Lecturing position opportunity

A lecturing position is  available in RMIT university which our young  academic members may wish to apply.  From more info see link here

Extended Deadline - can you inspire the next generation of Women Physicists?

The deadline for applications to be the 2017 Women in Physics lecturer has been extended to the 14^th December.  

The AIP women in physics lecture program will be entering its 20^th year in 2017, showing the long-standing commitment of the AIP to inspiring future women physicists.  This year we’re seeking a lecturer from Australia (we seek international lecturers in alternate years), to undertake a national tour speaking to school kids and the public.  This year’s lecturer, Prof Catalina Cureanu, spoke to nearly 2000 school kids in her whirlwind three week tour!   

To apply, head to the AIP website.

Grants for Women's leadership development

See below for details of an opportunity from Women and Leadership Australia:

In 2016 Women & Leadership Australia is administering a national initiative to support the development of female leaders across the sciences.

The initiative is providing women in science with grants for leadership development. More specifically, grant applications are open for women at three levels. Please click on the preferred program link for details. The deadline for expressing your interest for this funding in your sector ends on December 15^th.

Senior management and executive level women leaders can apply for $8,000 part-scholarships to undertake the Advanced Leadership Program

Mid-level female managers and  leaders can apply for $4,000 part-scholarships to undertake the Executive Ready Program

Aspiring talent and emerging women managers can apply for $3,000 part-scholarships to undertake the Accelerated Leadership Performance Program.

Expressions of Interest
Register your interest by simply completing an Expression of Interest form.

Should you wish to discuss the initiative in more detail please contact Ian Johnson at the office of the National Industry Scholarship Program, Women and Leadership Australia on (03) 9270 9016 or via ijohnson@wla.edu.au. 

Connecting Women in STEMM - a great meeting by all accounts

Not all of us were able to make Women in STEMM Australia's inaugural meeting this month, luckily though, Samantha Hood and Sarah Lau have written a fantastic report of the symposium - do have a read!

Yassss! Physics teacher wisdom alert about science curriculum 🚨🚨🚨 #teamEQuS @WomenSciAUST #WiSA2016 pic.twitter.com/yAPhSyMhjI

— Samantha Hood (@PaleBlueSam) September 13, 2016

There are many problems the next generation faces, such as climate change, rapidly growing energy, water and food demands, and increasing demand for healthcare with ageing populations. To solve these problems we need all hands on deck - we should all do our best to work to ensure that everyone who wants to be working in STEMM* can become the problem solvers the future needs. Fundamentally, the lack of women working in STEMM fields is a failure to harness all of the available talent.

Recently in Melbourne, we attended the inaugural Connecting Women in STEMM Symposium, hosted at RMIT. The first meeting of its kind in Australia, the Symposium supported networking for women in STEMM - and sought to address the lack of women in leadership roles in these fields. The Symposium’s attendees included people from both industry and academia who are working towards gender equity.

We are currently a PhD students studying physics at the University of Queensland, working within the ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems (EQuS). EQuS sent 7 members of the Centre to attend the Symposium and we are delighted that EQuS is being refunded by the ARC - their commitment to diversity and professional development is invaluable in creating wonderful physicists that keep Australia competitive in quantum science.

One of the best things to come out of this Symposium was the emphasis on developing professional networks so that we can learn from one another to implement best-practices. Retention of women in STEMM is complicated, and often over simplified. It’s not just childcare, unconscious bias, or a lack of confidence that holds women back, but a combination of these factors and so many more. Improvements in gender equity in STEMM fields is slow going, and the slow pace can be frustrating. So when we can find working examples of successful policies and practices we should learn from them.

The focus of the Symposium’s first session was the the Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) program. SAGE seeks to address gender inequality on a University wide level, by setting realistic goals and requiring institutions to critically assess their commitment to improving equity. SAGE recognises institutions improving their gender diversity with awards - the original program in the UK (Athena Swan) saw medical bodies requiring a certain level of diversity as a funding requirement. On a School/Faculty level, it’s really hard to make changes to the workplace to accommodate more flexibility due to bureaucracy and limited funds. This is one reason why this program is so promising. It was even more encouraging to hear about how the pilot is being implemented and accepted around Australia - the awards are currently unrelated to funding outcomes so that the problem of underrepresentation of women can be acknowledged and addressed for the right reasons without becoming a box-ticking exercise.

Best practices in the workplace was the focus of the Symposium’s second session. Panelists included Associate Professor MarnieBlewitt from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) of Medical Research and Professor John Carroll from Monash’s Biomedical School, discussing family practices and unconscious bias training respectively. WEHI has introduced parenting rooms for their employees who might need to bring in a sick child to work, and plan to improve their maternal and paternal leave, as well as have on-site childcare**. Prof. Carroll discussed increasing awareness of unconscious bias in his School by hiring a team to survey the staff, many of whom agreed that as a result of the training, they were more aware of inequality in the workplace. On a smaller scale, implementing harassment policies and codes of conduct for workplace meetings was a suggestion from the crowd that can be easily implemented, and shows that the employer cares about equity and supports their staff.

