook page.

Thank you for visiting – please feel free to leave a comment or ask a question in the section below!

Why didn’t they cover this in school?

College and graduate school can teach you a lot about planetary science, but often the curriculum is thin when it comes to HOW to be a successful scientist. This is where mentoring — from advisers, other professors, peers, blogs, etc. — can make or break current and future Women in Planetary Science.

I had good undergraduate and graduate research experiences, but my advisers and professors weren’t big on “professional” mentoring. They showed me how to use different instruments, provided feedback as I interpreted the data, and constructive criticism when I presented the results, but I didn’t get much instruction in how to write a successful proposal or advice on managing difficult colleagues.  I’ve gotten some advice from colleagues during my postdoc and at my current institution, but my education is far from complete. So here is a question for you:

What is the best professional advice you have received that you can pass on to other Women in Planetary Science?  

My best nugget of advice I’ve received so far came from a more-senior colleague: When managing students (or others), set clear expectations early. We currently have >10 undergraduate and graduate students working on > 5 different funded projects in our lab. It’s great to have so much activity going on and I love working with students, but it takes a lot of time and other resources to keep the whole operation working successfully. I’ve spent the last four years trying to figure out what I’m supposed to be doing as an adviser and project PI, and I feel like I still have a lot to learn. My main collaborator (and spouse) and I recently spent some time discussing our expectations and making a list, then sharing them with everyone in a group meeting and a follow-up email. This has had a positive impact on the group dynamics and productivity and I wish we had done it much earlier.  A few examples of expectations from our list:

• Conduct yourselves professionally with utmost concern for safety of yourselves and others.
• Work as a team to overcome challenges.  Take time to provide help when others need your expertise and experience.
• Keep in mind the adage, “an hour in the library can save you a week/year in the lab”. Be self-motivated to consult the primary literature.
• Write up your results to communicate your work to your labmates, scientific colleagues, and the public. If we don’t communicate our results, we aren’t doing our job as researchers.
• Approach every task with a mindset of doing the best you can do.  It would be better not to do something at all than to do it carelessly.
• Think of yourself as a researcher, not an employee.  Take ownership of and pride in your work.

What advice can you share?

P-interesting!

The next time someone says to you, “Oh, but there just aren’t that many women in planetary science,” I suggest you show them this gallery of nearly 350 Ph.D. women in planetary science.  Then what will they say?

P.S. Who’s missing?  Please let us know in a comment or email to susanniebur a t nieburconsulting.com – thanks!