Spring 2015
GWISE Coffee & Conversations: The Future of the Postdoc
Date and Time: Monday, April 27 from 12:30pm-1:30pm
Location: 110 Cummington Mall, Room 245
Join GWISE for our monthly series, Coffee and Conversations, where we hope to provoke meaningful discussions about issues relevant to women in STEM. This month we will be discussing a recent feature in Nature on “The Future of the Postdoc.” In the past decade, the number of postdoctoral positions has increased rapidly, while the number of available tenure-track positions in academia has plateaued or shrunk, leaving young, aspiring academics to jump from one temporary position to another. We’ll talk about how this impacts the quality of science and how some institutions and countries are trying to address this problem. Remember, you can still come even if you haven’t ready the articles!
Nature News Feature detailing the current situation and potential solutions
Article in PNAS describing factors contributing to the increasing age for ROI grants and recommending changes
Science News Feature on new National Cancer Institute awards for staff scientists
Bring your own lunch and GWISE will provide drinks and dessert!
GWISE Professional Development Grants
Date and Time: DEADLINE: Friday, May 1 (*This is the FINAL grant cycle for the year!)
Interested in attending a professional development workshop or event, but need help paying for registration fees or other expenses? Consider applying for a GWISE Professional Development Grant (PDG)! The PDG Program is designed to help our members benefit from professional development opportunities in the Boston area and beyond by providing funding for participation. We will fund a range of opportunities, including workshops, networking events, memberships in professional societies, and conferences. For example, MASS AWIS, WEST, and MassBio all hold events that might be of interest to graduate students. Please be aware that grants are not intended for travel to scientific meetings where you will be presenting research.
Check out the GWISE website HERE for more information about the PDG Program. If interested, please apply online through this APPLICATION FORM. Our next PDG deadline is Friday, December 5! You will be notified within one week of the application deadline whether you will receive an award. Please contact Allison at allisonq@bu.edu with any questions.
Examples of upcoming events:
April 22: MASS AWIS Alternative Careers in Science – Speed Networking Event
2015 GWISE Annual Keynote Spring Luncheon featuring Dr. Laurie Leshin
Date and Time: Wednesday, April 8 from 11:40pm-1:30pm
Location: 901 Photonics, 9th Floor Colloquium Room
Please join us for GWISE’s 5th Annual Spring Keynote and Luncheon, featuring Dr. Laurie Leshin, President of Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Throughout her career, Dr. Leshin has made profound contributions to minimizing the gender gap in STEM fields, and we are excited to award her the 2nd Annual GWISE Advocate of the Year award and learn from her career stories. This event will be a great opportunity to network and discuss issues related to women in STEM over a delicious 3-course luncheon. Please RSVP soon if you plan to attend, as space will be limited after April 3rd.
Dr. Laurie Leshin is the 16th President of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and is the first female president in the Institution’s 150-year history. Dr. Leshin previously served as Dean of the School of Science and Professor of Earth & Environmental Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she led the scientific academic and research enterprise. Prior to joining Rensselaer, Leshin served as the Deputy Associate Administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate where she played a leading role in NASA’s future human spaceflight endeavors.
GWISE Outreach Opportunity: Science Night at Lincoln School (K-8)
Date and Time: Friday, March 20 from 6:00pm-8:00pm
Location: 19 Kennard Road, Brookline, MA 02445
Due to minimal leadership, volunteer interests, and demonstrations, Lincoln School (K-8) may cancel their Science Night on March 20. Help save Science Night at this school and continue to spread the excitement of chemistry by volunteering to lead a science or engineering demonstration! The more people interested, the more likely Science Night will go on at Lincoln School.
If you are interested in helping create a demo (individually or in a group), please contact Stacy Chin at slchin12@bu.edu for more information.
GWISE-Bioinformatics Robotics Club @ West-End House: Seeking Volunteer Mentors!
Date and Time: WEEKLY: Thursdays, 6:30pm-7:30pm
Location: West-End House Boys and Girls Club, Allston St., Boston MA 02134
Share your passion for technology and get kids excited about engineering and robotics! Join the weekly Robotics club at the WEH, and work with kids as they build and program awesome robots, using the LEGO Mindstorms robotics kit. The robots can be programmed to move around, recognize colors, and make sounds! The robots are programmed using a drag-and-drop interface that is very easy to use, so no programming experience is required! The club takes place on Thursdays from 6:30-7:30pm (right after GWISE Girls Science Club!). GWISE and WISEguys are welcome to mentor! If you’re interested, please contact Gracia at gracia@bu.edu for more information.
