Effect of STEM pipeline leakage March 9, 2010
Posted by Acoustics (ACOU) Arvelo in : History, Policy and Education (HPE) , add a commentA new study reported in the 30 October issue of Science indicates that the United States risks losing its economic competitiveness because of a lack of social and economic incentives to pursue careers in science and technology. The percentage of students enrolled in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics dropped only slightly from 1972 to 2000, the percentage of these STEM graduates who were working in STEM occupations rose slightly, but the percentage of top students plunged 14%. Likewise the share of the top quintile still holding STEM jobs 10 years out of college dipped, these graduates being drawn into careers in management and finance.
Two NSBP Members Win Major Awards September 2, 2009
Posted by admin in : Condensed Matter and Materials Physics (CMMP), History, Policy and Education (HPE) , add a comment
Dr. Adrienne Stiff-Roberts was recently awarded one of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).
The PECASE awards were commissioned by President Clinton to
honor and support the extraordinary achievements of young scientists and engineers at the outset of their independent research careers. These Presidential awards are the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on outstanding scientists and engineers just beginning their independent careers.
Dr. Stiff-Roberts is an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke University. Her research involves the design, fabrication, and characterization of opto-electronic/photonic devices, particularly those in the infrared spectrum. She also does research on multifunctional sensors featuring hybrid nanomaterials.
She is a graduate of Spelman College and the University of Michigan.
Professor Nadya Mason wins Denise Denton Award
Dr. Nadya Mason is the 2009 winner of the Denise Denton Emerging Leader Award. Dr. Mason is currently and assistant professor of physics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She is co-chair of the NSBP Condensed Matter and Materials Physics Section.
Given by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI), the Denice Denton Emerging Leader Award is given each year to a junior non-tenured faculty member under the age of 40 at an academic or research institution pursuing high-quality research in any field of engineering or physical sciences while contributing significantly to promoting diversity in his/her environment. The Denice Denton Award is underwritten by Microsoft.
Dr. Mason’s research focuses on electron behavior in low-dimensional, correlated materials, where enhanced novel interactions are expected to give novel results. She is particularly interested in the effect of reduced dimensionality and correlations on electron coherence, and uses novel fabrication techniques to study quantum properties of carbon nanotubes, quantum dots and wires. She has several publications in top-flight journals including Nature, Science and Physical Review Letters.
In addition to her research, Dr. Mason is a spokesperson for increasing diversity in physics and for creating a climate in academia that embraces and supports minorities and women.
She is a graduate of Harvard University and Stanford University.
A Tribute: Dr. Beth Brown August 13, 2009
Posted by The Quantum Cosmos in : Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASTRO), Cosmology, Gravitation, and Relativity (CGR), History, Policy and Education (HPE) , add a commentLast October, the astrophysical community and NSBP lost a shining star, Dr. Beth Brown. The first Black woman to earn a PhD in astronomy from the University of Michigan, Dr. Brown was an expert in high energy astrophysics as well as an ardent advocate for participation in education and outreach. To honor her memory, Aziza Productions created a memorial film. The Howard University Department of Physics and Astronomy has links to quicktime and windows media formats.
NASA will be remembering the former NASA Administrator Fellow this October at the 2009 Women in Astronomy Conference*, which is dedicated to Dr. Brown. Although she is no longer with us in person, Dr. Brown’s spirit will continue to inspire us all for a long time to come.
*Students, please note that there is travel funding available to attend this conference. See the website for more information.
Historian of Science, The Solstice, Hubble’s Diverse Universe July 7, 2009
Posted by AstrOBloGs in : Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASTRO), History, Policy and Education (HPE) , 2commentsby Jarita C. Holbrook
While visiting Cardiff, I met Dr. Seymour Mauskopf who was visiting a mutual friend. Dr. Mauskopf is a historian of science at Duke University. We had a discussion of the program in the History and Philosophy of Science at Duke. It is a certificate program and a graduate concentration. It is similar to how I am trying to set up the program in Cultural Astronomy at the University of Arizona. I got the feeling that Dr. Mauskopf now thinks that at some point Duke should have built this up to a full graduate degree program. I suggested that to build a program you had to have someone willing to see it through from start to finish including getting funding for students and building a viable network where graduating students can get postdocs. I used the term “empire builder”. He felt that such a person has yet to join their faculty.
