RFS Briefings - November 26, 2019

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

A few highlights to focus on here include:

President and Chief Executive Officer Job Opportunity

A search for President and Chief Executive Officer of New York Academy of Medicine has been announced. Reporting to the Chair of the Board of Governors, the President/CEO will provide leadership in all aspects of the Academy, including initiatives in STEM education and health. Read more.

HHMI Investigator Program Opens National Competition

Through a national competition, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute will expand its current community of nearly 300 Investigators by appointing approximately 20 new Investigators, including basic researchers and physician scientists. Applications submitted directly to HHMI must be received by March 18, 2020. Read more

Angelika Amon Wins 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences

Angelika Amon, the Kathleen and Curtis Marble Professor in Cancer Research and a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, is one of five scientists to receive the 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Life and also the winner of the 2019 Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science. Dr. Amon is an RFS Board member.  Read more.

See below for more news about 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.

 

With regards,

Karla Signature

Karla Shepard Rubinger
Executive Director
Rosalind Franklin Society

Victoria Braithwaite, Researcher Who Said Fish Feel Pain, Dies at 52

Victoria Braithwaite, PhD, who was a professor of fisheries and biology at Penn State University and head the Leibniz Institute, died on September 30 at age 52. In several publications, she and her colleagues reported that fish had neural cells, analogous to human cells, that transmit pain. She argued that fish should be given the same protections commonly applied to birds and mammals, like humane slaughter. Though her work was praised by animal rights activists and published on social media, it was criticized by many neuroscientists and fish biologists. Read more.

Women Advancing Thyroid Research Award Recognized at the ATA

The American Thyroid Association (ATA) announced the Women Advancing Thyroid Research (WATR) Award, a new award to recognize and celebrate the work of young women that are leading outstanding thyroid research. The award is sponsored by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publisher of the ATA’s official journal Thyroid, through the Rosalind Franklin Society. Mary Ann Liebert is the Founder and Executive Vice President of the Society. The recipients are: Dr. Mariella Tutter, a pharmacist, who is now a PhD student at the University Hospital of Munich; Dr. Christiane Gomes-Lima, who completed an Internal Medicine residency and Endocrinology fellowship and is now a research fellow at Medstar Health Research Institute, DC and a guest researcher at NIH; Dr. Sylvia Ippolito, who is a last-year resident in endocrinology, Insubria University, Italy; and Dr. Rosa Falcone, a board certified medical oncologist, who is completing her last year of a PhD program at Sapienza University, Rome. Read more.

Stephania Cormier PhD, now Associate Vice President at Louisiana State University

Dr. Cormier, who holds the Wiener Endowed Chair in the department of biological sciences, and serves as professor in the department of comparative biomedical sciences at the School of Veterinary Medicine at Louisiana State University, will also be Associate Vice President for science, technology engineering and mathematics.

Nobels, Gender, and Ethnicity

In response to an Editorial in Nature, Göran K. Hansson, secretary general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and Gunnar von Heijine, secretary of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, share their concerns about the shortage of women and scientists from outside Europe and North America as Nobel laureates. The Academy, they argue, makes substantial efforts to ensure that all scientists get a fair chance, regardless of geography or gender. Inequities in the distribution of Nobel prizes is indicative of a bigger problem. For example, science has been dominated by Western Europe and North America for centuries, and women have had limited scientific opportunities. Read more.

HHMI Investigator Program Opens National Competition

Through a national competition, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute will expand its current community of nearly 300 Investigators by appointing approximately 20 new Investigators, including basic researchers and physician scientists. With a seven-year appointment, HHMI Investigators who perform basic biological research are encouraged to push their research into new areas of inquiry. Applications submitted directly to HHMI must be received by March 18, 2020. Read more.

Raw Science Film Festival 2020

The Raw Science Film Festival is inviting entries for 2020, with Oscar-qualifying theatrical runs for eligible winners. New categories include: Lynda Obst Award for Best Picture; Raw Breakthrough Award in SciComm; Raw Journalism Award; and Best Infographic. The entry period is open, with a final submission date of March 1, 2020. RSFF, an annual event in Los Angeles, brings together and honors luminaries of science, technology, media, and entertainment to feature the best in class films from around the world. The Rosalind Franklin Society, a sponsor of the 2019 Festival, will again be a sponsor for 2020. Read more.

Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology

The 2019 winner of the international Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology is Lauren Orefice, PhD, Department of Molecular Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School. Her work has identified a novel locus of dysfunction in autism spectrum disorders and how aberrant function in peripheral sensory neurons can link multiple ASD phenotypes, contributing to the possibility of a therapeutic target. The prize, presented with the journal Science, is awarded each year to a scientist 35 years or younger for the most outstanding neurobiological research based on methods of molecular and cell biology. The 2020 application period will open soon, with an entry deadline of June 15. Read more.

NASA Begins First All-Female Spacewalk

Though 15 women have now performed spacewalks, the first all-female spacewalk “’in human history’” was accomplished October 18, 2019 with astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir. A previous mission was canceled in March 2019 because of a lack of properly sized spacesuits for the women. The two women stepped outside the International Space Station to replace a faulty battery charger. According to NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine, getting more women into NASA is a priority. Though Koch and Meir were part of NASA’s 2013 astronaut class, the first with an equal number of men and women, women are a noted minority among the rank and file at NASA and in the industry overall. Koch and Meir discussed the walk’s significance in a New York Times interview. Read more.

