L'Oreal-UNESCO USA Fellowships Awarded

The five postdoctoral researchers who were awarded 2009 L'Oreal USA Fellowships for Women in Science were honored at a special ceremony at the American Museum of Natural History on Thursday. Each of the winners will receive a $60,000 grant for scientific research and career development. The awardees:

Dr. Beena Kalisky: Kalisky is a postdoc in the lab of Kathyrn A. Moler in the Department of Applied Stanford University. According to the press release, she is "developing a new system for detection and characterization of individual nanomagnets. The instrument designed will scan over a large number of particles and individually measure their magnetic properties. This will help in the gathering of pertinent information for the exploration of the nanomagnets' possible applications."

Dr. Aster Kammrath: Kammrath is a postdoc in the lab of Frank Keutsch in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. According to the press release her research focuses on "the pathways by which molecules emitted by human activity or natural sources are involved in climate change and pollution problems. This work aims to help set appropriate emissions controls to minimize the production of carbon dioxide, other greenhouse gases and aerosol, which could help reduce respiratory problems."

Kammrath has said that it was her mother who helped her discover science:

"She instilled in me a passion for solving problems and understanding the real-world application of the scientific method," she says.

Dr. Nozomi Nishimura: Nishimura is a postdoc in the lab of Chris B. Schaffer in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Cornell University. Her research involves "testing the role that blood vessel dysfunction plays in triggering Alzheimer's disease. This research will look at how clots or bleeds in the smallest blood vessels in the brain could seed the accumulation of A-beta proteins, an indication of plaque in the brain which often occurs in Alzheimer's patients."

Dr. Tiffany Santos: Santos is a postdoc in the Electronic & Magnetic Materials & Devices division of the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. Her research involves "a class of materials called transition metal oxides, with a wide array of properties, that have numerous potential applications. This research aims to uncover new materials, which could potentially help reduce power consumption and increase the energy efficiency of information technologies, such as data storage devices and memory chips."

Dr. Erika Sudderth: Sudderth is a postdoc in the lab of David Ackerly in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California at Berkeley (the press release says Brown University, so she may have recently moved). Her research is focused on understanding "the constraints, thresholds and limits of ecological responses to precipitation, which is arguably the most important controller of ecosystem processes. This research aims to understand the mechanisms driving ecosystem responses to climate change."

(I plan to update the post as the various institutions release additional information)

For more information about the awards, see:

• L'Oréal-USA For Women in Science Official Web Site (requires Flash)
• L'Oréal USA For Women in Science on Facebook

Tags: women in science, L'Oreal-UNESCO Fellowships

Jane Lubchenco to Head NOAA?

According to the Washington Post, the new head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will be Oregon State University Distinguished Professor of Zoology Jane Lubchenco.

Lubchenco is a marine biologist who specializes in the study marine ecosystems and how humans affect them. She has been actively involved in environmental policy issues, and has testified both at the state level and before congress about the creation of marine sanctuaries and climate change. She is also one of the founders and principals of COMPASS (Communication Partnership for Science and the Sea), which works to solve marine environmental problems by communicating scientific knowledge to policymakers, the public and the media. For those efforts she received the AAAS Public Understanding of Science and Technology Award.

Also of interest is a 1993 article she wrote about being one half of two-scientist couple for BioScience. The solution that she and her husband came to was to split a position: each of them held a half-time, tenure-track faculty position, which allowed both of them to teach, do research, and spend time with their young children. In the article she argued for creating more such positions to increase the number of women who pursue science careers:

The most difficult time in a faculty member's life is usually the time during which one is an assistant professor, struggling to teach courses that come up ton one's ideals, to challenge and educate students, to establish one's own research program, to obtain funding, to publish, and generally to prove oneself. If this period coincides with having young children (which for biological reasons is often the case for women), the time can be even more difficult. Even if highly ambitious, driven women and men mange ot juggle all of these demands, the messages they send to graduate students and undergraduates appear to frighten away many outstanding potential scientists. Moreover, if individuals wish to spend more time with their children than full-time positions allow, academia offers virgually no viable options.

She does acknowledge that not everyone would be interested in such a position, but that many women (and men) would, and that it should be made an option. Obviously it worked for her. She talks more about the difficulty she and her husband had in balancing their academic careers in a 2004 interview at the National Academy of Sciences.

I think it's exciting that the new head of the NOAA is a working scientist, a strong advocate for the environment, and someone who has been heavily involved in public policy issues, which I assume means she understands how the system "works". Definitely good news!

Related information:

• Jane Lubchenco "Advocates for Science: The Role of Academic Environmental Scientists" (video)
  
• Jane Lubchenco on Science Debate 2008 (vide0
• Jane Lubchenco: "Climate Change and its Implications for Oregon" (video)
• Mother Jones Radio: Jane Lubchenco
• National Academy of Science: InterViews
• AAAS Award for Public Understanding of Science & Technology
• Scripps Nierenberg Prize for promotion of science in the public interest
  

Tags: Jane Lubchenco, NOAA

Women Scientists in LIFE

Google has just added images from the LIFE photo archive - both published and unpublished - to its image search, and there are some great photos of women scientists.

