NWO making progress on GEP implementation with the help of GENERA tools and development of a tailored programme to tackle bias.

https://www.nwo.nl/en/news-and-events/news/2018/07/nwo-works-on-gender-equality.html

The GENERA project presented its results and achievements at the Gender Summit in London on the 19th of June 2018. Coinciding with the final quarter of the project, it provided the project with an ideal opportunity to present GENERA and to share its journey of creating GE(P) in physics, its outputs and publications and its strategies for sustaining the GENERA Consortium in the future. Finally, GENERA expert Wendy Hansen outlined the important lessons and achievements from an expert's perspective.

A second GENERA policy workshop was held in London at the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) on the 20th of June 2018.  The purpose of the meeting was to present and obtain feedback from science and policy communities on the content of the GENERA Policy Briefs and present and obtain feedback on the future of the genera Network as a channel for knowledge and experience sharing in implementing GEPs and as an opportunity to create a Community of Practice that can further advance GEP implementation tools and methods. Photos are available on Flickr at https://flic.kr/s/aHskDtnn8d

The conference was filmed and all the ressources, movies and presentations, are available at this address: https://indico.in2p3.fr/event/16298/

A PDF of the recommendations can be downloaded here.

Sveva Avveduto has been interviewed in a number of online magazines.

Ventisettesima ora blog on women of the Corriere della Sera newspaper

https://www.scienzainrete.it/articolo/scienza-sostantivo-maschile/sveva-avveduto/2018-02-24?utm_source=emailcampaign1138&utm_medium=phpList&utm_content=HTMLemail&utm_campaign=La+Scienza+in+Rete+della+settimana%2C+%23issue+51

Scienza in rete, on line magazine

https://www.scienzainrete.it/articolo/scienza-sostantivo-maschile/sveva-avveduto/2018-02-24?utm_source=emailcampaign1138&utm_medium=phpList&utm_content=HTMLemail&utm_campaign=La+Scienza+in+Rete+della+settimana%2C+%23issue+51

Io Donna, on line magazine of the Corriere della Sera newspaper

http://www.iodonna.it/attualita/in-primo-piano/2018/02/10/giornata-internazionale-delle-donne-e-delle-ragazze-nella-scienza-siamo-piu-vicini-alla-parita-di-genere/

The L'Oréal UK & Ireland Fellowships For Women in Science were launched in January 2007. The Fellowships are awards offered by a partnership between L'Oréal UK & Ireland, the UK National Commission for UNESCO and the Irish National Commission for UNESCO, with the support of the Royal Society. From 2015, Five Fellowships are awarded annually to outstanding female postdoctoral researchers.

The fellowship awards are open to female early-career researchers working in the field of life and physical sciences, engineering, mathematics and computer sciences. Five outstanding female early-career scientists will be awarded a bursary of £15,000.

Applicants should apply online by the deadline of 16 February 2018. Applicants should also read the eligibility criteria and FAQs before starting an application.

Four NWO physics institutes AMOLF, ARCNL, DIFFER and Nikhef have signed Gender Equality Plans (GEP) to promote female physicists careers. The official ceremony took place on Monday night, January 22^nd, 2018 at the start of Physics@Veldhoven in front of the physics community. 

See the following PDF for more information.

CERN has launched a programme to offer full-time or part-time Fellowships to science and engineering graduates wishing to re-start their careers. This is an outstanding chance for you to update your knowledge and skills working for up to three years in an international environment at the forefront of research.

Deadline to submit applications: 5 March 2018 ; 23:59 CET

Deadline to submit all required documents: 7 March 2018; 23:59 CET

Job Reference: AFC-2018-1/FELL_CB

http://jobs.web.cern.ch/job/12783

Dr Claudia de Rham is awarded USD30,000 in the inaugural Blavatnik Awards in the UK, which honour outstanding young scientists under the age of 42. http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_12-1-2018-15-23-33

Marie Curie Alumni Association Annual Conference and General Assembly will take place at the KU Leuven, Belgium, on the 2nd and 3rd February 2018. https://www.mariecuriealumni.eu/events/2018-mcaa-conference-general-assembly

Thanks to the University of Geneva Swiss astroparticle physics participates in IceCube - a huge experiment in neutrino research at the South Pole. The scientists aim to probe with IceCube the exact origin of the neutrinos coming from the universe. For over two years the young scientist Tessa Carver (24) has been part of the experiment.

