Twinkle twinkle YSO

Here's an article by Amanda Schaffer about (the lack of) innate sex differences in math/science ability. The whole series is good, too.

Today's set of talks were less interesting to me, personally, than yesterday's. But actually, that's okay: the most important part of conferences is the person-to-person interactions, the discussions that are had in poster sessions, in hallways, during meals, and over drinks.

Gender balance for today's plenary talks: 2 out of 9 are women. Not so good. Still, I was chatting with one of the organizers, and she said that the overall balance of plenary speakers was about 50/50, and they weren't even trying for that, it's simply how things worked out.

I have had a number of TERRIFIC conversations about women in astronomy here. It's especially interesting to compare views from the US with those from Europe, since this a very much an international conference.

(more below the fold)

Of today's plenary talks, 5 of 8 were given by women. How awesome is that?

This meeting is pretty huge (~350 people) and as with many astronomy conferences, the male:female ratio varies significantly with age: to wit, there are very few senior women, but lots of young ones. Also, there are lots of young people at the meeting, which perhaps explains the presence of so many women.

Scotland is warm and sunny. No, really. It never occurred to me to pack sunglasses. Of course, when I went out yesterday afternoon without my jacket, I got sprinkled on. Ever since then, I've been carrying the jacket around, and the weather's been lovely. Murphy's Law and all.

1. I finally threw together a blogroll. It's basically a subset of my google reader subscription list. Google Reader rocks, btw.

2. I'm going to Korea this October as part of the US Delegation to the 3rd IUPAP International Conference on Women in Physics! I'm so thrilled to be a part of this effort. And hey, I'll no longer have to hang my head in shame for being a Korean-American who's never been to Korea.

3. I've been cast in that musical I auditioned for, but for a small role. Can't say I really blame the casting committee, since between family vacation and trip to Korea and possibly another conference, I'm going to be away for a good bit of rehearsal time.

4. I'll be in St. Andrews, Scotland next week for a conference. Of course, given my sporadic posting frequency, I doubt the blogosphere will miss me very much. Speaking of which, I gotta finish up this poster now. Boy, do I hate making posters.

A recent op-ed in the NY Times by John Tierney has been making its rounds through the women-in-science corner of the blogosphere. The article basically makes it seems like there's some insidious conspiracy to destroy science in the US by recruiting women. As much fun as it sounds to belong to a conspiracy, we women scientists really aren't that insidious, I promise. Well, except maybe Helen Narbon. But she's fictional. Fictional!

I'm awfully busy to discuss this myself, but fortunately, Peggy at Women in Science has already summarized the links for me! I especially like PhysioProf's astute if profanity-laced takedown of the article at Feministe.

It was especially charming to see the ad for a movie called "Choke" when I clicked on the "email this article" link. It featured a silhouette of a pair of high-heeled legs sticking out of someone's (presumably male) mouth. I thought I was going to lose my breakfast for a moment. Perhaps I should simply take advantage of the sentiment and go puke on someone's shoes.

Well, I guess my audition went well enough that I made callbacks, but for a smaller role than I would have liked.

I'm guessing that since I'll be gone for 4 weeks of rehearsal, they don't really want to cast me in a lead role. Maybe that'll be good for everyone all around in the long run, but still, my ego is a bit hurt.

In the mean time, I have SCIENCE! to do.

I seem to be doing a lot of public outreach work lately. Some of this I think is because the EPO (Education & Public Outreach) folks are always desperate for volunteers, so once you get involved in one activity, you wind up on their List, and they keep coming back to recruit you for more things.

I do enjoy it, but it's also a lot of work. Preparation always seems to take more effort than I originally estimate. Then afterwards, I need to spend a lot of time recovering. You see, as much as I enjoy taking the stage, I'm really an introvert, and talking to random passersby takes a lot of energy out of me.

I see the same faces over and over again at EPO events, which isn't too surprising, given that we are all on the List. I also notice that the people on the List don't quite have the same demographics of the professional astronomy community in general. To wit, there are an awful lot of women involved in EPO. (I can't really comment much on minorities, because we're talking small number statistics there.) I wouldn't be surprised if some of that is because many men think their time is too valuable to spend talking with the unwashed masses instead of pursuing lofty research goals, but I don't think that the main factor.

I get the sense that many of we women feel an obligation to step forward to prove to the world that science is not just a man's profession. Part of this is to inspire future generations, of course, but also to inform current generations as well. In other words, women are just more motivated to do public outreach work than men: not for some innate gender differences, mind you, but because we have sense of duty to be role models.

I have to wonder though, how valuable my public outreach work will seem to prospective employers. Do they realize how much time I invest in this work? Do they think that my time would have been better spent writing papers? Do they think that this work should be considered as an extracurricular hobby?

Well, screw all that. I think my public outreach work is valuable, and if a hiring committee can't see how important it is, then I'm not sure I want to be working for them anyway.

Every year around July 4, the Smithsonian Institution holds its annual Folklife Festival on the National Mall, featuring cultures from around the world. I've taken my family down the last couple of years, and it's been tons of fun. There's food, music, performances and more on display to celebrate each cultures. One year, they had Native American basketweaving and Alberta. Last year, it included Northern Ireland and Virginia.

This year, they are showcasing Texas, Bhutan, and NASA.

Yes, that's right, NASA. Go ahead, laugh. I have. Ostensibly, it's because it's NASA's 50th Anniversary. But really, who wants to hear about the culture of a vast soulless government bureaucracy? Does the general public really want to hear about full-cost accounting, transitioning to NOMAD, how budget cuts affect janitorial services, and the politics behind SIM? More to the point, who at NASA wants to air their dirty laundry?

