Women in Business, Jobs, Women Entrepreneurs, Women in the News: News On Women

SUSAN GRAHAM TO RECEIVE 2009 IEEE JOHN VON NEUMANN MEDAL

Computer Scientist Susan Graham will receive the 2009 IEEE John Von Neumann Medal at the IEEE Honors Cermony June 25,09 in Los Angeles, California. The medal, sponsored by IBM, honors Graham for "contributions to programming language design and implementation, and for exemplary service to the discipline of computer science". Susan, who holds master’s and doctorate degrees in computer science from Stanford University, is a Professor in the Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley. Read more about it in the 2009 Honors Ceremony desription on ieee.com.

Dina Contella Made Flight Director by NASA

NASA has selected Dina Contella as one of three new flight directors who will manage and carry out shuttle flights and International Space Station expeditions. Dina has served as a space shuttle and space station flight controller and astronaut instructor responsible for planning, training and executing spacewalks since 1995. Read more in the NASA press release.

Improvements for Women in Science

Cornelia Dean of the New York Times reports that things are improving for women scientists and engineers in major research universities according to a National Research Council report. Cornelia also references the Univesity of Wisconsin research done by Janet S. Hyde and Janet E. Mertz showing that girls have erased the achievement gap in math between boys and girls, showing once again that girls can be just as good as boys in math. Read Cornelia's article.

Three Female Students Take Top Prize at Intel Science Fair

The Intel Foundation announced the top winners of the world's largest pre-college science fair, the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF), a program of Society for Science & the Public. Tara Adiseshan, Li Boynton, and Olivia Schwob, were selected from 1,563 young scientists from 56 countries, regions and territories for their commitment to innovation and science.

Tara Adiseshan identified and classified the evolutionary relationships between sweat bees and the nematodes (microscopic worms) that live inside them. Tara was able to prove that because the two have such ecologically intimate relationships, they also have an evolutionary relationship.

Li Boynton developed a biosensor from bioluminescent bacteria (a living organism that gives off light) to detect the presence of contaminants in public water. Li's biosensor is cheaper and easier to use than current biosensors, and she hopes it can be used in developing countries to reduce water toxicity.

Olivia Schwob isolated a gene that can be used to improve the intelligence of a worm. The results could help us better understand how humans learn and even prevent, treat and cure mental disabilities in the future.

Read about other students who won additional prizes.

Women in Science Look Up to Megan McArthur

Look up and you may catch a glimpse of  Megan McArthur, Shuttle Engineer who operates the robot-arm of the shuttle mission repairing the Hubble Space Telescope at this very moment. Megan, who holds a B. S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of California-Los Angeles, and a Ph.D. in Oceanography from the University of California-San Diego, was selected as a mission specialist by NASA in 2000. In a preflight interview Megan said this about what she will be doing:

"I’ll be driving the robotic arm throughout each one of those spacewalks. There’s always one of the crew members on the end of the arm and I help put them into position to do their work so they can be hands-free, they’re not having to hold on to stabilize themselves. I can put them in a stable position so they can do their work..."

Read the rest of the NASA preflight interview with Megan.

Women in Science - Survey Shows Two-Thirds of Americans Can't Name a Woman Scientist

A new national survey commissioned by L'Oreal USA shows that Americans are generally unaware of the contributions of women to science. According to the survey Women, Science and Success: The New Face of Innovation, 65 percent of American adults cannot name a single famous female scientist. (I wonder if they could have named a man?) Read more of the results from this telephone survey in the prnewswire press release. Clearly they didn't call me or I would have told them about all the amazing women in science I met at the WINGS WorldQuest luncheon the other day.

Read about women in science.