https://naturalsciences.ch/topics/particlephysics/97151-neutrinos-from-nowhere

Masterclasses on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science will be held on
February 12, 2018

International Masterclasses in particle physics are launching Masterclass activities on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. Institutes are encouraged to arrange a special Masterclass event for girls only. With this event we plan to support and promote the access of women and girls to science education and research activities.

http://physicsmasterclasses.org/index.php?cat=women_in_science

Lisa Kamlade presented GENERA at the 23rd October in Lund, Sweden at the European User Offices Meeting. There is an indico page at https://indico.maxiv.lu.se/event/545/overview

We are pleased to report that Sveva Avveduto has been elected President of the Italian Association for Women in Science, associated partner of GENERA and member of the European Platform of Women Scientists.

Hillary Diane Andales from Philippines wins Breakthrough Junior Challenge 2017 with a video on Relativity & The Equivalence of Reference Frames.

Watch and learn at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnJuKXhFaQ8

WHAT IS THE NATURE OF EXTREME GRAVITY, AND HOW CAN IT HELP US UNDERSTAND THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSE?

CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars program: a new opportunity for early career researchers

Check out: https://www.cifar.ca/research/gravity-the-extreme-universe/

Contact the program’s senior director, Pamela Kanellis at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The list of recommendations collected during the Spanish GiPD (English version) can be downloaded here.

Associazione Donne e Scienza
Convegno annuale
“QUESTIONI DI GENERE: LE PAROLE DELLA SCIENZA”
Roma, 30 novembre – 1 dicembre 2017
CNR, Sala Giacomello, P.le Aldo Moro 7

On September 29^th , 2017,  in occasion of the European Researchers Night that takes place in L’Aquila under “Sharper” (SHAring Researchers’ Passion for Engagement and Responsibility), a project funded by the European Commission in the framework of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie actions, a GENERA Corner was created in order to disseminate the origin and the objectives of GENERA Project, showing the existing situation within INFN, that is a partner Institution of the Project.

Aya Ishihara, an IceCube collaborator and an associate professor of physics at Chiba University in Japan, who in April won the 37th annual Saruhashi Prize, given each year to a female researcher in the natural sciences. http://icecube.wisc.edu/news/view/499, has now also won the the WIRED Japan Innovation Award https://wired.jp/waia/2017/22_aya-ishihara/

The IceCube Collaboration announces the launch of the South Pole Experiment Contest (https://spexperiment.icecube.wisc.edu/en/the-contest). This new outreach project aims to engage middle school students from around the world in science exploration conducted in Antarctica.

Lia Lang and Tessa Carver will be talking at IceCube !  3rd October 2017 18:30–20:00.   Humboldt University, Berlin.

Public talk at DESY Zeuthen

Lia Lang 

Date: October 4^th, 2017

Time: 4 pm – 5pm

Congratulations to Priscilla Pani and Abideh Jafari, two women among three laureates that will start a Young Investigator Group at DESY. They are supported by two GENERA partners: Helmholtz Association and DESY. 
http://www.desy.de/news/news_search/index_eng.html?openDirectAnchor=1275&two_columns=0

the NWO Minerva prize 2017 has been awarded to Julia Camer for her paper in Nature Communications on 'Repeated quantum error correction on a continously encoded quit by real-time feedback'

 

https://www.nwo-i.nl/en/news/2017/09/14/julia-cramer-wins-the-nwo-minerva-prize-for-2017/

Physicists and chemists meet at ETH Zurich on 13–14 September 2017 to discuss gender and science. The meeting is organised by NCCR MUST and Cluster go Excellence RESOLV.
(http://www.nccr-must.ch/gender_and_science_meeting_2017.html)

The NWO Women In Science Excel (WISE) programme provides talented female scientists with an opportunity to develop or expand their own research group at one of NWO's institutes. WISE targets young female researchers who have obtained their PhD at least three years ago.  The deadline for applications is Wednesday 30 August 2017 14:00 CEST.

https://www.nwo.nl/en/research-and-results/programmes/women+in+science+excel

Female physicist Dr Mun Mi-ock is set to become Chief Science Adviser to President Moon Jae-in of South Korea on the 20th of June.  Dr Mi-ock was at WISET before becoming parlimentarian.  WISET lead GS6.

