̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - conference

Gender inequality is ‘drowning out’ the voices of women scientists

ed515 — Tue, 24 Apr 2018 15:00:00 +0000

Dr Heather Ford and her colleagues analysed data from the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting and found that, overall; female scientists are offered fewer opportunities than men to present their research.

̽��ֱ��team examined the gender, career stage and type of presentation delivered by each participant from 2014 to 2016. They found that female members are at a disadvantage because the majority of them are students or in the early stages of their careers, groups whose members are typically given fewer chances to present their research. ̽��ֱ��results are reported in the journal Nature Communications.

Conference speakers are often at more senior stages of their careers, where there are usually fewer women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) fields. A further problem is that men are more likely to provide speaking opportunities to other men, potentially limiting women’s career prospects.

“ ̽��ֱ��burden of representation often falls on under-represented groups. We need the majority groups to think about representation, otherwise minority voices will continue to be drowned out,” said Ford, who is a NERC Independent Research Fellow in Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences.

However, the research showed some positive signs, as women were invited at a much higher rate than men in the early and mid- career stages.

̽��ֱ��researchers are calling for more students and early career researchers to have opportunities to speak at future conferences, in a bid to help some of the many female members who are at the beginning of their careers. They also want to see more women selecting the conference speakers, and suggest that all members may benefit from diversity training before they can invite speakers and assign conference presentations.

Attending and presenting at conferences helps academics at every stage of their careers to build their network, meet potential collaborators and share their research. Conferences are important for career progression, and can be key in helping researchers to find funding and receive job offers. Presenting at academic conferences can also help researchers to gain recognition and awards for their work.

Ford says she and her co-author Petra Dekens from San Francisco State ̽��ֱ�� were motivated to look into this topic after sitting in “too many conference sessions” with either no female speakers, or a single female speaker.

̽��ֱ��global context is also an important issue for Ford, particular the ongoing campaign for gender equality. She said; “A lot of women have been motivated to speak out about gender inequality in the past year – people are much more vocal about how they’ve been treated. I wanted to find a productive way to channel my frustrations.”

̽��ֱ��AGU Fall Meeting is the world’s largest geoscience conference, with more than 22,000 presentation proposals each year. ̽��ֱ��AGU has more than 60,000 members in 137 countries, and around a third of its members are women. Geoscience is one of the least diverse STEM fields.

Reference:
Heather L. Ford et al. ‘'Gender inequity in speaking opportunities at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.’ Nature Communications (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03809-5

A ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge researcher is calling for the voices of women to be given a fairer platform at a leading scientific conference.

We need the majority groups to think about representation, otherwise minority voices will continue to be drowned out.

Heather L. Ford

International Council for Science

Margaret Leinen at the 2012 AGU Fall Meeting

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How to explore the whole universe: watch COSMO 2013 live

sj387 — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 10:48:58 +0000

̽��ֱ��past year has been an extraordinary one for particle physicists and cosmologists, with the Planck satellite revealing the Universe’s earliest light, and the tentative discovery of the Higgs-Boson at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

Data collected from LHC experiments and the Planck mission - and their implications for the Universe - will be discussed by some of the giants of cosmology and particle physics during this week’s COSMO conference, all of which is being streamed live on YouTube.

Alongside the five-day long scientific conference - with days variously focused on Particle Physics, Cosmic Microwave Background, Large-Scale Structure, Primordial Cosmology and Cosmic Acceleration - there will also be a public symposium tonight, which, with speakers such as Stephen Hawking, Brian Cox and Andrew Liddle, will be a highlight of the COSMO YouTube broadcast.

Andrew Liddle, Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics at the ̽��ֱ�� of Edinburgh, will open the symposium with a talk on cosmology and the Planck satellite, currently being used to map the relic radiation expelled by the Big Bang. COSMOS 2013 is one of the first opportunities for researchers to gather and discuss the recent discoveries, with other lectures on the Planck data from George Efstathiou (Institute of Astronomy) and Ben Wandelt among others.

̽��ֱ��Planck satellite has given us a highly detailed image of the Universe a mere 380,000 years after the Big Bang; and will be used by researchers to learn about the origins of the Universe, its probable fate, and, ultimately, about existence itself.

̽��ֱ��night’s second speaker, Professor Brian Cox, has been credited with helping to demystify physics for the public. ̽��ֱ��former musician is now a particle physicist, Royal Society research fellow and professor at the ̽��ֱ�� of Manchester; he also works on the ATLAS experiment at the CERN super collider. Though a full time lecturer at Manchester, he is a prolific broadcaster and host of many science programmes such as the recent BBC series Wonders of Life.

̽��ֱ��symposium will finish with a talk from Stephen Hawking, the world-famous theoretical physicist, cosmologist and author. Hawking, author of the best-selling A Brief History of Time, gained his Ph.D. at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the ̽��ֱ�� for 30 years and is a Fellow at Gonville and Caius College. He is also the Director of Research at ̽��ֱ��Stephen Hawking Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the ̽��ֱ��.

Among Hawking’s many achievements is the proposal that black holes are not entirely black, but instead emit a type of thermal radiation now known as “Hawking radiation”. His talk, entitled Fire in the Equations, is likely to prove a spell-binding conclusion to the public evening of COSMO 2013.

COSMO 2013 is sponsored by Intel who are providing the live feed for the public event. Richard Curran, Intel Director Enterprise Server and Software Enabling Group EMEA, said “At Intel we have a long and successful history of working with Professor Hawking. We are proud to be supporting the team in its analysis of the data collected from the Planck satellite and wait with great anticipation to the insights the research can offer us about the universe and its origin. We are excited to open this research up to the public and we hope it encourages more people to take an interest in physics and the amazing work being done”.

Watch speakers such as Stephen Hawking and Brian Cox this evening as the public symposium of the 17th International Conference on Particle Physics and Cosmology, known as COSMO 2013, is broadcast live on YouTube.

Arun Venkataswamy

Orion Nebula / M42

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