Some of my favorites (click on the photo to see a larger version and related images):

"Biologist/author Rachel Carson sitting at microscope as she prepares to examine tissue on a petrie dish at her home." Taken September 24, 1962 by Alfred Eisenstaedt. Rachel Carson (1907-1964) was a marine biologist and writer, who is probably best known for her book Silent Spring, which revealed the detrimental effects of the widespread use of pesticides and weed killers on the environment.

"Mathematics senior Judith Gorenstein working at blackboard at MIT." Taken February 11, 1956 by Gjon Mili. Judith Gorenstein Ronat was the president of the math club when this photo was taken. She is currently a psychiatrist in Israel. You can read more about her in this Technology Review article about the 50th anniversary of the Life photo shoot.

"Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu, Professor of Physics at Columbia Univ". Taken in 1952 by Gjon Mili. Chien-Shiung Wu (1912-1997) emigrated from China to the US in 1936, received her doctorate from UC Berkeley in 1940 and contributed to the Manhattan Project by developing a process to produce bomb-grade uranium. She was the first woman instructor in the Princeton University physics department, and was a member of the Columbia physics faculty from 1944 to 1980. According to Wikipedia, her work contributed to the development of parity laws by Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen Ning Ynag, but she did not share their Nobel Prize, "a fact widely blamed on sexism by the selection committee."

"TIME INTERNATIONAL cover 01-19-2004 featuring Italian astronomer Sandra Savaglio re migration of Europe's top intelligencia to the US" Astrophysicist Sandra Savaglio is currently on the faculty of the Physics & Astronomy Department of Johns Hopkins University.

"Chemist Marie Curie (1867-1934) in her laboratory." Taken in 1911. I don't think Marie Curie needs an introduction. This photo was presumably taken at the time she won her second Nobel Prize, "in recognition of her services to the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element."

"Scientist, Marie P. Fish, discussing sound producing sea creatures at annual meeting of A.A.A.S., at University of California." Taken in December 1954 by Nat Farbman. Marie Poland Fish (1901-1989) was an oceanographer and marine biologist who studied underwater sound detection. Her research helped the US Navy devise methods for distingushing the sonar signals from schools of fish from the signals generated by submarines. Read her obituary in the NY Times.

"Scientist looking over ampules of vaccine at the Pasteur Institute." Taken in 1938. The woman in this photo isn't identified. 1938 marked the 50th anniversary of the Institut Pasteur in Paris.

Tags: women in science, Life Magazine, portraits

Blog Roll Update

More women blogging about science and engineering:

Engineering

(Female) Assistant Engineering Professor says:

I'm an assistant Engineering Professor starting down the tenure track road this year (2008). And I'm female. As my life is becoming exponentially hectic, I thought that my experiences might be helpful to others, and other's advice might be helpful to me.

Angineer is written by Angie in Colorado:

A female professional engineer who defines herself by the groups and activities she joins--I am a leader in the Society of Women Engineers, adult Girl Scout volunteer, and proud sorority alumna and adviser.

Physical Sciences

The Musings of a Life Long Scholar: A new blog by geologist Life Long Scholar, which is about "musing about her love of learning and the joys of life in the sciences."

One Astronomer's Noise is the blog of Nicole, "Astronomy grad student, skeptic, atheist, libertarian, and belly dancer."

Life Sciences

The Minority Scientist blog has two goals:

*Share useful information to assist minorities, including women and underrepresented peoples, in science navigate a career in scientific research.
* Explore the world of science through the eyes of a single parent pursuing a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences.

A Neotropical Savanna is the blog of Mary Farmer:

The posts in this blog are my own experience working through the learning of plants in the area where I now live. Even though this area happens to be in Panama, the principles I use for learning these plants apply to the learning of all plants. Most interesting may be the mistakes I make! And I make plenty, believe me.

Farmer also runs the web site Learn Plants Now!

Microbiologist XX says she is "finishing my PhD in microbiolgy. This consumes most of my time. I also enjoy listening to music, reading, laughing at my cats and shopping for shoes."

S. of More Than a Permanent Student is in grad school studying ecology.

Tags: women in science, women in engineering, blogs

Peer Review and Gender Bias Revisited

Back in January I wrote about a study by Budden and colleagues that compared the authorship of papers in the journal Behavioral Ecology in 1997-2001 when single-blind peer review was used, to 2001-2005 when double-blind peer review was used. They found that there was an increase in the number of female first authors in the later period, suggesting that double-blind peer review reduced gender bias. That hypothesis was supported by examining "other journals with similar impact factors", which showed no change in the number of female first authors over the same period.

Now there has been a new analysis of publication data (Webb et al. 2008) that shows a "general increase in the proportion of female-authored papers across six ecology and evolution journals between 1997 and 2000 and 2002 and 2005." Many (all?) of those journals use single-blind peer review, which means the increase in female authorship seen in Behavioral Ecology was likely due to other factors.

