President’s note
Hope that everyone affected by current lockdown is managing ok to balance work and carer responsibilities. Hope that you are able to find a moment each day to enjoy the approach of spring. At WOMEESA we’ve been working on drafting a new Constitution to ensure we are compliant with current legislation and to enable us to finalise our legal and financial set-up. After that’s all in place, we’ll be looking forward to building partnerships and attracting financial sponsors to provide additional support and opportunities to our members across the region. As a 100% volunteer network I send my heart-felt thanks to the WOMEESA Team for all that you do and to our members for your support. It’s Equal Pay Day today in Australia, and it was disappointing to see that the latest gender pay assessment shows the gap has widened in last 6 months. Women’s average full-time wages are lower than men’s across every industry and occupation in Australia. Meaning that Women need to work around 2 months more than men for the same pay. But this pales in comparison to what Afghan women and families are going through right now. If, like me, you are feeling at a bit of loss of how to help, there are a number of organisations committed to continued protection of women and girls in Afghanistan including UN WOMEN and UNHCR that are looking for support. Stay safe and well everyone.
Heather Handley
WOMEESA News
WOMEESA General Meeting: Special resolution to change the association’s constitution
At the WOMEESA August 2021 committee meeting the WOMEESA Executive approved a draft new constitution based on the NSW Model Constitution, amended to reflect the objectives and needs of the association and to be compliant under the New South Wales (NSW) Associations Incorporation Act 2009. All WOMEESA members are invited to attend a general meeting for the purpose of voting on a special resolution to adopt the proposed new constitution on Friday 24th September 2021 at 1.00 pm (AEST). Zoom meeting details have been provided via email. A copy of the proposed constitution was attached to an email to members and is available on the WOMEESA website homepage.
We’d love to see you there!
Online Seminar Series
Each month we host a seminar via zoom from a WOMEESA member. Our seminar series aims to increase the visibility of women in science and provide inspiring role models. All are welcome, even non-members.
Details of upcoming seminars on posted the seminar webpage here, and past seminars are posted on our YouTube channel here. We’re also compiling a list of talks by women in earth and environmental sciences in the region which you can find on the seminars webpage.
The August seminar was presented by Dr Jacqueline Halpin about the tectonic history of subglacial Antarctica and the clever ways you can get around all your outcrop being covered in ice! Jacqueline also spoke about the ups and downs of her career and combining an academic career with the rest of your life. You can watch it here.
Don’t miss the next WOMEESA Seminar:
Wednesday 15 September, 2pm AEST (Brisbane time)
Dr. Anita Parbhakar-Fox, University of Queensland
“Minority report: a career in environmental geosciences”
Register here for the zoom link
Future seminars:
Wednesday 13 October, 2pm AEDT (Sydney time)
Hon. Associate Professor Heather Handley, Macquarie University
Wednesday 10 November, 2pm AEDT (Sydney time/1:30pm Adelaide)
Dr Emily Leyden, University of Adelaide
Wednesday 8 December, 2pm AEDT (Sydney time/1:30pm Adelaide)
Associate Professor Caroline Tiddy, University of South Australia
Shut Up And Write #SUAW
On the last Friday of the month we hold an online Shut Up and Write #SUAW session via zoom. We get together and talk briefly about what we want to achieve in the session, then write for about 50 minutes. Our August session saw WOMEESA #wearitpurple in support of empowerment and inclusive environments for LGBTQ+ youth.
It’s a great opportunity to connect with other members and get some uninterrupted writing done. Even if you don’t have anything to write, you can just come along and say hi.
Next event will be Friday 24 September, 12 pm (Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane time) the zoom link will be emailed out to members.
Member spotlights
Our member spotlights are helping increasing the visibility of women working in earth and environmental sciences in the region and share experiences. If you would like to feature on a member spotlight page or write an article for our blog page please get in touch with Jess (j.hillman@gns.cri.nz)
Take a look at the most recent spotlights here
Other WOMEESA News
Massive congratulations to Marissa Betts on her recent ARC DECRA. Unstoppable!!
Marta Ribo, Early Career Researcher at University of Auckland, talked to ABC Radio Australia about her research on microplastics in the seabed.
The wonderful Meghan Miller has been awarded an ARC Future Fellowship! The 4-year project will focus on DAS technology that converts telecommunication fibre-optic cables into large-N ground motion sensors. Fantastic news, congrats!!
WOMEESA Team Member Melanie Finch was on 2CC Canberra talking about critical minerals and her brilliant social media initiative #100DaysofGeoscience.
Steph McLennan featured in CSIRO’s Double Helix Magazine Science Week article!