Women of Discovery Earth Award won by Bolortsetseg Minjin

Wings Worldquest, an organization that supports women, science and exploration, introduced its 2009 Women of Discovery Nominees at a luncheon in New York this week. The 2009 Women of Discovery were a force of nature in themselves. My first interview was with Bolortsetseg Minjin who won the Earth Award. Bolortsetseg is a Mongolian paleontologist credited with spectacular finds of dinosaur fossils in the Gobi Desert. She is the Director of the Institute for the Study of Mongolian Dinosaurs. The goals of the Institute are to develop a self-sustaining, active community of Mongolian paleontologists and a museum in Mongolia to preserve dinosaurs and other national treasures. Bolortsetseg showed me a caste of the head of the dinosaur Psittacosaurus, a herbivore about the size of a sheep that lived over 100 million years ago, and her enthusiasm was contagious as she discussed its rich history. She hopes to share this enthusiasm with students in Mongolia in an outreach program that will teach them how to find and collect fossils, and help them learn about natural science through their interest in dinosaurs. "Education and Science always have to go together", she said. Her "Women of Discovery" Prize is well deserved. More about the other 2009 Women of Discovery award winners to come.

A Seminar on Women's Health

The Partnership for Women's Mental Health presents in Chicago, Saturday April 25,09, - "Women Living Well," a quarterly series dedicated to women's mental wellness. Read more about it on Laurel Delaney's blog, Escape from Corporate America.

Danese Cooper Made Open Source Diva at REvolution

REvolution Computing, a provider of open source predictive analytics solutions, appointed Danese Cooper their Open Source Diva. Danese had been Senior Director, Open Source Strategies at Intel. Before that she was was Chief Open Source Evangelist at Sun Microsystems where she created and managed the Open Source Programs Office. See Business Wire press release.

American Women of Invention - A Long History in Science

Bed, Bath & Beyond is offering a new take on women's history month this March. They are celebrating Mary Dixon Kies, the first woman to receive a patent. The patent was for the invention of a technique of weaving straw with silk and thread and was granted by the Patent Office May 5, 1809. In honor of the 200th anniversary of this patent, BB&B is teaming up with Edison Nation to search for other problem-solving product ideas from women. If you have an idea for a product that could be sold at a Bed Bath & Beyond, check out the invention contest on bedbathandbeyond.com. Thanks to Elizabeth for pointing this out to us.

5th Annual Global Marathon for, by and about Women in Engineering March11,09

National Engineers Week Foundation presents the 5th Annual Global Marathon for, by and about Women in Engineering.  Sponsored by Agilent, Motorola and the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, this live, 24-hour worldwide forum provides information, insight, and inspiration for women and girls on topics related to careers in engineering and technology. “As a woman with a passion for probing how technology can impact our world, I am eager to share that passion with future women business leaders and innovators,” said Global Marathon Honorary Chairperson Leslie Jones, Senior Vice President, Women’s Business Council Executive Sponsor, and Chief Information Officer, Motorola, Inc.

In addition to the Global Mararthon’s 24 hours of virtual programming, a global text messaging contest will also be held.  Participants can describe “The Dream You'd Do” as an innovative engineer or scientist in 40 words or less and post their entries on the Global Marathon website.  Those taking part in the Marathon worldwide can vote on their favorites.  One winner per region will be announced on March 16th.

The Global Marathon begins at noon (EDT) Wednesday, March 11th and runs continuously through noon (EDT), Thursday, March 12th.

Read more about the Global Marathon on eweek.org.

Rachel Carson, an Environmental Pioneer We should all Know

National Women's History Month and National Women's History Project is honoring Rachel Carson, considered a pioneer of the modern environmental movement. In the early sixties, the publication of her book, Silent Spring, led to the banning of the chemical DDT, the creation of the Clean Water Act and the Environmental Protection Agency, and the organic food movement. She was a biologist/scientist at a time when very few women were in the field. Carson's words and impact have influenced and inspired generations of young women to enter the field of science. A new fim about her called "A Sense of Wonder" can be seen in limited screening towards the end of March (National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC March18 for one) . Find more screening dates for the film. 