Now Retired, Top U.S. Environmental Scientist Feels Free to Speak Her Mind

After 40 years as a government scientist, toxicologist Linda Birnbaum retired as director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Durham, NC where she navigated many controversies around pollution and human health. While her plans include pursuing research as a volunteer with the Institute and serving on numerous scientific panels, she is also looking forward to being able to speak out more candidly about key environmental concerns. For example, she argues that much of toxicology testing has ignored the extreme variability that exists within a population. Read more.

Angelika Amon Wins 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences

Angelika Amon, the Kathleen and Curtis Marble Professor in Cancer Research and a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, is one of five scientists to receive the 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, given for transformative advances toward understanding living systems and extending human life. She was honored for her work in determining the consequences of aneuploidy, an abnormal chromosome number that results from the missegregation of chromosomes during cell division. Dr. Amon, who is pursuing new options for the treatment of cancer,  is also the winner of the 2019 Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science. Dr. Amon is an RFS Board member.  Read more.

President and Chief Executive Officer Job Opportunity

A search for President and Chief Executive Officer of New York Academy of Medicine has been announced. Reporting to the Chair of the Board of Governors, the President/CEO will provide leadership in all aspects of the Academy, including initiatives in STEM education and health. Read more.

Packard Fellows for Science and Engineering

On October 15, 2019, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation announced the 2019 class of 22 early-career Packard Fellows for Science and Engineering. Among the largest nongovernmental fellowships, this program has supported the “blue-sky” thinking of scientists and engineers with the belief that their research will lead to new discoveries that improve people’s lives and enhance our understanding of the universe. Seven women were honored with this award. Read more.

Statistically Speaking, 2019 Nobel Lineup of 11 Men and One Woman Was Bound to Happen

Only one woman won a Nobel Prize in a science field this year. Esther Duflo was awarded the prize in economics – the “new kid on the block” – with the first prize in economics given in 1969. Since 1901, when the Nobel awards were first given, only 6 women have won the physics prize, 5 the chemistry prize, and 12 the medicine or physiology prize. Overall, women have taken home about 3%, or 22, of the total Nobel prizes. A historical review of the data showed a 96% likelihood that bias against women rather than underrepresentation explains the gender distribution seen in Nobel Prizes. Read more.

Why the 2019 Nobel Prizes in STEM Struggled with Diversity

Despite efforts by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to make Nobel prizes more inclusive, the lack of diversity in race, gender, and geography is still evident. Systematic barriers to promotion for women and minorities in higher education contribute to this gap. Nobel prizes are typically granted to full professors at prestigious academic institutions. It is argued that even with the increasing numbers of women pursing science today, “it will take time before the pool of female Nobel Prize candidates is on par with males.’’ Read more.

Rosalind Franklin Award Recognizes Young Women at the Forefront of Genetics Research

The winners of the 2019 Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award from the Gruber Foundation are Molly Schumer, PhD of Stanford University for her work in genetics of non-mammalian organisms and Bérénce Benayou, PhD of the University of Southern California for her research in human and mammalian genetics. The Award honors the outstanding contributions of Dr. Rosalind Franklin to the field of genetics by providing two young female geneticists with a prize of $275,000 to fund their research. It is administered by a joint committee appointed by the Genetics Society of America, the American Society of Human Genetics, and The Gruber Foundation. Read more.

Explaining Order Among Those Who Share Positions in the Author Byline

Based on the results of two studies that show gender inequities in the ordering of authors sharing the first position in biomedical research articles, with males being favored, mBio will now require an explanation for how such order was determined. This decision is based on the concern that conscious and unconscious biases may contribute to the order of author byline. Read more.

Princeton University’s Jo Dunkley Honored with the New Horizon in Physics Prize

Jo Dunkley, a professor of physics and astrophysical sciences at Princeton University, was honored on November 3, 2019 with the 2020 New Horizons Prize in Physics, awarded for achievements in physics and math. Dr. Dunkley studies the origins and evolution of the universe. Read more.

Two Women Scholars Honored with Blavatnik Regional Awards

The Blavatnik Family Foundation and the New York Academy of Sciences have announced the 2019 winners of the Regional Awards for Young Scientists. The award covers Life Sciences, Physical Science & Engineering, and Chemistry. Two women postdocs received awards. Laura Duval has been conducting research at Rockefeller University on identifying molecules that control mosquito blood-feeding behavior and breeding, which can have a global impact on controlling the spread of diseases such as dengue and Zika. Netta Engelhardt has been conducting research at Princeton University on the interface of general relativity and quantum field theory to better understand complex questions about the fundamentals of our university. Read more.

The Apollo 11 Moon Landing Anniversary is a Reminder of the Importance of Women in STEM

The first human being that comes to mind when we think about the first human moon landing on July 20, 1969 is Neil Armstrong. Decades later, the female NASA engineers who were instrumental in getting astronaut John Glen into space were finally recognized, including those in the film Hidden Figures. Other unsung female scientists played important roles in the Apollo II mission that landed Armstrong and Aldrin on the moon. Progress in the representation and involvement of women has since continued. Read more.

Meet the 96-Year-Old Ottawa Woman Who Contributed to the Discovery of DNA’s Double Helix

June Broomhead Lindsey, now 96 years old, was 1 of 4 scientists at the prestigious Cavendish Laboratory in 1948. Though she quit her brief career as a “top-notch” scientist to raise two children, molecular geneticist Alex McKenzie says she played a significant role in advancing our understanding of DNA. Through reading her PhD thesis, Watson and Crick first realized how DNA is structured. McKenzie wants her work to be recognized while she is still alive. Though Dr. Lindsey acknowledges the importance of her work, she is uncertain that she deserves the limelight. Read more.