GWISE February Book Club: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Date and Time: Wednesday, February 11 at 12:00pm
Location: TBA
One of The New York Times’s Ten Best Books of the Year. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction
Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love as students in Nigeria, when the country is under military rule and those with the means to leave the country do. Ifemelu goes to America to study and prospers there. But Obinze can’t get into America and winds up living in London under assumed names. When they’re reunited in their homeland 15 years later, they face the toughest decisions of their lives.
GWISE has a few copies of the book to loan. If you would like to borrow a hard copy or eBook, please contact Junzi at junzid@bu.edu. (Please state whether you prefer eBook or hard copy.)
GWISE Mug Decorating Nite!
Date and Time: Wednesday, February 11 from 6:00pm-8:30pm
Location: 24 Cummington Mall (LSEB), Room 103
Come make yourself a mug for the new semester, or a gift for someone special for Valentines’ Day! Join GWISE for Mug Decorating Nite (our spin on Paint Nite), an evening of fun crafting, meeting new friends, and enjoying snacks and wine. We will provide plain mugs and ceramic markers, you’ll only need to bake your mug in the oven to make the color permanent. Please RSVP at the link above so we know how many materials to provide. Refreshments and drinks will also be provided. We’d love to see you there!
GWISE Coffee & Conversations: Speech and Gender Bias
Date and Time: Tuesday, February 24 from 12:00pm-1:00pm
Location: 110 Cummington Mall, Room 245
Join GWISE for our monthly series, Coffee & Conversations, where we hope to provoke meaningful discussions about issues relevant to women in STEM. This month we will be discussing how a person’s speaking voice influences how they are perceived. Studies have shown that speakers with more feminine voices are perceived as less competent and trustworthy and that speakers with more masculine voices are preferred for leadership roles. Speech characteristics like vocal fry and uptalk can also affect how speakers are perceived. How does this impact women in the labor market? Should those of us with vocal characteristics that are less desirable work to change them so that we are perceived more desirably? We’ll debate these and other questions over lunch – note the time change from last semester. Bring your own lunch and GWISE will provide drinks and dessert!
NPR article: http://www.npr.org/blogs/
NPR video: http://www.npr.org/blogs/
Article, perception of leadership: http://journals.plos.org/
Article, perception of competence: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
GWISE Harry Potter Movie Nights! (Movie #1, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone)
Date and Time: Wednesday, January 28 at 6:00pm-9:00pm
Location: 24 Cummington Mall (LSEB), Room 103
Take a break from lab and teaching to bond with your fellow graduate students over the Harry Potter films that epitomize our adolescence. We will meet once a month from January to August, and watch the films in order. To kick off the Spring 2015 semester, we will start with wee little 11-year-old Harry in his debut, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Popcorn and beverages will be provided (feel free to bring your dinner). Future dates: Feb 26th, Mar 26th, Apr 23rd, May 21st, Jun 18th, Jul 30th, and Aug 27th. Come for as many or as few as you desire. RSVP now if you plan to attend any future showings!
GWISE Spring Semester Kickoff Social at Bar Louie Fenway
Date and Time: Thursday, January 29 at 5:30pm-7:30pm
Location: Bar Louie Fenway, 121 Brookline Ave.
Join GWISE at Bar Louie Fenway to kick-off the spring semester and network with your fellow graduate students! There will be free appetizers for all and free drink tickets for the first 40 attendees who arrive. We will be hosting an activity to encourage networking amongst GWISE members. We look forward to welcoming you back for Spring Semester 2015! Please RSVP to the link above if you plan to attend.
GWISE/WISE Mentoring Program: Applications for new mentors!
Date and Time: DEADLINE: Monday, January 26
Location: N/A
Based on the enthusiastic feedback from the program last year and from the Fall 2014 semester, we are currently accepting applications for new GWISE mentors for Spring 2015. WISE @ Warren and WISE-UP are specialty communities here at BU dedicated to supporting undergraduate women in science and engineering. Our objectives for this program are to: 1. Connect the undergraduate and graduate WISE communities, 2. Support the academic and professional growth of undergraduate women in STEM fields, and 3. Provide an opportunity for GWISE students to develop as future leaders and mentors.
By participating in this mentoring program as GWISE mentors, you will receive valuable mentoring and leadership experience as well as an opportunity to interact with the WISE community at BU through building and fostering a 1-on-1, mentor-mentee relationship. GWISE will provide resources and programming to enrich your mentoring experience.