Based on the new analysis and a review of the related literature, Nature has withdrawn part of an editorial about the use of double-blind peer review :

After re-examining the analyses, Nature has concluded that ref. ¹ can no longer be said to offer compelling evidence of a role for gender bias in single-blind peer review. In addition, upon closer examination of the papers listed in PubMed on gender bias and peer review, we cannot find other strong studies that support this claim. Thus, we no longer stand by the statement in the fourth paragraph of the Editorial, that double-blind peer review reduces bias against authors with female first names.

Budden and colleagues have also published a response to the new analysis, which suggests that at least part of the difference in results is the way in which the data was analyzed - whether authors using initials instead of full first names were included in the total authorship, for example*. Even so, it appears that even if double blind review does increase the acceptance of publications authored by women, the effect is not as great as the original paper suggested.

There is more discussion of the original editorial and the possible advantages of double-blind peer review on the Nature Peer-to-Peer blog.

* I don't have access to the full text of Webb et al. or Budden et al.'s response, so I may have incorrectly characterized their position. If you've read the full version, please don't hesitate to correct me.

References:

Budden et al. Double-blind review favours increased representation of female authors. Trends Ecol. Evol. 23(1):4-6 doi:10.1016/j.tree.2007.07.008 (2008)

Webb, T. J. , O'Hara, B. & Freckleton, R. P. Does double-blind review benefit female authors? Trends Ecol. Evol., in press. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2008.03.003 (2008).

With a response from the authors of the original paper:
Budden, A.E., Lortie, C.J., Tregenza, T., Aarssen, L., Koricheva, J., Leimu, R. (2008) Response to Webb et al.: Double-blind review: accept with minor revisions. Trends Ecol. Evol., in press. DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2008.04.001

Tags: gender gap, peer review

Additions to the Blogroll

Here are some recent additions to the blogroll in the sidebar. The "highlight post" is one that I found interesting; YMMV as they say on the internets.

As always, if you think your blog is listed in the wrong category or you would rather not be listed in the blogroll, please drop me an email and I'll change it. I'd also appreciate any suggestions for blogs to be added, particularly in the physical sciences and engineering, since my own science blog reading leans more heavily towards biology.

Physical Sciences

Twinkle twinkle YSO: Hannah is a PhD astronomer who blogs about astronomy and women in science.
Highlight post: Impressing Impressionable Girl Scouts

AstroPixie: Amanda Bauer is an astronomer in the middle (end?) of writing her dissertation. She writes about "things and stuff, astronomy and life"
Highlight post: 50 Years of Space Science

i postdoc, therefore i am: Schlupp is "Yet another postdoc in the physical sciences, in condensed matter theory. Originally from My Country / Europe, with a PhD from MyCountry Provincial Tech, I did a two-year postdoc in Germany and have just started another one in the US."
Highlight post: On the Existance of Deadwood

Rising to the Occasion: saxifraga is "a Postdoc in earth science at a research institute in Scandinavia and teach at University above the Arctic Circle. I am also a wife, a daughter, a sister and hopefully still a friend to some awesome people I spend way too little time with. The blog is an outlet for my personal thoughts and a way to engage in discussion with others about academic life and work. I appreciate my readers and your opinions."
Highlight post: When there's more than one side to the story

Life Sciences

Mind the Gap: Jennifer Rohn is "a post-doctoral cell biologist at University College London, having returned last year to science after a four-year sabbatical as a journal editor. In my spare time, I am also a freelance science writer, editor and journalist; novelist; biotechnology consultant and the founder and editor of LabLit.com magazine"
Highlight post: In which I marvel at bureaucratic insanity

rENNISance woman: Cath Ennis of VWXY Not? has a second blog on the Nature Network that is more directly focused on science. Her description: "I blog about current genetics, genomics, virology and evolution research. I'll also include posts about grant writing and any other ideas that take my fancy."
Highlight post: Leaving labs and losing labmates

Missives From the Frontal Lobe: KL Dickson is currently studying neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her blog is about "neuroscience, atheism, philosophy, neurotheology, transhumanism, and lots of things."
Highlight post: On transhumanism

Everything and more: Makita is "a full-time graduate student, carpenter, cleaning lady, gardener, electrician, and probably a few other things that are required to keep my household running." Her blog is about her "adventures in life, and an outlet for my thoughts."
Highlight post: Oral exam .... again (congrats on passing!)