Another great thing about the Symposium was getting to see all of the amazing work happening across Australia (and internationally) to encourage high school girls in STEMM. These include mentoring, and passionate and inspiring outreach programs such as RoboGals and TechGirls. While the solution to the lack of women in STEMM is unknown, a good starting place is addressing attitudes and improving engagement at an early age, which is exactly what these programs aim to do.

Lovely to meet the 5 physics students flown down from Qld @ARC_EQuS for #WiSA2016 pic.twitter.com/0TiyRMxvse

— Women in STEMM Aust (@WomenSciAUST) September 13, 2016

At the other end of the spectrum, we found it really helpful as young scientists to have role models to look up to who have managed to navigate the system. In particular, there was one session dedicated to sharing the career journeys of various women in science. ‘Inspiring’ was the word heard all around the room at the end of the session, not only because of their perseverance in the face of many obstacles, but also how they demonstrate the possibility and value of women in leadership in STEMM.

There’s never been a better time to be a woman working in physics. Raised awareness of the challenges unique to women in STEMM fields has inspired international efforts to ensure that women are reaching their career potential more than ever before. Meetings like this Symposium are a great way to accelerate progress in equality by sharing ideas, and I am looking forward to seeing many more sessions in the future!

Samantha Hood and Sarah Lau

*Science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine

** While the support of flexible work environments was wonderful for many, it’s important to remember that not everyone wants children. Emphasising the importance of role models and support for the LGBTIQ community would be a wonderful idea for future meetings.

Be curious! Introducing Prof Catalina Curceanu our 2016 Women in Physics Lecture

We’re getting very excited about the arrival of Prof Catalina Curceanu to deliver the 2016 Women in Physics lectures.  She’ll be kicking off the tour of the 8^th August in Tasmania and talking in each state and territory during her stay.  Check out when she is speaking in your state on the AIP events calendar.  

To get to know our 2016 lecturer a bit more, we’ve asked her a few questions about her life and work:

Q:What inspired you to become a physicist?

A: I was born in Transilvania (Romania), close to the Dracula’s castle. During holidays I visited my grandmother, who lived in the Medias town, in a house far from the city centre, rather isolated and without electricity. This was exciting for me as a child – we had light from gas-lamps, from the Moon and from… the stars! I was amazed by the stars and by the immensity of space since I was a little child and used to wonder how they work; why they are so bright? How far are they and “what’s life” over there? Physics is the perfect instrument to answers these questions and to discover the amazing Universe. This is what inspired me as a child and still does as a physicist. Of course, meanwhile I learned many things, I got fascinated also by other inspiring items, but the wonder of the night-sky is still genuine and the thrill the same as when I was 7!

Q: Who would you say your Physics hero is?

A: I do not have a hero, but I admire many physicists. Newton, Einstein and Feynman are on the top of the list, together with Nicola Cabibbo, Adam Riess and John Bell.

Heroes are those physicists who are facing extremely difficult conditions and even threats, in many countries, to do their work ad to contribute to the understanding of Nature, using science.

Q: What do you think has been the most exciting discovery of the last 10 years?

A: The detection of the gravitational waves emitted by collapsing black holes. This is the beginning of a new era: the gravitational waves astronomy and, since I was inspired by stars, I see it as a new opportunity to uncover the mysteries of the Universe. Why not, even to get an insight into the fascinating Black Holes. Moreover, the technology developed to measure these gravitational waves is amazing: LIGO measured stretches and squeezes of its arms by less than a thousandth the width of a proton! This is for me extremely exciting also because I am leading a team of scientists in the framework of the SIDDHARTA-2 collaboration aiming to study at the DAΦNE collider in Frascati processes involving the “strange” quark which might help understanding the inner structure (the heart) of neutron stars. Since binaries of neutron stars are emitting gravitational waves, it is expected they will be soon measured by gravitational antennae. So one can bridge the particle world with the gravity and learn more in both fields! The future will certainly be exciting.

Q: In your research you take on the 'big challenges' in physics - how do you approach such large and difficult questions?

A: Big challenges in physics should not scare us! I am working both in the field of particle and nuclear physics (see the question before and the research to understand the neutron stars) and in quantum mechanics – foundational issues, investigating fascinating physics items. In this last case I am leading a group of researchers crazy enough to try to discover “impossible atoms” (violating the Pauli Exclusion Principle) and modifications of the “standard quantum mechanics” (which has to do with the famous Schrodinger’s cat). In order to do this I proposed projects in various frameworks and won two important awards, one from the John Templeton Foundation and the other from the Foundational Question Institute, allowing to me and my team to pursue the research. Big challenges and questions are all around us – and even inside us, one only needs to carefully look and be curious. In the future I would love to be able to extend the items which I investigate to the “matter with life, matter with consciousness”.

Q: One question you ask in your lectures is 'Quo Vadis the Universe' - where do you think the Universe is going?