Team Member Sandra McLaren reminded us to acknowledge our privilege and help work together to fix the system designing an Academic Privilege Bingo card. Great work Sandra!
WOMEESA President Heather Handley was interviewed on 2BS 95.1 FM about Australia’s volcanoes and her talk on the topic for National Science Week.
Congrats to UQ honours student and illustrator Nellie Pease for her winning ‘Paleo Down Under 3’ conference logo design.
Lockdown Blues
With New Zealand, Fiji, and large parts of Australia under lockdown, the situation for many WOMEESA members at the moment is rather bleak. None of you probably want to read about the disproportionate impact COVID has on women academics since many of you are first hand experts, but if you need some evidence to provide to department heads or gender equity committees, there are articles like this one and this one. For many of us, lockdowns mean a lot less time, as we try to cram our working days in around home schooling and looking after small children. For others it will mean a lot more time alone, which some people like and some people hate. For those looking for something to do, ABC iview has a cool new tv series called “The Chemical World”, which features many familiar faces in Australian science. For those more into reading, I am halfway through a new book called “Notes from Deep Time” by Helen Gordon and it is delightful. Helen has travelled around the world, interviewing scientists, visiting the greatest geological sites, and learning about the field of geology. The writing is wonderful and provides inspiration for how we within the discipline can describe our work in a more engaging way. Highly recommend.
IPCC Report
By now you have probably read the highlights from the latest IPCC report, released a couple of weeks ago. If you haven't, or want to read more, climate scientist Dr Joelle Gergis from ANU co-authored this article on the biggest findings of the report. If you want to delve more into the science that informs the report here's an article by Professor Nerile Abram from ANU. A lot of the IPCC report is based on climate models and this article explains what they do well, what they do poorly, and why we can trust them.
OK so now you've read all about it and it sounds pretty bad, right? It's pretty upsetting, and when you feel powerless to change a depressing situation, that is a particular kind of awful. So I liked this insta post from the Conversation about ten things you can do to act on climate change. Check it out, and then get your friends and family to check it out. Want to know more about the local effects and what our governments are doing - read these articles about New Zealand, Australia, and the Pacific Islands.
New Pre-Print on Safety and Belonging in the Field
Sarah Greene from the University of Birmingham and colleagues uploaded a new preprint this week on safety and belonging in the field, with a particular focus on field teaching in geography, earth and environmental sciences. The paper highlights why it is so important to consider participants’ identities when organising field work and the effects of not getting this aspect of field work right. They have put together a pretty amazing checklist of the aspects that should be considered, which I think is incredibly useful. Even the most well-intentioned fieldtrip organiser can neglect to consider aspects that are outside the realm of their own experience, so this report fills that gap.
Mātauranga Māori and science
There has been huge controversy in New Zealand this month, after a handful of academics from the University of Auckland wrote a letter suggesting that mātauranga Māori should not be considered a body of knowledge equal to Western science in the NZ school curriculum. Many other scientists were quick to reject the claim, including the New Zealand Association of Scientists and Royal Society Te Apārangi, as well as more than 1500 other scientists, researchers and members of the public. There are many articles about the importance of Indigenous knowledge in Earth and Environmental science, including this one about how Indigenous knowledge and specifically Māori knowledge, can improve the health of the oceans and this one that explores the different types of Māori knowledge including pūrākau and maramataka, which include different techniques for investigating the natural world. Emily Parke from the University of Auckland wrote an article for the Conversation about the philosophy behind the debate.
Gender pay gap worsens in Australia
WGEA just released its 2021 report on gender workplace statistics. They found that women earn 14.2% less than men (full time average weekly ordinary earnings), a gap that has increased by 0.8% since February 2021! This means that women must work 61 extra days to receive the same pay as men, so equal pay day is 31 August. If your organisation has not done a gender pay gap audit, it might be time to start asking some questions of your gender equity committee or HR department. The report also finds that the median starting salary for women with an undergraduate degree is 2.5% less than their male counterparts, and the gap is a whopping 13% for postgraduate graduates. You can read the report here.
New research on microplastics in New Zealand’s oceans
Sally Watson, Marta Ribo and Lorna Strachan from the University of Auckland have been doing some important work understanding the distribution and sources of microplastics in samples collected from the seafloor in the Marlborough Sounds. They collected samples of sediment up to one metre into the sea floor, in water 30-70 m deep. They compared microplastic amount and sources in water near a city and water near a marine reserve and were surprised to find that the reserve was not as pristine as they had hopes. You can read more about their research here, watch the video embedded here, or listen to Marta Ribo interviewed on the Pacific Beat radio show (17 August episode, about 30 minutes in).