To sign up to become a GWISE mentor for an undergraduate WISE student, please fill out this APPLICATION by Monday, January 26. Please note that as a new GWISE mentor participating in this program, you are required to: 1. Attend the GWISE/WISE Mentoring Program Kick-Off/ Networking Event (February 2015), and 2. Schedule at least one meeting with your WISE mentee per month for the duration of the Spring 2015 academic semester. If you are currently a GWISE mentor in this program and signed up during the Fall 2014 semester, you do not need to apply for the program again. Please do not hesitate to email Stacy Chin (slchin12@bu.edu) or Iriny Ekladious (irinye@bu.edu) with any questions or concerns.
GWISE Book Club: Vote for Spring Semester Books!
Date and Time: DEADLINE: Friday, January 30
Location: N/A
We have the top 8 candidate book titles from the great list of recommendations by all of you last semester. Please vote at the link above to help narrow it down to ~4 for this semester!
GWISE Professional Development Grants
Date and Time: DEADLINE: Friday, February 6
Location: N/A
Interested in attending a professional development workshop or event, but need help paying for registration fees or other expenses? Consider applying for a GWISE Professional Development Grant (PDG)! The PDG Program is designed to help our members benefit from professional development opportunities in the Boston area and beyond by providing funding for participation. We will fund a range of opportunities, including workshops, networking events, memberships in professional societies, and conferences. For example, MASS AWIS, WEST, and MassBio all hold events that might be of interest to graduate students. Please be aware that grants are not intended for travel to scientific meetings where you will be presenting research.
Check out the GWISE website HERE for more information about the PDG Program. If interested, please apply online through this APPLICATION FORM. Our next PDG deadline is Friday, February 6, and is one of the two deadlines each year where we award the $100 and $500 grants! You will be notified within one week of the application deadline whether you will receive an award. Please contact Allison at allisonq@bu.edu with any questions.
Examples of upcoming events:
February 3: WEST – Effective Transition from Academia to Industry
February 25: AWIS – Navigating Your Job Search
GWISE Women’s and Co-ed Intramural Softball SIGNUPS
Date and Time: DEADLINE: Tuesday, February 24 by Midnight
Location: N/A
If you are interested in joining a co-ed or women’s intramural softball team for the second half of this semester (i.e. after spring break), please fill out the google doc found HERE. Please respond ASAP, preferably by midnight on Tuesday 2/24 as the deadline for registering with FitRec is almost here. Please contact Esther at raymonde@bu.edu for more details and with any questions.
GWISE Harry Potter Movie Night! (Movie #2, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets)
Date and Time: Thursday, February 26 from 6:30pm-9:30pm
Location: 24 Cummington Mall (LSEB), Room 103
Take a break from lab and teaching to bond with your fellow graduate students over the Harry Potter films that epitomize our adolescence. We will meet once a month from January to August and watch the films in order. Popcorn and beverages will be provided (feel free to bring your dinner). Future dates: Mar 26th, Apr 23rd, May 21st, Jun 18th, Jul 30th, and Aug 27th. Come for as many or as few as you desire. RSVP now if you plan to attend any future showings!
GWISE Trivia Night!
Date and Time: Tuesday, March 10 from 6:30pm-8:30pm
Location: 24 Cummington Mall (LSEB), Room 103
RSVP – Please RSVP by March 5!
Join us for a night of grad-student style team trivia! Trivia Night is a perfect opportunity to get to know some friendly faces! Come with a partner or as an individual, and final teams will be assembled at the start of the event. We will have dinner and drinks (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic) and an utterly fantastic mystery prize for the winning team. Hope to see you there!
GWISE March Book Club: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks
Date and Time: Tuesday, March 17 at 12:00pm
Location: TBD
In his most extraordinary book, “one of the great clinical writers of the twentieth century” (The New York Times) recounts the case histories of patients lost in the bizarre, apparently inescapable world of neurological disorders. Oliver Sacks’s The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat tells the stories of individuals afflicted with fantastic perceptual and intellectual aberrations. If inconceivable strange, these brilliant tales remain, in Dr. Sacks’s splendid and sympathetic telling, deeply human. They are studies of life struggling against incredible adversity, and they enable us to enter the world of the neurologically impaired to imagine with our hearts what it must be to live and feel as they do.
GWISE has a few copies of the book to loan. If you would like to borrow a hard copy or eBook, please contact Junzi at junzid@bu.edu. (Please state whether you prefer eBook or hard copy.)