Our conversation got me thinking about what a postdoc in cultural astronomy could be. If I keep my current model of graduate students having a traditional major and a minor in cultural astronomy, then they can get a postdoc in their major as long as their work fits in with the current intellectual debates. If they focus only on cultural astronomy, people in their field may not see their work as relevant. Unlike in the physical sciences, the goal of the first postdoc is to transform the dissertation into a publishable book. Because my dissertation is in astronomy & astrophysics, when I began my first postdoc at UCLA I had to start with doing research before even considering writing a book. As a result, I had a rather long postdoc and finished writing the book in 2004 after being a professor for two years. However, the book has still not been published - this is my book on navigation by the stars. Meanwhile, I have begun several other projects and am actively collecting data while my book bounces from publisher to publisher looking for a home. I had hoped to have a second book completed on new research by this point of my career, but it hasn’t gone as smoothly as I expected. However, African Cultural Astronomy – my unexpected book – is quite an achievement which I am proud of: It is an edited volume that is also a textbook written for undergraduates and available from Springer. Also unlike in the physical sciences, postdocs are expected to teach at least one class per year. And, a postdoc can be taken at any time even after getting tenure.
More on postdocs, I had several conversations with postdocs in astronomy in Leiden, Garching, and Cambridge. The mood was somber. Because of the economic crisis worldwide, most academic astronomy positions have been frozen or withdrawn. The hiring freezes are into the foreseeable future, so those astronomers starting postdocs are facing the real possibility of having to do three or more postdocs before applying for an academic or even any kind of permanent position. They will have to adopt a holding pattern and go into survival mode. This is the time for NSF to increase its support of postdoctoral fellows especially of women and minorities if they want them to remain in astronomy. Women and minorities are disproportionately impacted during cut backs and lay offs in general, but every effort should be made to keep this from happening to our fledgeling astronomers. If NSF was really farsighted they could set up joint professorships where NSF will pay their salary for three years with the guarantee that the University will pay the last three years which will get people through to tenure and overall help universities at the very least replace retiring professors. Attaching women and minorities to it would gently force astronomy departments to finally diversify. OK, maybe not so gentle.
The solstice 2009 went well. I witnessed several rituals and spoke to many people about the 2010 Cultural Astronomy Field School which will take place June 2010. It looks like in 2010 there will be a large group at dawn, and Morris dancing at sunset. I learned that a group does rituals at midnight on the solstice (the night before), too. During the day, the rituals included smaller groups compared to the dawn activities. In general, those folks that I spoke to about having students witness their rituals in 2010 were enthusiastic. I was surprised at how amenable people were to the idea considering that they choose to do rituals at this much smaller and less well know stone circle rather than at Avebury and Stonehenge. It looks like all the elements of the 2010 Cultural Astronomy Field School are in place, it is time to set a price and start advertising!
I returned to the USA via San Francisco in the middle of the week, and drove via Los Angeles back to Tucson. This morning my husband and I met with Lisa Boags, the head of Boags Productions. Hubble’s Diverse Universe is the name of our film on African American and Hispanic American astronomers funded by a NASA Education and Public Outreach grant. Everyone in the film is a member of NSBP and NSHP. We chose to work with Boags Productions because they did a fantastic documentary on the Tuskegee Airmen. They are doing a great job on our film which will premiere on July 11 & 12th at the Museum of African American Technology in Oakland, CA. Lisa Boags, George Carruthers, and I will be available for Q & A after the viewing the film. This morning we went over the science section of the film which is 15 minutes of the 45 minutes. We suggested a few more HST images and animations to include. The film is one of the IYA2009 projects for the Cultural Astronomy and Storytelling group.
This may be my last blog this year for NSBP and I hope NSBP students have learned a bit more about cultural astronomy, useful information about astronomy and being an astronomer, and what a few of us NSBP members are up to. I will end with a big IF: NSBP member Hakeem Oluseyi and I are waiting to hear if we have gotten a NASA E/PO grant to do solar physics experiments in the Marshall Islands during the July 22, 2009, total solar eclipse. IF we get the grant we will take student assistants and make a documentary film about the whole experience including: 1) the solar physics experiments, 2) the experiences of minority students traveling to an amazing location to do a high pressure task, 3) Marshall Islander cultural astronomy including folklore and navigation, 4) local people’s responses to the eclipse, and 5) profiles of the scientists. We hope to hear from NASA this week.
Don’t forget to celebrate the International Year of Astronomy 2009. The Universe: Yours to Discover!
