Dear Colleagues, 

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

Although every month is Women's History month for us, we primarily focus on women making history. Hopefully you do too.

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.

Happy Women's History month,

 

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

Nancy Yao Named First Director of the New Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum.

Nancy Yao has been named the founding director of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum, effective June 5. As founding director, Yao will oversee the conception and development of a 21st-century museum, including sourcing a national collection, curating permanent and current exhibitions, and creating educational resources accessible virtually before the physical museum is built in Washington, D.C. Read more.

Editorial: Celebrate women in science — today, and every day.
International Women’s Day (March 8) can serve to bring hope, highlight progress, and inspire research communities to continue their efforts to push hard for true gender equality. Women in science still, on average, publish less and win fewer grants and promotions than do men. Harassment, assault and marginalization drive promising researchers out of science, especially those whose race, ethnicity, disability or sexual orientation makes them targets for discrimination. Read more.

Lost Women of Science.
For Women’s History Month, we're celebrating the Lost Women of Science, a new initiative that tells the remarkable stories of groundbreaking women who never got the full recognition they deserved – until now. We recently spoke to Katie Hafner, Host/Executive Producer, and Amy Scharf, Executive Producer, check out the discussion at Lost Women of Science: Found, and Lost Women of Science Soon To Be Found.

Katie Hafner, Host/Executive Producer, and Amy Scharf, Executive Producer of Lost Women of Science.

The Enduring Grip of the Gender Pay Gap.
The gender pay gap has barely closed in the U.S. in the past two decades. In 2022, American women typically earned 82 cents for every dollar earned by men. This was about the same as in 2002, when they earned 80 cents to the dollar. Read more.

Faculty Scholar Alum Jodi Halpern Brings Message of Empathic Curiosity to Major South American Science Conference.

In January, Greenwall Faculty Scholar Alum Jodi Lauren Halpern, MD, PhD, traveled to Santiago, Chile to give a keynote address to the Congreso Futuro titled, “The Power of Empathic Curiosity in a Divided World.” Prof. Halpern describes the exploration of empathic curiosity as her “life’s work” at the intersection of psychiatry and philosophy. Read more.

I used to dream of having a doll that looked like me. I hope this Barbie inspires girls to dream bigger.

“The Barbie modeled on me is a space scientist with her own telescope. Girls should be shown that anything is possible,” writes Dr. Maggie Aderin-Pocock, a space scientist and presenter of the BBC’s The Sky at Night. In 2023, the iconic Barbie name represents women of all shapes and sizes. “Long gone are the unrealistic, and often frightening, beauty standards characterized by the early dolls. In their place, real-life doctors, marine biologists and astronauts are the new aspirational ideals.” Read more. Image: Imperial College London.

Meet the 2023 McNulty Prize Catalyst Fund awardees.
The McNulty Foundation and the Aspen Institute announced the 2023 recipients of the McNulty Prize Catalyst Fund, awarded annually to early-stage organizations that have demonstrated significant momentum with innovative models of change. This year, a total of $100,000 will be awarded across five promising leaders hailing from the United States, India and Lebanon. Read more.

Now open for submissions: Apply today for the Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology 2023!

The international Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology is awarded annually to one young scientist who is not older than 35 years for the most outstanding neurobiological research based on methods of molecular and cell biology conducted by him/her during the past three years. Read more.

Guess Which Sex Behaves More Erratically (at Least in Mice).
A new study finds male mice more unpredictable than females, challenging century-old assumptions used to exclude females from research because of their hormones. Read more.

A “Woman of Firsts” Who Transformed Medical Testing.
“Millions of people who have undergone lab tests over the last 60 years are fortunate that Rosalyn Yalow ignored her parents’ career advice,” writes Leslie Mitchell. “As a college student in the 1930s, Yalow had her heart set on becoming a physicist, a profession almost no women entered then. Her parents, whom she viewed as “more practical,” urged her to follow the conventional route for intelligent young women and become a schoolteacher.” Read more.

ARPA-H signals it’s open for business with range of new initiatives.

“Through our Agency-wide Open BAA solicitation, site selection strategy, and ARPA-H Dash competition, we have opportunities to immediately start funding, opening the door to catalyze the entire health ecosystem,” says Dr. Renee Wegrzyn, who was an RFS speaker at our year-end conference. Read more.

AAI Congratulates Recipients of 2023 Intersect Fellowships for Computational Scientists and Immunologists.
The AAI Intersect Fellowship Program for Computational Scientists and Immunologists provides independent research scientists with one year of salary support for postdoctoral fellows trained in basic bench research to undertake one year of training in computational science, or postdoctoral fellows trained in computational science to spend one year in an immunology research lab to learn basic immunological principles and laboratory techniques. Read more.

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