Wings WorldQuest 2009 Women of Discovery

Wings WorldQuest, whose mission is to support extraordinary women explorers and to promote scientific exploration and education, announced its 2009 Women of Discovery:

The Humanity Award goes to Aparajita Datta (pictured), who is engaged in long-term monitoring of threatened wildlife with local communities in northeast India. The Sea Award goes to Maya Tolstoy, a marine geophysicist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory who researches mid-ocean ridge earthquakes and their impacts on life forms. The Earth Award goes to Bolortsetseg Minjin, who has been credited with spectacular finds of dinosaur fossils in the Gobi Desert. The Air and Space Award goes to Rosaly Lopes, who has led the NASA teams exploring Jupiter's volcanic moon, Io, and has become a specialist on the hazards from lava flows, traveling to erupting volcanoes all over the globe. The Field Research Award goes to Leela Hazzah, who is a wild life biologist. Read more about these amazing women on wingsworldquest.org.

National Geographic Honors Three Women as "Emerging Explorers"

Katy Walter (pictured) of the University of Alaska, an aquatic ecologist and biogeochemist, was one of three women named by the National Geographic this week to its list of "Emerging Explorers" for 2009. National Geographic's Emerging Explorers Program recognizes and supports uniquely gifted and inspiring explorers and scientists making a significant contribution to world. The other women named as Emerging Explorers were ethnobotanist Grace Gobbo of Tanzania; and geo-archaeologist Beverly Goodman, currently of Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Read more in the National Geographic press release. See more about all the "Explorers".

List of Top Women in Technology

Sheryl Sandberg (pictured), COO of Facebook, made the Fast Company list of the most influential women in technology. I was glad to see I had posted about almost all of the women featured on their list in past posts on NewsonWomen.com. Do you agree with their list? Who else would you like to see on it? The Fast Company list of Tech Entrepreneurs covers the independents and is definitely worth reading. Other lists Fast Company made included the Brainiacs and the Evangelists. All in all, Fast Company in these articles has given us a great look at how women are making inroads in technology.

Womens Health Research Prize Deadline Near

The deadline is nearing for nominations to win the $75,000 annual Society for Women’s Health Research Medtronic Prize for Scientific Contributions to Women’s Health. The prize, which  recognizes a woman scientist or engineer, encourages women scientists and engineers to work on issues uniquely related to women’s health. The deadline is January 28,2009. Read more about it on womenshealthresearch.org.

Kate McAlpine Puts the Fun in Science on Underthemicroscope.com

Princeton President Tells Why Women Scientists Make Good College Presidents

Shirley Tilghman, President of Princeton University, spoke on Women Scientists and Academic Leadership at the Bryn Mawr College New President's (Jane Dammen McAuliffe) Inaugural Lecture Series, "Celebrating Women Scientists as University Presidents". Shirley talked about why women scientists (herself a world renowned molecular biologist) make good university presidents. In addition to her insight about scientists being good listeners, collaborators, and problem solvers, I liked her comment  about reordering her problem solving methods to be a university president - "Scientists sacrifice breadth for depth. In problem solving, presidents have to do exactly the opposite.” Read more about this thought provoking speech in Andrea Milne's article on biconews.com.

IBM Develops Underthemicroscope.com to Interest Women in Science and Math

IBM sponsored and developed underthemicroscope.com, a new social networking site for women interested in science. The site is part of  the Women Writing Science project, a multi-faceted initiative to involve young women in science and to encourage them to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math. The Women Writing Science Project was started by The Feminist Press at The City University of New York with support from the National Science Foundation.

Kristin Bennett Made VP at The Implementation Group

The Implementation Group appointed Kristin Bennett, Ph.D., a nationally recognized expert in materials sciences and a leader in nanotechnology, a Vice President of the consulting firm. Kristin, who holds a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in Geology, had been a Senior Program Manager at the Department of Energy's Office of Science. Read more about Kristin's career in the prnewswire press release on yahoo.