Blue Lab Coats: This blog is written by a "female w/kids balancing academic science & home". "I am a veterinarian and biologist, and I have a tenure track junior faculty position. I come to work every day because there are certain biological questions that I find fascinating and I can’t stop thinking about. I hope that what I do in my job (and in my life) makes a difference for others."
Highlight posts: Unsolicited Advice: Job Search Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Dr. Jekyll and Mrs. Hyde: "I'm a postdoc in the biological sciences. I can't decide if I work too much or not enough. I'm married to Dr. Hyde, a fabulous scientist himself, and we're trying, despite some obstacles, to fulfill our Darwinian mandate by having a child or two. The title and pseudonym? One name at work, another at home."
Highlight post: What's in my name

Candidate Models: Stepwise Girl writes about "-my adventures as a young academic - I guess I'm something along the lines of a tenure-track professor although that's not what I'm called here where I am; -as a subset of that, partly, how being a woman is inflecting the trajectory; -I guess there might be some questions related to the environment"
Highlight post: Déjà vu

Science Sisters: This blog is written by Jena & Mary, who are "both pre-pharmacy students, sisters, best friends." The tone is breezy and I'll admit that I'm not particularly keen on being addressed by "Hey Girls" at the beginning of every post, but that's probably because their target audience is 20 years (or more) my junior. You can't beat their enthusiasm.
Highlight post: Lost In Space

Guadalupe Storm-Petrel: barn owl is a "cancer and developmental neurobiology researcher, medical educator, and frustrated natural historian; long-limbed, long digits, Northern European peasant and barbarian stock, lots of wild hair and prone to intellectual wild hares. Interests wander incessantly. Strong Luddite tendencies. Congenitally incapable of silence and acceptance in the face of social or environmental injustice." Her blog is mostly hard biology, rather than commentary.
Highlight post: Don't You Step on My Blue Sulid Shoes

The Grad Life: A Southern Girl's Affair in Boston: Southern Grad Girl is "a life-long Southern girl who left the South for grad school in the life sciences in Boston. I have a wonderful non-scientist husband who happily (well, sort of happily) followed me across the country. I'm a second-year student, still in the honeymoon stage."
Highlight post: No news is not good news

Still Evolving: Farne is "in my mid-40's in a same-sex relationship, with 2 grown kids, lots of Italian Greyhounds and an interesting job in training with the development side of a pharmaceutical company. And an ex-husband who complicates my life..."
Highlight post: A question for 2008: Where have all the older women gone?

Dirt and Rocks: Brigindo is "a behavioral scientist fascinated by life's daily minutiae. if
it's seemingly inconsequential and repetitive, our girl's on it."
Highlight post: On the Fragility of Students

Mathematics and Computer Science

Keet Blog: Maria Keet is "an Assistant Professor (Ricercatore a Tempo Determinato) at the KRDB Research Centre for Knowledge and Data, Faculty of Computer Science, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy." She often writes about ontology, bioinfomatics, and science in general.
Highlight post: From the marketing department - or: blogging by science journalists vs. scientists who are blogging?

Engineering

Journeys of an Academic: Academic is "a quirky engineer who actually wants to try making a difference in the world."
Highlight post: Emails that Make our Heart Pound

Candid Engineer in Academia: Candid Engineer is an "engineer-scientist trying to find my way as a postdoctoral researcher at Brilliant University. My new academic home is flush with cash- but the abundance of funding comes with a price: pompous and secretive colleagues. Tune in regularly as I offer my perspective on random academic topics and chronicle my experiences as a researcher at Brilliant U."
Highlight post: Flatter Me Silly

It's not really a new blog, but Alice Pawley, an assistant professor of engineering education at Purdue, has joined ScienceWoman at the newly renamed ScienceWomen blog (formerly "On Being a Scientist and a Woman").

Engineering Education: This new blog has two authors - Alice Pawley and Gina Navoa Svarovsky, who is "finishing up my PhD in Educational Psychology while also being a faculty member at a two-year masters program. My dissertation work focuses on engineering education in the K-12 arena, and in particular, engaging girls in meaningful and empowering engineering activity during their precollege years."

General

Thesis - With Children: AcmeGirl is a "PhD student at an Ivy League University. I'm a woman of color in one of those (white)male-dominated fields. I also have two children and am trying to have some kind of healthy relationship with my long suffering husband. Basically, I'm as close as a single point can come to being a complete data set." (Note: I've filed this under "general" since AcmeGirl doesn't specify if her ology is in the physical or biological sciences.)
Highlight post: Maintaining Decorum

Tags: blogs, women in science, women in engineering

L'Oreal-UNESCO Women in Science Fellowships

In addition to the Awards for Women in Science, L'Oreal-UNESCO awarded fifteen young women Fellowships for Women in Science. These are scientists to watch for in the future. The awardees are listed below. I've linked to additional information about the winners, if I could find any.

