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ASU biogeochemist joins national science board
Susanne Neuer, an oceanographer who studies carbon flux and planktonic diversity at ASU, will serve on the Association for Women in Science national executive board as councilor. Her term will start Jan. 1. Neuer, an associate professor in the School of Life Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, met with the transitional board in November, when the association’s governing board was on ASU’s Tempe campus. Neuer will replace Jane Maienschein, Regents’ Professor, President’s Professor and Parents Association Professor in Life Sciences, who is stepping down after serving a second term.
“This is great! It's rare for a small chapter to have such representation, and it speaks well to our excellent members,” notes Maienschein, who is also the director of the Center for Biology and Society in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Neuer was elected president of the Central Arizona Chapter of the Association for Women in Science in 2008. Local chapters represent women in all branches of science, both in academic and business settings. Central Arizona’s local chapter officers include a local biotechnology researcher Catherine Parmiter, in addition to Faye Farmer, with the Biodesign Institute at ASU, and Life Sciences’ graduate students and staff: Jamie Howard, Mrinalini Muralidharan and Margaret Coulombe. The chapter sponsors monthly gatherings on the ASU Tempe campus, bringing in prominent speakers in science, technology, engineering, and math, and offering practical guidance to support women at all stages of their science careers, from resume building to interviewing and negotiating contracts.
More than 50 percent of students entering the sciences as undergraduates in college are women, but that percentage dips radically following the completion of graduate degrees, as women enter science career paths. A recent survey of postdoctoral fellows conducted by the National Institutes of Health showed that while both the sexes believed they were equally qualified, “women were less confident about their chances to land a position, much less achieve tenure.”
In an interview conducted by the journal Science, Phoebe Leboy, president of the Association for Women in Science noted that “women lag behind men in terms of grants per investigator, dollars per grant, success in getting grants renewed, and responsibility for big budget center grants. And because success is so closely tied to funding, particularly in academic health centers, all of these things mean that women are having a harder time achieving tenure than men.”
With women constituting 45 percent of the workforce, but holding only 12 percent of science and engineering jobs in business and industry, and the “leaky pipeline” toward advancement, Central Arizona’s chapter places a premium on mentoring and networking, and building support systems from “cradle to grave” for undergraduates, graduate students, and post doctoral fellows, as well as tenure track faculty and business leaders. However, the association is not just about women and retention, it is about outreach and capacity building.
“I feel that our chapter has embodied the mission of AWIS on the grass roots level, namely breaking down barriers and creating opportunities,” Neuer notes. “I enjoy my role as a catalyst and advocate, especially for young women who are on the verge of a career in science. Despite the progress in the representation of women in science careers over the past decades, the high attrition of female scientists from graduate school to leading positions in science is still a huge obstacle to gender equality. I would like to broaden my activities and contribute to the national goals of AWIS by raising awareness of the issues at stake for future generations.”
The national office for the Association for Women in Science is based in Washington, DC. Its mission is to “enhance the future of the U.S. science and technology enterprise by supporting the career advancement of a key national resource: the women in STEM” (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). The national association and colleague organizations recently sent a list of the names of 40 women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics who are qualified to serve in key leadership positions in the new administration of President-Elect Barack Obama.
“Working at the national level will allow me to grow as a leader and to establish and strengthen existing links to women in science in other countries. I believe that only with a concerted effort and organized capacity building can we eventually close the gender gap and achieve true representation national levels.”
For more information visit: www.awis.org. An interview with Susanne Neuer is online at the School of Life Sciences "Science Studio" podcast site: http://sols.asu.edu/podcasts/index.php#Vol_40.
Margaret Coulombe, margaret.coulombe@asu.edu
480-727-8934
School of Life Sciences
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