What would you do?

Conferences in particular present challenges in communication, as everyone tries to maximize their interactions with colleagues from around the country and around the world.

But what do you do when you’re deep into a conversation with a colleague and someone new walks up?

Do you stop and talk to her?  Or ask to meet up later?  Does it matter if the first colleague is quite a bit senior to you?  Or if the interrupter is?

Leave a comment, or check out the conversation taking place this week at Female Science Professor’s blog … I think you’ll find it interesting.

Suborbital flights?

Are you one of those scientists who got their start in suborbital or balloon flights, and feel that this component is currently lacking for planetary science?  Are you looking for a way to flight test a new instrument?  Do you have other ideas about mission-enabling activities for future mission proposals?

If so, you’ll want to check out the news from the latest Letter from SARA (Max Bernstein), Service and Advice for Research and Analysis at NASA Headquarters Science Mission Directorate:

4) The National Academies committee is currently engaged in a study of ‘The Role and Scope of Mission-Enabling Activities in NASA’s Space and Earth Science Missions’ in which they include ‘… much of NASA’s research and analysis (R&A) programs…theory, modeling, and data analysis; sub-orbital flights and complementary ground-based programs…’ so of course SARA is interested and has provided data. You are encouraged to offer input to this group. Information about the participants can be found on the national academies web page for this committee.

Check it out … and provide your input if this is a burning issue for you!

She is an astronomer

http://www.sheisanastronomer.org

Check out the fabulous stories of strong and successful women on this web page, created for the International Year of Astronomy. Sera Markoff is a friend of mine and she gives some thoughtful advice in her profile regarding the two-body problem. All the women profiled are inspirational. And it looks like more will be added over the year.

Do you write proposals?

If you’re looking for experience as a member of a review panel (as many of us discussed at the recent LPSC), this week’s Planetary Exploration Newsletter has news for you!

[NASA] INVITATION TO BE A PROPOSAL REVIEWER FOR THE PLANETARY DIVISION

The Planetary Science Division encourages scientists, especially early
career researchers, to volunteer to be reviewers. To volunteer please
send a brief description of your areas expertise and/or names of ROSES
programs which you feel most qualified to review, and a short CV to:
SARA@nasa.gov .

Go for it!

Pay scale

How much do professors get paid?

If you’ve ever been curious, you might want to check out this new report from the AAUP.

Thanks to Science Blog for the tip, via twitter.

More news from DC

From this month’s AGI Government Affairs Review:

Women are a large proportion of the undergraduates in science and engineering, yet only 20 percent of the bachelor degrees awarded in those fields are given to women. Women make up only a small percentage of the science and engineering faculty at research universities, and receive less funding and resources than their male counterparts.

In order to fully utilize the innovative capacity of all our scientists and remain competitive Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) introduced the Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering Act (H.R. 1144) at the end of February. The legislation aims to overcome the gender bias in science and engineering by requiring workshops to educate federally funded researchers on ways to better conduct impartial evaluations of grants and to extend grant support for researchers with care giving responsibilities. The Office of Science and Technology Policy would develop the policy that would be carried out by major science and engineering programs within the federal agencies.

The full text of the bill is available from Thomas:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.1144

If you think this is a good idea, let your congresspeople know.

News from the Whitehouse

On March 11 the President signed an executive order creating a White House Council on Women and Girls.

In doing so, the new Administration has taken a major step in recognizing the responsibility that political leaders have to address the inequalities that women still face.  The new White House Council is similar to the White House Office for Women’s Initiatives and Outreach that was created by President Clinton and subsequently closed by President Bush.

Legislation to create a Presidential Commission on Women is also being considered by Congress. A Presidential Commission will be a vehicle for a national conversation among the best thinkers with diverse backgrounds to address problems faced by women in America today.  The Presidential Commission on Women will thus have a more external focus than the White house Council which will work from within the Administration to advance the policies and agenda of the sitting president.

WomenCount is the group behind creating the Presidential Commission, they are a political organization founded by women, operated by women, and dedicated to helping women make their voices heard in politics. If you are interested in getting involved, you can sign their petition to create a Presidential Commission on Women or join their Facebook group.

WPS-Teaching

The “teaching colleges” group at the networking breakfast had a rather productive discussion of some of the issues that face those of us who are at non-research universities/colleges. The mailing lists were created to help further our discussions beyond the hour at LPSC….

What we discussed:

• How can we best keep active in the planetary community (through research, service, etc.) while maintaining our teaching duties?
• What resources can we utilize (pre-made labs, for example) or strategies can we adopt to reduce some of the teaching workload?
• What difficulties might we face as proposers from universities/colleges that may have less resources available for researchers? How can we compete on an equal footing (more or less) with other proposers from more research-driven organizations?
• What preparation might grad students interesting in teaching careers find valuable?
• How can (should?) a job applicant tailor their application materials to have a better chance at landing the interview at a teaching university?

Please comment if there are topics I’ve missed – and if you are interesting in participating in our discussion, please join the mailing list! There are links in the sidebar to all the groups. (For those of you who suffer from email overload, you have the option to receive messages in a daily digest, or you can opt to only access the messages via the webpage – no need to receive individual emails if you would prefer to avoid another mailing list.)