Anyway, I somehow found myself in charge of manning a table for a couple of days during the Festival. Rather than bitching and moaning talking about what it's like working for a vast soulless government bureaucracy, I'll be talking about some of the science done in the group I belong to.

In case you happen to be in the area and want to come make fun of me, I'll be there July 2 and 6. Be warned, though: I'll have a stick.

I've been grossly neglectful of this blog lately, haven't I. Well, I've been pretty brain-dead all month, and I finally realized why a few days ago.

Most of May was spent putting together a grant proposal. This was made worse by (1) starting a bit late on it, (2) never having written a real grant proposal before, and (3) an overly complicated budget. I came home the evening after turning it in, and my husband declared that his wife was back. Apparently I had transformed into a different person for a couple of weeks there.


Almost immediately after that, I went to California for a week for a conference.

The weekend after that we went to Boston.

The weekend after that we went to Charlottesville.

The weekend after that I spent making a Saturn cake.

Travel and busy weekends apparently make for brain-dead weekdays.

This past weekend we went blueberry picking, but otherwise kept things low-key. And now, suddenly it's July. After two weekends in a row at home you'd think I'd have recovered, except I've been busy working on a presentation for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. What on earth am I doing the Folklife Festival? you ask. That merits an entry all by itself, so stay tuned...

This month's theme for the Scientiae Carnival is about how you make yourself heard. The theme seems particularly apt, since I'm auditioning for a musical next week.

I've become a singer rather late in life. Although I've always enjoyed music and singing to myself, I never joined real chorus until graduate school. Even then, I was never one for seeking out the spotlight, being content to blend my voice in harmony with others. Singing solo was something that I was sure that I had neither the talent nor the courage to do.

Since then, I've changed my views. It's not that I've become any better a singer. In fact, quite the opposite: it's been so long since I sang regularly that I know I've lost a lot. What has changed, though, is I've gotten over stagefright.

This has a lot to do with the experience I've had giving talks. The first few talks I gave as a graduate student were pretty nerve-wracking. Now, years later, I have a lot of confidence in my speaking abilities, and I think I've gotten pretty good at giving talks. There are a lot of skills that carry over between giving a scientific talk and acting/singing on stage, from projecting your voice to figuring out just how to phrase things. Answering questions is a lot like improv theatre, because you have to interact with the audience and think on your feet.

Becoming a parent has something to do with it, too. Having children means stepping out of your comfort zone in a lot of ways. It's given me a broader perspective in life. As I think of ways to enrich my children's lives, it's made me realize that my life deserves some enrichment as well. Plus, after spending time playing make-believe with kids reminds you just how much fun playing make-believe really is.

I sang in a musical last year for the very first time in my life. I loved it. I wish I had had the guts to get involved in musical theatre at a much younger age, but I was a different person then, and didn't have the poise and self-confidence I do now. Anyway, here's hoping I land a good role, and that it doesn't become too big a time sink. (ha!)

scientiae-carnival

While we're on the subject of birthday presents, I came across this cool book at the TechKnitting blog.
It's about mathematics and fiber arts, based on a Special Session at an American Mathematical Society meeting (see also).

I've made mobius scarves and at least one Klein bottle already. I started on a Klein bottle hat, but I got distracted from it. There's the SIM socks I posted about previously. I also made a Sierpinski gasket sweater, and worked out a pattern for a fractal tree sweater, but never got around to executing it. Someday, I'll finish these projects and more. If only I could make a career out of it...

Over the weekend, I was introduced to the board game Pandemic. It's quite a nice little game.

Anyway, I selected my role and got "scientist." How appropriate, right? Then I take another look at the card. (see here for pictures.) It's a woman of color!

I got teased for asking, "is this a cooperative game?" I guess I have a reputation for being competitive. heh. Despite that, I found it fun to play, and it gets bonus points for depicting diversity. Anyone want to get it for me? It's my birthday today...

Last week, I found out that my Hubble Archival Research Proposal for Cycle 17 got turned down.

Now I hadn't necessarily expected it to get accepted, but I hoped it would do a little better than fourth quartile!

Today, I ran into a colleague who told me about his own proposal that also got ranked fourth quartile. We swapped stories and both agreed that our proposals were for Killer Ground-Breaking Research. We dissed the respective panels that rejected them, and now I suddenly feel a whole lot better about the whole thing.

Seen at Feministing: a report out blaming the lack of women in politics on a lack of ambition.

I'm currently at a conference and should be paying more attention. Plus, Ann's breakdown (or rather, ripping to shreds) of the study's conclusions is probably better than anything I could come up with. So just go follow the link I posted above.

My comment about is that if you replace "politics" with "science" and "ambition" with "interest" the arguments still hold pretty well.

Also, call me cynical, but succeeding in academia is as much about politics as talent, so perhaps the argument holds regardless.

I just turned in my first NASA grant proposal.

In some sense, I was railroaded into this. One of my collaborators suggested it would be a good experience. Well, I can't say that it was necessarily a good experience, but I learned a lot. I was pretty naive about it, going into it. I figured I just needed to write up some ideas into a good narrative and off I go. Actually, it involved a heck of a lot more than that, and I spent more time dealing with bureaucratic matters and budgets and herding cats than actual proposal writing. Now I know what to expect, and all I can say is, BLARGH!!!

I learned some things about myself, to:

• Unlike some people, I hate writing proposals.
  
• Actually, I hate writing in general. But when I do write, I'm pretty good at it.
  
• I have leadership skills. Who knew!
  
• I have to learn to say no.
  

Ah well, at least I'm not counting on this funding coming through. And if it does come through, it'll look real good to potential employers!

Now, to go home and sleep.