A: I do not know – that’s the reason for which I need the “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy”. Fantastic book! Being serious, the Universe is expanding, with an accelerated expansion, the reason of which being assigned to the “dark energy”. We need to understand what dark sectors (matter and energy) in the Universe are made of to be able to dare answering the question. This might happen in the coming 10 years! But we also need to better understand the intimate structure of space and time, which has also to do with the quantum gravity (if any).

Q: Based on your experiences do you have any advice for aspiring young scientists?

A: Be curious! Explore the world and don’t be ashamed or shy to ask questions – there are no stupid questions (while stupid answers might sometimes happen). Be yourself and never give up. When failures happen (and they do happen), learn the lesson and go on. Follow your dreams, only they can bring you far. And, of course, study!

I would like to close with a poetry written by Feynman (The Value of Science, 1955) :

There are the rushing waves

 mountains of molecules

 each stupidly minding its own business

 trillions apart

 yet forming white surf in unison

Ages on ages

 before any eyes could see

 year after year

 thunderously pounding the shore as now.

 For whom, for what?

 On a dead planet

 with no life to entertain.

Never at rest

 tortured by energy

 wasted prodigiously by the Sun

 poured into space.

 A mite makes the sea roar.

Deep in the sea

 all molecules repeat

 the patterns of one another

 till complex new ones are formed.

 They make others like themselves

 and a new dance starts.

 Growing in size and complexity

 living things

 masses of atoms

 DNA, protein

 dancing a pattern ever more intricate.

Out of the cradle

 onto dry land

 here it is

 standing:

 atoms with consciousness;

 matter with curiosity.

Stands at the sea,

 wonders at wondering: I

 a universe of atoms

 an atom in the Universe.

Opportunities and News June 2016

Volunteering Opportunity in Perth

On behalf of Evelyn Chuk, President of The Innovators' Tea Party:

We are looking for some engaging women working in Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) fields to volunteer at our event The Innovators’ Tea Party on Saturday September 3^rd in Perth. This free event aims to inspire high school aged girls to consider a career in STEM by allowing them to interact with a diverse range of mentors.

The event will be run like ‘speed-dating’ where mentors will have 5 minutes to engage with each student (or pair of students) before moving on to the next. Mentors are expected to talk about specific projects they have worked on, what they studied at university, challenges and successes they have faced in their industry and their career progression so far. The day will be split into four 1.5 hour sessions, and volunteering mentors can opt to attend for the morning, the afternoon or the whole day.

This is a wonderful one-off volunteering opportunity for any woman in STEM who is interested in giving back to the community. It is also a good way to network with others working in STEM industries and meet some of the young women who we will one day be working with! Coffee, tea and sweet snacks are provided throughout the day.

If you are interested in getting involved, please find out more at our website https://innovatorsteaparty.wordpress.com/volunteer/ 

News - SAGE symposium

Readers may be interested to know that on Friday 24th June Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) held a symposium at the National Maritime Museum in Sydney.  The speaker list was nothing short of stellar, and it is definitely worth catching up on proceedings via the #SAGEpilot hashtag.  

What's the 'Gold standard' for conference diversity approach

There's much debate currently on how to increase representation of minority groups at scientific conferences.  It's essential that the scientific community gets this right, as conferences are where many careers are made and by dis-advantaging one section of our community we are making it poorer.

So what's the best approach?  Is there a current gold standard that conferences can aspire to in order to maximise their representation of the diverse community that drives them?  This post is inspired by Jenny Martin's PLOS paper, and the hope has been to interpret it into actionable items for organisation committees.

Have a conference policy - A stated commitment by the conference organising committee to achieving representation of the whole community published before registrations open.  This should be disseminated and upheld by all involved in organising sessions and inviting speakers.

Have that policy underpinned by a code of conduct - Often now covered by the code of conduct of a sponsorship organisation, but good to have explicitly stated - what is the expectation on behavior within the conference, where can abuses of this be reported.

Collect and report the data - This is key to tracking and understanding issues in the community and to see if you are meeting your policy goals.  A continued commitment to this, supported by sponsor organisation, will enable long-term trends and improvements to be monitored.  Report gender statistics on Kat Holt's site gathering statistics for all Australian Conferences.  

Have a statement on accessibility - How accessible is your conference and venue to those with disabilities? Are there any special considerations that need to be made for a sector of your community?  Have you given them a contact to flag if they require additional assistance.

Provide childcare bursaries and funding for accessibility needs -  Budget for grants to increase participation from parents of young children and for any needs flagged by those requiring special assistance in attending the conference.

Provide networking session for minority groups - Where identified, provide networking session for those advocating for a particular minority representation.

Provide time in conference schedule for discussion of diversity issues - Diversity representation is a concern of all of the community and time in the main schedule should be made for discussion of these issues, update on progress and approach.  This may be in the form of a workshop session, or if appropriate through abstract submissions.

So would covering all these represent a 'gold standard' in a conference's approach to diversity and inclusion?  Or are their other things that could be included, please do add these to the comments below.  Are there any extra action items, for instance, that perhaps are only applicable to the physics community?