Dr. Jarita Holbrook is a research scientist in cultural astronomy at the University of Arizona. She received her undergraduate degree in physics from Caltech and the Ph.D. degree in astronomy from the University of California-Santa Barbara. She was a postdoctoral research scholar in history of science at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. She is the co-editor or the recently published volume, African Cultural Astronomy.
NSBP Members Participate in SciFest Africa March 22, 2009
Posted by HPEbLogs in : Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASTRO), History, Policy and Education (HPE) , add a commentNSBP members, Charles McGruder and Hakeem Oluseyi, are participating in SciFest Africa this week as special representatives of the United States.
Held annually in late March as South Africa’s national science festival, SciFest Africa is a fun-filled event specially styled to make science, technology, engineering and mathematics accessible to and of interest to every-day people. Each year SciFest Africa offers over 550 events and activities, including exhibitions, educational theatre, lectures, hands-on workshops, excursions, a soap box derby, laser-shows, quizzes, Science Olympics,and whiz-bang science shows. It is the biggest science festival in sub-Saharan Africa. The 2008 Festival was attended by no less than 58,000 people.
Dr. McGruder, a former president of NSBP, will be giving two public lectures, one on the STARBASE project and another on the search for extra-solar planets. In a separate event Dr. Oluseyi will be lecturing on how dark matter and dark energy help explain the motion of galaxies.
Dr. McGruder is the director of NSBP’s program to build capacity in astronomy in Southern Africa. While in South Africa he will also be meeting will government officials about South Africa’s bid for the SKA telescope. Dr. Oluseyi has been a faculty member in NSBP’s program, having taught classes in astrophysics in the National Astrophysics and Space Science Program at the University of Cape Town. Their participation in SciFest Africa is sponsored by the US State Department’s Bureau of International Information Programs.
IYA2009 Galileoscope Now Available to Order March 21, 2009
Posted by HPEbLogs in : Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASTRO), History, Policy and Education (HPE) , 2commentsThe Galileoscope a high quality, easy-to-assemble and easy-to-use
telescope at an unprecedentedly low price is now available to order. A
Cornerstone project of the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009),
the Galileoscope was developed by a team of leading astronomers, optical
engineers and science educators to make the wonders of the night sky more
accessible to everyone. Orders can now be placed through
www.galileoscope.org for delivery beginning in late April.
By encouraging the experience of personally seeing celestial objects, the
Galileoscope project aims to facilitate a main goal of IYA2009: promoting
widespread access to new knowledge and observing opportunities. Observing
through a telescope for the first time is an experience that shapes our
view of the sky and the Universe. It prompts people to think about the
importance of astronomy, and for many its a life-changing experience.
Galileoscopes will open up a whole new world for their users and are an
excellent means of pursuing an interest in astronomy during IYA2009 and
beyond.
Galileoscopes are available at the incredibly low price of US$15 per kit.
Discounts are available for group purchases of 100 or more, bringing the
price down even lower, to US$12.50 each, reducing costs for schools,
colleges, astronomical societies, or even parties of interested
individuals. Never before has such a high quality and professionally
endorsed scientific instrument been available for this price.
To further this aim, the Galileoscope Cornerstone project has initiated
the Give a Galileoscope programme. Participants may buy Galileoscopes
for themselves, their families, or their friends at the regular $15 or
$12.50 price (depending on quantity) plus shipping, and/or donate as many
telescopes as theyd like for $12.50 each, with no shipping charges.
Donated Galileoscopes will go to less advantaged schools and other
organisations worldwide, especially in developing countries. This will
help bring a modern education to students in poor schools and empower them
to pursue science and technology knowledge. Donating Galileoscopes
increases the projects global impact and gives people who might otherwise
never have the opportunity to look through a telescope the chance to join
millions of skywatchers worldwide in a shared experience of astronomical
discovery.
The Galileoscope is named after the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei,
who first observed the heavens through a telescope 400 years ago. His
observations were nothing short of revolutionary and changed our view of
the world forever. The Galileoscope is optimised to provide views of the
very same objects that inspired Galileo all those years ago including
craters and mountains on the Moon, the rings of Saturn, the phases of
Venus, a variety of star clusters, and moons orbiting the planet Jupiter.
Sights such as these astounded Galileo and they are all visible, along
with countless other objects, through the Galileoscope. Although, with its
21st-century optics, it will provide a much better observing experience
than Galileo had!
