Dear Colleagues, 

I am pleased to include another issue of RFS Briefings with some timely and encouraging updates on women in science.

Please continue to share important news and opportunities with us so that we may share it with you, and others who are committed to supporting the careers of exceptional women in science. 

Stay safe and sound

Karla Shepard Rubinger
Executive Director
Rosalind Franklin Society
www.rosalindfranklinsociety.org
 


Doris Duke Charitable Foundation announces the 2022 Clinical Scientist Development Awardees.
Sixteen early-career physician scientists receive more than $7.9M in grants for clinical research proposals that promise to have powerful impacts on a wide range of issues affecting human health. The awardee pool is also diverse in representation, with 53% of the selected projects led by women and 23% by those identifying as Black or Hispanic/Latinx. Read more.

How Nichelle Nichols changed the space program and recruited women and minorities to work at NASA.

"Nichelle Nichols was a trailblazing actress, advocate and dear friend to NASA," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement. "At a time when Black women were seldom seen on screen, Nichelle's portrayal as Nyota Uhura on Star Trek held a mirror up to America that strengthened civil rights." Read more. (Image by Wikipedia)

New exhibit puts girls in STEM, and the Kansas Children's Discovery Center on a national stage.
The Kansas Children's Discovery Center is one of just two U.S. children's museums selected to develop exhibits with grants from the IF/THEN Collection — "the largest free resource of its kind dedicated to increasing access to authentic and relatable images of real women in STEM." Read more.

Adam Neumann’s $350 million comeback is a ‘slap in the face’ to female founders and founders of color.
For Kathryn Finney, the news this week that Adam Neumann had raised $350 million from Andreessen Horowitz for his comeback venture Flow was “a slap in the face.” The sum, after all, is more than the $324 million raised by all U.S. Black-founded startups combined in the second quarter of this year. Read more.

Apply for the BII & Science Prize for Innovation.
To encourage more scientists to translate their research, BioInnovation Institute (BII) and Science collaborate to host an annual award. Through the BioInnovation Institute & Science Prize for Innovation, the editors of Science seek to recognize bold researchers who are asking fundamental questions at the intersection of the life sciences and entrepreneurship. Read more.

Two new books show how sexism still pervades astronomy.
Becoming an astronomer might seem straightforward. An awe of the night sky sparks a child to someday study astronomy in school, eventually leading to a graduate degree and a job in the field. But as two new books make clear, few women find the road so simple. Read more.

Norway bids to attract men to female-dominated university courses.
Experts say well-researched tools will be needed to draw more young men into medicine, psychology, dentistry and veterinary studies. Read more.

Humsa Venkatesh probes cancer’s grip on the brain.

Humsa Venkatesh’s group extends neuroscience research beyond cancers originating in the brain, studying how peripheral neural circuits may influence cancer growth throughout the body, and whether these systems play a role when cancers metastasize to the brain. Read more. (Image by Saahil Mehra)

White House names Monica Bertagnolli as NCI Director.

Monica Bertagnolli will become the first woman to lead the National Cancer Institute since its founding in 1937. Bertagnolli will also take over ongoing NCI efforts to increase grant funding, improve diversity in cancer research, and shrink cancer death rates among Black people. Read more. (Image by ASCO/Glenn Davenport)

Her discovery changed the world. How does she think we should use it?
Since 2012, Jennifer Doudna has become a leading voice in the conversation about how we might use CRISPR — uses that could, and probably will, include tweaking crops to become more drought resistant, curing genetically inheritable medical disorders and, most controversial, editing human embryos. She was also featured in a recent GEN/RFS webinar and her colleagues shared  findings of their work on editing bacterial genes.  Read more.

These women are leading the charge for more diversity in STEM.
Over the last 18 months, Arizona State University has hired four women to head units in STEM-related areas: Tijana Rajh, Donatella Danielli, Patricia Rankin, chair of the Department of Physics, and, most recently, Nancy Manley as director of the School of Life Sciences. Read more. 


Marianna Limas, Social Media Manager
Nilda Rivera, Partnership and Events Manager