GWISE Coffee & Conversations: Closing the Gender Gap
Date and Time: Tuesday, March 24 from 12:30pm-1:30pm
Location: 110 Cummington Mall, Room 245
Join GWISE for our monthly series, Coffee and Conversations, where we hope to provoke meaningful discussions about issues relevant to women in STEM. This month we will be discussing the recent BU Today article covering Shulamit Kahn’s study showing that women in math-intensive fields no longer experience widespread gender discrimination. However, women in less math-intensive scientific fields (such as life sciences, psychology, and social sciences, fields where women are more prevalent) still experience significant disadvantages, and are more likely to leave academia. Bring your own lunch and GWISE will provide drinks and dessert!
BU Today article: http://www.bu.edu/today/2015/a-changing-landscape-for-women-in-academic-sciences/
NYT Op-Ed: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/02/opinion/sunday/academic-science-isnt-sexist.html?_r=0
APS journal article: http://www.psychologicalscience.org/pdf/Women-Academic-Science.pdf
GWISE Harry Potter Movie Night! (Movie #3, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)
Date and Time: Thursday, March 26 from 6:00pm-9:00pm
Location: 24 Cummington Mall (LSEB), Room 103
Take a break from lab and teaching to bond with your fellow graduate students over the Harry Potter films that epitomize our adolescence. We will meet once a month from January to August and watch the films in order. Popcorn and beverages will be provided (feel free to bring your dinner). Future dates: Mar 26th, Apr 23rd, May 21st, Jun 18th, Jul 30th, and Aug 27th. Come for as many or as few as you desire. RSVP now if you plan to attend any future showings!
GWISE Speed Networking Event (co-sponsored by the Center for Career Development)
Date and Time: Thursday, April 2 from 6:00pm-9:00pm
Location: 100 Bay State Rd., Room 613
Join GWISE and the Center for Career Development for a night of networking! This speed networking event will give you an opportunity to learn about different career options and to expand your network. We will have 8-10 panelists from diverse careers such as consulting, patent law, industry, and marketing. Participants will switch tables every 15 minutes in a speed networking format to talk to panelists about their experiences and professions. We will conclude the night with an open networking session where you can talk further with the panelists and other attendees. Panelists and bios will be announced in a few weeks.
Refreshments will be served. Feel free to bring your business cards, but leave your resumes at home – this is NOT a career fair. Space is limited, so make sure to register ASAP!
GWISE Professional Development Grants
Date and Time: DEADLINE: Friday, April 3
Location: N/A
Interested in attending a professional development workshop or event, but need help paying for registration fees or other expenses? Consider applying for a GWISE Professional Development Grant (PDG)! The PDG Program is designed to help our members benefit from professional development opportunities in the Boston area and beyond by providing funding for participation. We will fund a range of opportunities, including workshops, networking events, memberships in professional societies, and conferences. For example, MASS AWIS, WEST, and MassBio all hold events that might be of interest to graduate students. Please be aware that grants are not intended for travel to scientific meetings where you will be presenting research.
Check out the GWISE website HERE for more information about the PDG Program. If interested, please apply online through this APPLICATION FORM. Our next PDG deadline is Friday, December 5! You will be notified within one week of the application deadline whether you will receive an award. Please contact Allison at allisonq@bu.edu with any questions. Some examples of upcoming events:
- March 31: FILS – Commercialization I: (Marketing, Alliance/Product Management, Business Dev)
- April 22: MASS AWIS Alternative Careers in Science – Speed Networking Event
GWISE May Book Club: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
Date and Time: Wednesday, May 6 at 12:00pm
Location: 44 Cummington Mall, Room 705
Stiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem. For two thousand years, cadavers – some willingly, some unwittingly – have been involved in science’s boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. In this fascinating account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries and tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them.
Join us for lunch and conversation at the next book club. Everyone is welcome!
GWISE has a few copies of the book to loan. If you would like to borrow a hard copy or eBook, please contact Junzi at junzid@bu.edu. (Please state whether you prefer eBook or hard copy.)
GWISE Public Speaking Skills Workshop chaired by Professor Leite-Morris
Date and Time: Thursday, May 14 from 6:00pm-8:30pm
Location: Life Science and Engineering Building (24 Cummington Mall), Room 103
It is our pleasure to invite Professor Kimberly Leite-Morris from the BU Neuroscience Program to share her valuable experiences and advice on how to improve your public speaking skills. There will also be several advanced speakers from the BU Toastmasters community sharing their own tips. Join us for this 2 hour workshop! Food and drinks will be served. RSVP at the link above.