Africa:

• Yonelle Dea MOUKOUMBI (Gabon). Student. Agronomy: genetic diversity and development of new varieties of rice (Nerica) that grow in African lowlands. Host institution: Africa Rice Centre, Cotonou, Benin
• Maria Joao RODRIGUES (Mozambique). Marine biology: evaluation of the impact of diseases on coral communities of the Western Indian Ocean. Host institutions: ARC Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Australia; Institute of Marine Science, Zanzibar, Tanzania; Wildlife Conservation Society, Kenya
• Hanneline Adri SMIT (South Africa). Comparative phylogeography: exploration of historical factors which may have shaped current biodiversity in two neighboring regions of South Africa. Host institution: University of California, Berkeley, USA

Latin America - Caribbean

• Carolina TROCHINE (translated) (Argentina). Ecology: study of the effects of nitrogen and phosphorus on lake ecosystems in Argentina. Host institution: Natural Environmental Research Institute, University of Aarhus, Denmark
• Andrea VON GROLL (translated) (Brazil). Microbiology: identification of certain strains of Mycobactérium tuberculosis particularly virulent in a region of Brazil. Host institution: Prince Leopold Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium
• Lina Maria SAAVEDRA DIAZ (Colombia). Conservation ecology: management and conservation of local coastal fisheries in Colombia. Host institution: University of New Hampshire, Durham, USA

Asia - Pacific:

• Made Tri Ari Penia KRESNOWATI (Indonesia). Bioprocess technology: conception of a bioreactor prototype for the production of stem cells. Host institution: Department of Chemical Engineering, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
• Naranjargal DASHDORJ (Mongolia). Neuroscience: study by IRM of the interaction of different areas of the brain during the processing of emotional information in both healthy and depressed patients. Host institution: School of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom
• Susanna PHOBOO (Nepal). Ecophysiology: study of the ecology and physiology of Chiraito, a medicinal plant in Nepal. Host institution: Department of Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA

Arab States:

• Jamillah ZAMOON (Kuwait). Structural biology: characterization of a protein with healing properties that is produced by catfish. Host institution: Rosalind Franklin University, Chicago, USA
• Magda BOU DAGHER KHARRAT (Lebanon). Environmental sciences: evaluation of the ecological and genetic diversity of Lebanese flora. Host institution: University of Paris Sud XI, France
• Hakima AMJRES (Morocco). Microbiology: characterization of sugar-producing bacteria found in hot springs and areas of high salt concentration. Host institution: University of Agronomic Sciences, Gembloux, Belgium

Europe - North America:

• Federica MIGLIARDO (translated) (Italy). Biophysics: study of the bioprotective mechanisms developed by organisms in extreme conditions (pressure, salt, temperature, acidity). Host institution: Laboratory of dynamics and structure of molecular materials, University of Lille I, France
• Alma TOSTMANN (translated) (The Netherlands). Biomedical science: study of type 2 diabetes on the effectiveness of tuberculosis treatment in Tanzanian patients. Host institution: Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre, Moshi, Tanzania
• Maja ZAGMAJSTER (Slovenia). Conservation biology: analysis of the unique animal species found in the underground habitats of the Dinaric Alps in the Balkans. Host institutions: University of Florida, Gainesville, and American University, Washington, DC, USA

Tags: L'Oreal-UNESCO Fellowships For Women in Science

Interviews with Australian scientists

In 1993 the Australian Academy of Science started interviewing Australian scientists about "their early life, development of interest in science, mentors, research work, and other aspects of their careers." The resulting interviews are available (as transcripts) at Iinterviews with Australian scientists. Thirty-six women scientists are included, and their careers span most of the 20th century, from marine biologist Isobel Bennett (1909-2008) to biomedical scientist Sabine Piller (1970- ). The biological sciences are heavily represented, but there are also physicists, chemists, and geologists.

What I especially like about the interviews are the glimpses of growing up in Australia along with memories of studying science and working as a scientist. The interviews are ongoing, with Professor Dorothy Hill ("a career in geology and a trailblazer for women in science") scheduled to be added soon. The current list of interviews:

• Dr Yvonne Aitken (1911-2004), Agricultural scientist
• Dr Leanne Armand (1968- ), Micropalaeontologist
• Dr Isobel Bennett (1909-2008), Marine biologist
• Professor Marcela Bilek (1968- ), Physicist
• Dr Natashia Boland (1967- ), Operations researcher
• Dr Kristen Bremmell (1970- ), Chemical engineer
• Professor Julie Campbell (1946- ), Vascular biologist
• Dr Tracy Dawes-Gromadzki (1972- ), Ecologist
• Dr Liz Dennis (1943- ), Plant biologist
• Miss Margaret Dick (1918- ), Food microbiologist
• Professor Jenny Graves (1941- ), Geneticist
• Natasha Henrick (1972- ), Geophysicist
• Professor Mollie Holman (1930- ), Physiologist
• Dr Shirley Jeffrey (1930- ), Marine biologist
• Professor Priscilla Kincaid-Smith (1926- ), Nephrologist
• Dr Jean Laby (1915- ), Physicist
• Professor Elspeth McLachlan (1942- ), Physiologist
• Professor Helene Marsh (1945- ), Environmental scientist
• Professor Nancy Millis (1922- ), Microbiologist
• Professor Beryl Nashar (1923- ), Geologist
• Dr Moira O'Bryan (1966- ), Medical scientist
• Dr June Olley (1924- ), Fish technologist
• Dr Sabine Piller (1970- ), Medical research scientist
• Professor Cheryl Praeger (1948- ), Mathematician
• Professor Marilyn Renfree (1947- ), Physiologist
• Professor Pamela Rickard (1928-2002), Biochemist
• Professor Lesley Rogers (1943- ), Neurobiologist
• Professor Maria Skyllas-Kazacos (1951- ), Chemical engineer
• Professor Fiona Stanley (1946- ), Epidemiologist
• Dr Sally Stewart-Wade (1969- ), Plant pathologist
• Dr Liz Truswell (1941- ), Geologist
• Dr Gretna Weste (1917- ), Botanist
• Professor Ann Woolcock (1937-2001), Medical scientist
• Dr Patricia Woolley (1932- ), Zoologist
• Dr Jane Wright (1954- ), Entomologist
• Dr Jean Youatt (1925- ), Chemist
  