Applications are now open for CERN post-career break fellowships.  Applications close 4th September 2017. Further information is available on the CERN website here.

Sveva Avveduto attended Gender Summit 11 in Tokyo as a GENERA representative.

Helene Schiffbaenker from Joanneum Research takes part in the
International Workshop on Structural Change for Gender Equality in Research: What Is It All About?
19 May 2017 – Academic Conference Centre, Husova 4a, Prague 1, Czech Republic

The latest Gender in Physics took place on 10 May in Rome, organised by CNR and INFN.  It was hosted at CNR Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche in Rome. You can see the programme at https://agenda.infn.it/conferenceOtherViews.py?view=standard&confId=13172

April 12: We are pleased to welcome School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, UK as a new observer.

March 26: the Weizmann Institute of Science (https://www.weizmann.ac.il) agrees to join GENERA as observer partner to help advance implementation of Gender Equality Plans in physics institutions.
The Weizmann Institute of Science is one of the world’s leading multidisciplinary basic research institutions in the natural and exact sciences. It is located in Rehovot, Israel, just south of Tel Aviv. It was initially established as the Daniel Sieff Institute in 1934, by Israel and Rebecca Sieff of London in memory of their son Daniel. In 1949, it was renamed for Dr. Chaim Weizmann, the first President of the State of Israel and Founder of the Institute.

25 March 2017, Yokohama, Elizabeth Pollitzer explained GENERA at a symposium organised by the Japan Society of Applied Physics as part of the JSAP’s 64th Spring Conference

As GENERA representative, Sveva Avveduto attended Workshop at the Italian House of Commons Library (Biblioteca della Camera dei Deputati, Roma) on March 8th for the Digital Women Workshop.

GENERA has successfully passed the mid-term progress and quality verification by the European Commission

In their plans to celebrate International Day of Women and Girls in Science (http://www.un.org/en/events/women-and-girls-in-science-day/index.shtml), Ambassador Maira Mora, Director General of the Permanent International Secretariat of the Council of the Baltic Sea States, recognises the role of DESY and GENERA in facilitating women ́s career advancement specifically in physics research field (http://www.cbss.org/international-day-women-girls-science-2017/).

The Joint Secretariat of GENERA met in Paris on the 16th and 17th November 2016. The meeting was kindly hosted by GENERA consortium member Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS). Representatives from GENERA’s 13 partners gathered at the meeting. The main purpose was to report on the technical progress of the project and plan the coming tasks, using the experience thus far of the the project to inform effective future implementation. 2017 will see Gender-in-Physics days hosted by nine of the consortium members across Europe and two Knowledge Exchange Events. Sign up to the GENERA newsletter to keep up to date.

Sveva Avveduto, Ilaria Di Tullio, members of the GENERA consortium write about their reflections on this year's Nobel prize awards.

Since 1901, when the Nobel Prize Ceremony was established in honour of the Swedish inventor of the dynamite Alfred Nobel, 579 prizes have been awarded to 911 candidates, with only 49 to women scientists: two for physical science (Marie Sklodowska Curie and Maria Goeppert Mayer), four for chemistry, 12 for medicine/physiology, 14 for literature and 16 for Peace[1]. This gender disparity is shown in Figure 1.

In 2016 Nobel Prize has been awarded exceptionally to four women, 3 for science and 1 for literature[2].

This year the Nobel Prize in physics has been jointly awarded to David J. Thouless, F. Duncan M. Haldane and J. Michael Kosterlitz, for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter. Their achievement was described by Thors Hans Hansson, a member of the Nobel Committee for Physics as explaining a world far away by illustrating the mysterious theory of ‘topological phase transitions’ using the metaphors of a cinnamon roll, a bagel, and a pretzel.

Read more …

GENERA was presented, for the second year in a row, at the Gender Summit 9 Europe on 8-9 November in Brussels, Belgium. The Gender Summit - Quality Research and Innovation through Equality - is one of the world's leading gatherings on the topic of Gender and Science. Thomas Berghoefer joined 65 other speakers in Brussels, including the South African Minister for Science and Technology, Minister Pandor, and B. Mario Pinto, President, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Canada. Part of the event was held at the European Parliament, hosted by the FEMM committee, an important milestone in maintaining gender in science's central role in the evolution of Horizon 2020. Thomas presented GENERA: Measuring, monitoring, and advancing gender equality in Physics RPOs in a Plenary session along with three other eminent speakers, including Dr Isabelle Vernos. Dr Vernos presented LIBRA: Measuring, monitoring, and advancing gender equality in Life Sciences RPOs. LIBRA is a sister H2020 project of GENERA, and provided an interesting comparison between the two projects focussing on specific fields, Physics and Lige Sciences. You can download all the presentations from the session via the Gender Summit 9 Programme Page.