Galileoscopes are also invaluable educational tools, tying in with topics
such as mathematics, physics, history and philosophy. As practical
instruments they can be used to demonstrate basic optical theory in a
real-world scenario, a technique often praised by educators and pupils
themselves. Free educational guides are available on the projects
website, providing further information to teachers, students and
enthusiasts. Experience has shown that the Wow!-factor that kids get
from assembling their own fully functional, high quality Galileoscope is
unsurpassed.
The ability to experiment with lenses while building the telescope offers
a much more powerful learning experience than receiving a preassembled
telescope, says Rick Fienberg, Editor Emeritus of Sky & Telescope
magazine and Chair of the IYA2009 Cornerstone project. Users will learn
many aspects of optics and even have a chance to construct two types of
telescopes a modern one and a more primitive one similar to Galileos,
adds Stephen Pompea, US IYA2009 Project Director and member of the IYA2009
Cornerstone project. Building and using a Galileoscope gives kids the
feeling that science is fun.
Galileoscopes are easy to use, sturdy, reliable and well-designed windows
to the Universe. Orders are now being taken through the official website,
www.galileoscope.org. Build one and the stars will be within your reach!
Worldwide observing projects with small telescopes are a key part of the
Galileoscope Cornerstone. The You Are Galileo! project, organised by the
IYA2009 Japan National Committee, uses classroom telescopes along with
worksheets and manuals to form part of a year-long observation programme.
These are designed for children and certificates are available for
participants who send records of their observations to the You Are
Galileo! team.
###
Notes for Editors
The Galileoscope is a high quality 50-mm f/10 telescope, with a glass
doublet achromatic objective. A 20-mm Plössl-like eyepiece with twin
plastic doublet achromatic lenses gives a magnification of 25x across a
1.5-degree field, and a 2x Barlow lens (also a plastic doublet achromat)
gives a magnification of 50x. The Barlow lens can also be used as a
Galilean eyepiece to give a magnification of 17x and a very narrow field
of view to simulate the Galileo experience. The standard 1.25-inch
focuser accepts commercial accessories, and the standard 1/4-20 tripod
adapter works with any standard photo tripod (not included).
In addition to the IAU, UNESCO, the IYA2009 Global Sponsors and the
IYA2009 Organisational Associates, principal sponsors of the Galileoscope
project include the American Astronomical Society, the National Optical
Astronomy Observatory, the National Science Foundation, the Astronomical
Society of the Pacific, Carthage College, Merit Models, Photon
Engineering, Sky & Telescope, and Galileo’s Place, home of Galileo-brand
telescopes.
IYA2009 marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galileis first
astronomical observations through a telescope. It is a worldwide
celebration, promoting astronomy and its contribution to society and
culture, with events at regional, national, and global levels.
Links
· Galileoscope website: www.galileoscope.org
· IYA2009 website: www.astronomy2009.org
· You Are Galileo! web site: www-irc.mtk.nao.ac.jp/~webadm/Galileo-E/
For more information:
Dr. Richard Tresch Fienberg
IYA2009 Galileoscope Cornerstone Project Chair
Andover, USA
Tel: +1 978 749 4753
E-mail: rfienberg@galileoscope.org
Dr. Stephen M. Pompea
US IYA2009 Project Director/Chair, US Telescope Kits Working Group
National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Tucson, USA
Tel:+1 520.318.8285
Cellular: +1 520.907.2493
E-mail: spompea@noao.edu
Dr. Kazuhiro Sekiguchi
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Tokyo
Tel: +81 42 234 3955
E-mail: galileoscope@astronomy2009.jp
Further contacts
Pedro Russo
IAU IYA2009 Coordinator
ESO ePOD, Garching, Germany
Tel: +49 89 320 06 195
Cellular: +49 176 6110 0211
E-mail: prusso@eso.org
Yolanda Berenguer
UNESCO Focal Point for the International Year of Astronomy 2009
UNESCO HQ, Paris, France
Tel: +33 1 45684171
E-mail: y.berenguer@unesco.org
Dr. Karel A. van der Hucht
General Secretary, International Astronomical Union
IAU Secretariat, Paris, France
Tel: +33 1 43 25 83 58
E-mail: K.A.van.der.Hucht@sron.nl
Lars Lindberg Christensen
IAU Press Officer
ESO ePOD, Garching, Germany
Tel: +49 89 3200 6761
Cellular: +49 173 3872 621
E-mail: lars@eso.org
Related video available at:
http://www.iau.org/public_press/news/release/iau0906/
See Steve Pompea talk about the Galileoscope at the 2009 Joint Annual Conference of the National Society of Black Physicists and the National Society of Hispanic Physicists