For biographical information, click the "Teachers Notes" link that accompanies each article.

Tags: women in science, Australia

Added to the Blogroll

Added to the Women in Science blogs list:

• Science and Medical Journalist Virginia Hughes
• PhD Candidate Jennifer Jacquet, who blogs at Shifting Baselines about the ocean and fisheries
• Anne-Marie, an undergrad in Zoology and Conservation Biology, who blogs at pondering pikaia
• Vanessa Woods, a researcher with the Hominoid Psychology Research Group, who blogs at Bonobo Handshake
  

Tags: women in science, blogs

Added to the Blogroll

Here are some of the blogs I've recently added to the blogroll:

• Karina who blogs about her experiences as an Aspiring Ecologist
• Sandra Kiume who blogs neuroscience videos at Channel N
• Rosie Redfield at UBC has two blogs, RRTeaching, about teaching the first year biology course, and RR Research, about the work going on in her microbiology lab. She links to her labs blogs including She Who Dies with the most shoes wins (Sunita Sinha), My Blog (Heather Maughan), USS-R-US (Lindsay Wilson), and 3gggggi3 (Sally Pau).

If you are a woman who blogs about science, mathematics or engineering, please let me know. You either leave a comment or send me an e-mail (peggy.kolm (at) gmail (dot) com).

Tags: women in science, blogs, neuroscience, molecular biology, ecology

Summer Reading Suggestions from Science

Science asked contributors and scientists for their summer reading suggestions (subscription required). There were several about fictional - and non-fictional - women scientists. Descriptions are from Amazon.com.

Science editor-in-chief Donald Kennedy recommends Allegra Goodman's Intuition, noting that several characters "are modeled closely enough on players in widely known cases to encourage identification."

[. . .] a struggling cancer lab at Boston's Philpott Institute becomes the stage for its researchers' personalities and passions, and for the slippery definitions of freedom and responsibility in grant-driven American science. When the once-discredited R-7 virus, the project of playboy postdoc Cliff, seems to reduce cancerous tumors in mice, lab director Sandy Glass insists on publishing the preliminary results immediately, against the advice of his more cautious codirector, Marion Mendelssohn. The research team sees a glorious future ahead, but Robin, Cliff's resentful ex-girlfriend and co-researcher, suspects that the findings are too good to be true and attempts to prove Cliff's results are in error. The resulting inquiry spins out of control. With subtle but uncanny effectiveness, Goodman illuminates the inner lives of each character, depicting events from one point of view until another section suddenly throws that perspective into doubt.

Science news editor Colin Norman recommends William Boyd's Brazzaville Beach.

Hope Clearwater lives alone in a beach house in an unnamed African country, trying to patch together her shattered life. An ecologist, she had come to Africa to participate in primate research and to heal the deep wounds of her marriage to a brilliant English mathematician; but she soon found herself plunged into another crisis, one that threatened not only her career but also her life. In a book packed with scientific and mathematical metaphors, Boyd explores how people create, defend, ignore, or subvert the belief systems that govern their lives. If on one level this is an intellectual thriller, on another it is very much an exciting and riveting adventure story, and on yet another a subtle examination of the power grid of personal relationships.

Vera Rubin, Senior Fellow in the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at the Carnegie Institute in Washington, D.C., recommends Kim Todd's Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis.

Metamorphosis has long fascinated humankind, but few people more than Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717), who spent her life illustrating this mysterious process in insects. Merian grew up in Germany, married, had two daughters, left her husband to join a Labadist (pietist) community in West Friesland, moved to Amsterdam and, at age 52, traveled to Surinam to search for insects. Beyond that, little is known about this remarkable woman except for a few letters and her beautiful engravings and watercolors, most of them published in her books on insect metamorphosis. Todd (Tinkering with Eden) fleshes out her biography with colorful descriptions of Merian's world and the people she knew, emphasizing that she was as exceptional in her art as in her life. Unlike other naturalists at the time, she depicted insects together with their host plants, an innovation that influenced many later 18th-century students of insect life. Merian fell out of favor in the 19th century, but today, when scientists have come to appreciate the importance of environment to insect development, her star is rising again. Todd's vivid account should do much to further the renewed interest in this unusual woman and her pioneering approach to insect illustration.