"The physics community realized: To change the situation of female underrepresentation we ourselves have to become active. So we started GENERA!"
Lia Lang, via Welt der Physik

Lia Lang presented GENERA at 20th German Conference of Women in Physics (Deutsche Physikerinnentagung, DPT) November 3-6, 2016, in Hamburg. The DPT is the annual conference of the German Physical Society (Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft, DPG) and its working group on equal opportunities (Arbeitskreis Chancengleichheit, AKC) for female physicists of all career stages in academia and industry.  The DPT 2016 was under patronage of Federal Minister Prof Dr Johanna Wanka and will be hosted by the Physics Department of the University of Hamburg and from the excellence cluster The Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging (CUI). 

'It must be absolutely clear that administrators find this subject important and act accordingly" Sijbrand de Jong (Radboud University) at the first Genera GIP Day on Tuesday 1 November 2016.

GENERA partner, FOM, organised the first Gender-in-Physics Day in 'De Eenhoorn' in Amersfoort. FOM invited directors of institutes, deans, management, gender officers, human resource management, senior and junior physicists (female AND male) to come together, contribute to the discussions and together improve the gender balance in physics. The event was the first in the GENERA series of Gender-in-Physics Days, there are 9 more planned for next year across Europe. Read the press release about the day.

We have collected our top Gender and Physics resources. GENERA has used resources featured on the GenPORT portal to give an introduction to the specific gender challenges faced in Physics, which range from the particular obstacles in engaging girls in physics at school level to the lack of knowledge of how gender issues (e.g. homogenous teams, biased recruitment and retention processes overlooking talent) may affect the quality of physics research. Have you got a top Gender and Physics resources? This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

"Dr Elizabeth Pollitzer, Director of Portia introduced our audience to a head-spinning number of examples in which research and researchers are affected by gender inequality – reinforcing the need for gender equality to remain on the agenda." via Vitae Researcher Development International Conference website.

Dr Elizabeth Pollitzer, representing Portia (a member of the project consortium), presented GENERA at the Vitae Researcher Development International Conference, Manchester, 12-13 September 2016. The conference attracted 400 participants, including researcher development practitioners, trainers, career specialists, heads of graduate schools, pro-vice chancellors, funders, research managers and other professionals from the UK. Read the full roundup of the event here.

The tentative schedule for the GENERA Gender-in-Physics Days has been announced. Gender-in-Physics Days will take place in GENERA hosting institutions involving directly various levels of participants from junior and senior researchers, to management level personnel, policy makers and different stakeholders, internal or external to the hosting Organization. Read more about the Gender-in-Physics Days.

GENERA was delighted to take part in the GenPORT Launch on 21 April in Brussels The event brought together MEPs, Research Funders, Associations and experts. The day started with Breakfast at the European Parliament and continued at nearby Residence Palace for a stakeholder forum. GENERA co-ordinator, Thomas Berghöfer, presented the project and how it interlinks with GENPORT. Read more about the launch.

GENERA was presented to 350+ delegates the Gender Summit 7 Europe. Dr Thomas Berghoefer presented on "The GENERA project: fostering gender equality and the importance of mixed teams in physics." Thomas is a Senior researcher at Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron, the co-ordinating organisaiton of GENERA. The Summit is an important event in the Gender and Science calendar in Europe and is an opportunity to share the GENERA project with researchers, policy makers and gender & science practioners from across the world. GENERA will report progress at the GS10 Europe in Nov this year.

The GENERA project launched at the begining of September and, to start as we mean to go on, the project kick-off invited stakeholders from across Europe to come and learn about the project and give input into how we can better support their work through the lifetime of the Project. Robert Jan Smits (Director-General of the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (RTD) opened the day, setting the tone of the meeting. The consortium, which represents top level expertise in both Physics and Gender & Science, introduced the project and we also had representatives from across Europe who are doing outstanding work in the area coming to speak about their cutting edge activities and share their experiences.

Read the European Commission News report of the event

Read more …