Planetary Decadal Survey

The Planetary Decadal Survey committee is now forming – it is the guiding report that NASA uses to set priorities for the next
ten years of solar system exploration. Steven Squyres of Cornell University has been named chair; Larry Soderblom of the U.S.G.S. has been named vice chair. For this report to represent the community it must involve the community – including women!

This is a perfect opportunity for us to make sure that women are both nominated and selected to serve in a crucial community function. Who are the women in your field that you want to shape the future? You are all encouraged to nominate people for the Survey Committee and/or Panels. You can do so at:
http://www8.nationalacademies.org/survey/deps/ssb2011.htm

If you want to be nominated but don’t want to nominate yourself, let someone else know to nominate you – don’t be shy! However, keep in mind the Decadal Survey is a monumental task, and realistically, limited to people who have been in the field a while; early-career researchers probably don’t yet have the scope and breadth to sit on the committee itself.

Even so, the Decadal Survey process itself could really use a breath of fresh air. Early-career researchers probably have some innovative ideas about: How can community interactions and input be optimized? What can the survey committees do to facilitate input from the community? Written input is encouraged (and preferred) at the Decadal Survey website on-line at http://www.nas.edu/ssb.

More information about the Survey, including an overview by Steve
Squyres, can be found at the Space Studies Board website
(http://www7.nationalacademies.org/ssb/ssedecadal2011.html).

LPSC – Results

Over 120 women joined us for the 2nd annual Women’s Networking Breakfast at LPSC this year. We had a great time getting to know each other and tackling the hot issues. Several posts will be forthcoming with details, but right now I’d like to give YOU the opportunity to join the discussion, here or over one (or more) of the new email lists.

The main email list is generally used for announcements, but any member can post. Seven working groups were formed this week; the names of the groups are listed below. All attendees at the breakfast have been sent an invitation to join the main list and the group that they joined for discussion (just click the link in the email) — but anyone in the field is welcome to join the lists.  Just choose a group below, and click to join!

• Women in Planetary Science (WPS)
• WPS – Mentoring
• WPS – Success Strategies
• WPS – The Hiring Gap
• WPS at Teaching Colleges
• WPS – Handling it all
• WPS – Daycare
• WPS – Health Issues
• WPS – Forming an Organization

Check back next week for more details on where the group is heading — we welcome posts from any or all participants; send your notes in and we’ll post them here.

On Being a Scientist

The National Academy of Sciences, in conjunction with the NAE and IOM, has released a new edition of a guide that may be very useful to you. Check out the press release below, and click the link to purchase or view the guide online.

March 27, 2009 — A new edition of On Being a Scientist: A Guide to Responsible Conduct in Research offers researchers — particularly early-career scientists and their mentors — guidance on how to conduct research responsibly and avoid misconduct such as fabrication and plagiarism. The guide, issued by the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine, includes new case studies and has been updated to reflect the emergence of electronic publishing and globalization of research.

Please note — for those of you counting pennies, you can read the full report online at no cost.

LPSC 2009

It’s that time of year again. Scientists in our field are busily making powerpoint slides, printing posters, packing suitcases, and checking over their contact lists (Yes, my dears, this is very useful before a conference — who are you looking to make contacts with this year? Who do you want to catch up with?). The Lunar and Planetary Science Conference is just a few days away.

The Women in Planetary Science breakfast at LPSC this year will be Tuesday, March 24, from 7:30 to 8:30 am, Montgomery Ballroom A. All women, graduate student through emerita, are invited to attend, and we hope to see you there.

This year, we plan a more informal gathering, with a time to talk about advances in our departments or subfields, what steps we’ve decided to take to advance our work this year, and what good news we can share about the field overall. We’ll also have time to discuss issues that are brought up on the spot.

If you’re wondering what was discussed last year, here are some links:

• Networking Breakfast 2008
• Recruitment and Retention
• Flight Missions
• The Two-Body Problem
• Graduate Student Issues
• Babies at Conferences
• Grants, Balance, Networking, and LPSC 2009

And what has come of this? Well, several of the recommendations were implemented.

• An email list was created, at womeininplanetaryscience@yahoogroups.com;
• A web site was created, at http://womeninplanetaryscience.com;
• Five contributors, and four guest posters, wrote 81 articles for the website about a wide range of career issues and events relevant to women in planetary science;
• A survey was taken of potential LPSC attendees about the need for LPI to provide a nursing/pumping room;
• Survey results were communicated to LPI — and they will provide a mothers/nursing/pumping room this year!; and
• Web pages were set up to encourage women to write proposals, to publicize women speakers lists maintained by other organizations, to highlight studies of our field, to promote networking opportunities, to connect undergraduate and graduate students, and to link to resources for moms balancing work and family.  (Each of these topics can be accessed by selecting a menu item at the top of this web site.)

What will happen this year? Come to the breakfast (or follow @womenplanetsci on twitter) and find out!

Have an extra half hour at the conference?  Volunteer to be interviewed for the Women in Planetary Science: Profiles project!  Your words could help inspire future scientists.