Tags: summer reading, women in science, Allegra Goodman, William Boyd, Kim Todd, Maria Sibylla Merian

Sunday Video: Camille Parmesan

Camille Parmesan, Associate Professor of Integrative Biology at University of Texas at Austin, explains in this video "Why I Became a Biologist." Her current research focuses on the effect of climate change on wildlife.


Tags: Camille Parmesan, climate change, ecology, biology

Women Bring New Perspectives to Science, or The Twisty Tale of the Duck Oviduct

Today PLoS One published an article by behavioral ecologist Patricia Brennan* and her colleagues on the evolution of duck genitalia. Male ducks are unusual birds because they have long twisty phalluses. Surprisingly, no one had actually bothered to study female duck genitalia until Brennan began her studies. She explained her thinking to the New York Times:

“So what does the female look like?” she said. “Obviously you can’t have something like that without some place to put it in. You need a garage to park the car.”

The lower oviduct (the equivalent of the vagina in birds) is typically a simple tube. But when Dr. Brennan dissected some female ducks, she discovered they had a radically different anatomy. “There were all these weird structures, these pockets and spirals,” she said.

Somehow, generations of biologists had never noticed this anatomy before. Pondering it, Dr. Brennan came to doubt the conventional explanation for how duck phalluses evolved.

Brennan noted that in species with forced mating the males had larger phalluses and the females had more complex oviducts. She hypothesizes that the oviducts evolved as a way of blocking the sperm from unwanted males, which, in turn, drove the evolution of longer, more flexible phalluses.

Dr. McCracken, who discovered the longest known bird phallus on an Argentine duck in 2001, is struck by the fact that it was a woman who discovered the complexity of female birds. “Maybe it’s the male bias we all have,” he said. “It’s just been out there, waiting to be discovered.”

What else have male scientists missed?

* Brennan is a postdoctoral fellow with Professor Tim Birkhead in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at the University of Sheffield, and is also with Professor Richard Prum in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale.

Article: Carl Zimmer, "In Ducks, War of the Sexes Plays Out in the Evolution of Genitalia," New York Times, April 30, 2007

Full Citation: Brennan PL, Prum RO, McCracken KG, Sorenson MD, Wilson RE, et al. (2007) Coevolution of Male and Female Genital Morphology in Waterfowl. PLoS ONE 2(5): e418. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000418

Tags: duck genitalia, Patricia Brennan, women in science (via Pharyngula)

Vandana Shiva

Vandana Shiva is an Indian physicist who founded (and currently heads) the Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology. She is "an ecofeminist, prolific author (of books and over 300 scientific papers) and environmental activist." This week she spoke at the University of British Columbia on "Defending Food Freedom in a Period of Food Fascism."

Inkling Magazine had a chance to ask Shiva some questions during her visit about her background in quantum physics and her work defending the rights of small farmers. She believe that women bring a unique perspective to science.

I think there are two definitely unique abilities that women bring to science.

First, because they have not been groomed into a clubby behavior, they’re always outsiders no matter how good they are and this means they have not numbed their thinking.

Whenever there’s a clubbiness there are tacit norms, dos and don’ts, that get shaped. Women coming from a freer mind can ask basic questions. That’s why so much interesting stuff is coming out of women’s participation in science.

Second, epistemically we haven’t had centuries of training in reductionism. Even when we are trained in a particular discipline we bring other disciplines to bear. That multidimensionality also enriches science.

Read the whole interview.

UBC geneticist David Ng also had a chance to talk with Shiva (the Inkling interview was in his office), and he posts about their discussion on the World's Fair blog.

We had a lot of opportunity to talk. I was most interested in her views on genetic engineering from a purely scientific tool point of view - whether she objected in principle to the science itself, away from the context of her strong criticisms of the economic parameters in which many GE technologies operate.

Basically, she said that ideally no, she didn't have a problem with the science itself. She is not criticizing science, itself. That as a tool, of course, it can have merit (she was trained as a quantum physicist). But by the same token, at this point in time, the technology especially in the realm of food, doesn't really have the luxury of being viewed without that societal (and in this case, strongly economical) context. This was heartening to hear, and I think a well recieved point (which speaking with Ben earlier, he can concur). It points to the danger of bundling criticisms and firing at individual targets, when often it's the big picture that needs looking at.

Dr. Shiva also had some pointed words on biofuels: a hot topic in this day and age of climate change and alternate sources of energy. She brought up an very interesting facet to this story, that to be honest, I didn't even think of. That is, in the current global system, humanity already seems to have a serious problem with food equity and food security: it therefore stands to reason that this system will only be further strained if what might be viable agricultural land is instead slated for use for biofuel production. I haven't done the homework myself on this point (perhaps others can comment), but that does sound like a pretty rational concern.

Read the whole post.

More about Vandana Shiva:

• Shiva's ZNet Home Page, with links to a number of commentaries
• Wikipedia Profile of Vandana Shiva with lots of links.
• "Seeds of Self Reliance" Time Magazine, 2002

Tags: Vandana Shiva

Ruth Patrick, "den mother of ecology"

The Philadelphia Enquirer recently profiled 99-year-old Ruth Patrick, the so-called "den mother of ecology". Patrick has worked at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia since 1933.

Decades ago, long before pollution became a public concern, Patrick discovered that diatoms are prime indicators of water quality because the cells' silica walls so readily absorb pollutants.

"You see," she says, "diatoms are like detectives."

She also devised a model - known as the Patrick Principle - for gauging the health of a body of water by evaluating all the life in it, from diatoms to insects to fish.

If this sounds familiar, it is because Patrick pioneered an ecosystem approach that now is common knowledge.

Patrick began working for the Academy as an unpaid assistant curator of microscopy.

No other women were at the academy. Patrick wore pants to blend in, and she was once chastised for wearing lipstick.

"But I was determined," she says. "I was going to get my Ph.D. and I was going to write my thesis on diatoms."

More than ten years after her arrival, in 1945, she was finally put on the payroll. Two years later, she founded a new department that is now called the "Patrick Center for Environmental Research". In addition to her field work and research, she also taught generations of students, and used her knowledge to influence environmental policy.

In 1975, Patrick became the first woman and the first environmentalist appointed to DuPont's board of directors.

"Just a charming, remarkable person," says former CEO Edgar S. Woolard Jr., who began an environmental push at DuPont in 1989, partly due to her influence. "When she spoke up in the boardroom, whether it was on the environment or business, everyone listened. She just had that kind of stature."

Patrick finally stopped doing field work a few years ago, but she still pursues her research on diatoms at the Academy.

Read the whole article for more about Patrick and the Patrick Principle (via the Knight Science Journalism tracker).

Related Links:

• Patrick's Academy of Natural Sciences Profile, with link to a 2001 interview video
• WHYY "Hometown Legends" on Patrick with interview video
• Urban Rivers Awareness: Diatoms in Environmental Research
  
• Patrick in the Ecology Hall of Fame
• Lemelson-MIT Program Inventor of the Week
  
• Patrick's profile at "Dupont Heritage"
• Patrick's profile in the South Carolina Hall of Science and Technology at the Ruth Patrick Science Education Center
• Patrick's NCSE Lifetime Achievement Award
  
• Patrick's National Medal of Science Page

Tags: Ruth Patrick, ecology

Field Museum's Women in Science

The Field Natural History Museum in Chicago has interviews with thirteen women scientists in their employ, who work in fields ranging from the biological sciences to geology. They share their thoughts on both their own research and their experiences as women in science.

The site also profiles two pioneers from the museum's past, explorer Delia Akeley (1875-1970) who discovered new African animal species, and botanist Margery Carlson (1892-1985) who collected plant samples in South America and Europe and was a professor of botany at Northwestern. They both had their share of adventures.

From the Field Museum profile of Delia Akeley, on collecting an elephant specimen:

"Scarcely breathing, and with legs trembling so I could hardly stand, I waited for the elephant to move forward," she wrote in her book "All True!" "Dimly through the mist the dark shape came slowly from behind the bush, exposing a splendid pair of tusks and a great flapping ear which was my target. With nerves keyed to the point of action I fired, and the first elephant I shot at fell lifeless among the dew-wet ferns . . . He was a splendid elephant, standing ten feet ten inches tall at the shoulders and carrying 180 pounds of ivory. In his back was a great festering wound caused by a poisonous spear. The iron blade had worked its way into his flesh to his rib and he must have suffered agonies."

I'm not particularly fond of this method of "collecting" animals, but there is no doubt Akeley did her job well.

From the GWIS profile of Margery Carlson:

An energetic and adventurous woman, Dr. Carlson’s primary interaction with Field Museum was through her plant collecting program in Mexico and Central America in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Using a station wagon or truck-camper as both vehicle and motel, Margery, together with her companion Kate Staley, was able to reach remote areas in southern Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, and Costa Rica. Each expedition took several months and came close to or exceeded 10,000 miles of travel.

What was especially remarkable about Margery’s field trips was that both she and her companion were gray-haired ladies embarking on trips that would challenge someone half their age. The trips were not without adventures and minor mishaps. One expedition ended with the truck smashed at the bottom of a canyon but with the two women only slightly injured. Another adventure Margery loved to recount was the time she and Kate were eating lunch along the side of the road in northern Mexico, when they found themselves face-to-face with two men brandishing machetes and demanding money. Sizing up the situation quickly (these were two poor farmers and not dangerous bandits), Margery proceeded to admonish them in Spanish: "Don’t you realize you could have scared us to death? And if that had happened you could never go to heaven!", whereupon she invited them to have some lunch — which they did.

Two amazing women!

Tags: Field Museum, Delia Akeley, Margery Carlson