Coastal Science podcast
The Coast2Cast podcast is the work of Ana Vila-Concejo from the University of Sydney and Giocanni Coco from the University of Auckland. They interview scientists around the world to get to know more about their lives and research. They figured that this is a way that students and scientists can get to know their global community, even while we can’t physically travel.
Opportunities
The Earth Science Women’s Network are seeking feedback about what event’s you would like to see in the coming year. You can fill out their short survey here.
Nominations are now open for the 2021 Geoscience Society New Zealand awards. This link has all the information on how to nominate people: https://www.gsnz.org.nz/awards-and-recognition/award-applications-and-nominations/
Postdoctoral Fellowships for Research in Japan, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (03 September)
Kenneth Myer Innovation Fellowships, Myer Foundation (05 September)
Geoscience Information Association Grant, ALIA Des Tellis (30 September)
Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, Deakin University
Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme, Griffith University
Jobs:
The Teacher Earth Science Education Program (TESEP) are looking to employ geology-trained or environmental science-trained educators to assist in face-to-face delivery of the TESEP Teacher Earth Science Education Program in NSW, QLD and SA. The TESEP “The Challenging Earth’’ series of topics includes Climate Change, Groundwater, Our Place in Space, Energy Mix, Rocks & Mining. TESEP is happy to discuss variations and possibilities. For further information and to apply contact. Jill Stevens (Chairperson TESEP) Email: cp@tesep.org.au
NSW - Regional Coordinators for central NSW, NE NSW, SE – south coast NSW, north coast NSW, NW-north-central NSW (5 positions)
QLD - Possibly SE Qld-Brisbane-Sunshine Coast, Gladstone-Mackay-Rockhampton, Townsville-Cairns-Cloncurry (3 positions)
SA - Regional Coordinators for eastern SA, western SA (2 part-time, paid positions)
Several career opportunities available at Geoscience Australia (with application deadline stated):
Activity Lead - Integration & Prospectivity, ACT, Ongoing, 07/09/2021
Activity Leader, National Geological Mapping, ACT, Ongoing, 07/09/2021
Project Manager, Aus Seabed, ACT, Non-Ongoing, 12/09/2021
Director, Seismic & Magnetotelluric Acquisition & Processing, ACT, Ongoing, 12/09/2021
Basin Analyst, ACT, Non-Ongoing, 13/09/2021
Economic Geologist, ACT, Non-Ongoing, 13/09/2021
Hydrogeologist, ACT, Non-Ongoing, 13/09/2021
Resource Assessment Specialist, ACT, Non-Ongoing, 13/09/2021
Technical Coordinator, ACT, Non-Ongoing, 13/09/2021
Hydrogeologist - Multiple Positions, ACT, Ongoing, 19/09/2021
Continuing lecturer/senior lecturer in geography at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand
Research Fellow, ice sheet/climate modelling at Monash University, Vic
Postdoctoral Fellow in Computational Geochemistry, CSIRO, Perth
Postdoctoral Fellow in Coastal Climate Modelling, CSIRO, Hobart
Postdoctoral Fellow in Mineral Processing, CSIRO, Victoria
Postdoctoral Fellow in Coastal Sediment Dynamics and Biogeochemistry, CSIRO, Brisbane
Postdoc in Mobile Weather Radar at the University of Queensland
Research Fellow in Radar Meteorology and Bushfire Meteorology, at the University of Queensland
PhD opportunities:
Five(!) PhD projects in computational geophysics at the University of Otago
Positions in nanoscale geochem processes in peridotites at Curtin University
Characteristics of the regolith associated with mafic and ultramafic-hosted nickel-copper mineralisation at Curtin University
Deep time global scale landscape evolution models at the University of Sydney
Have an opportunity you’d like to share then let us know!
Upcoming Events
WOMEESA General Meeting
WOMEESA General Meeting (online): Special resolution to change the association’s constitution Friday 24 September at 1 pm AEST (Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, Melbourne time), check your email for additional details and zoom link.
The WOMEESA shut up and write September session
The next #SUAW is this Friday 24 September at 12 pm AEST (Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, Melbourne time), check your email for the zoom login details.
WOMEESA virtual seminar series
The September seminar in our monthly series will be presented by Dr. Anita Parbhakar-Fox from the University of Queensland on September 15 at 2 pm (AEST, Brisbane time). To find out more and register to attend head over to our website. While the September seminar is on the third Wednesday of the month, from October onwards the WOMEESA seminars will be the second Wednesday of every month at 2 pm (Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney time). If you want to catch up on past WOMEESA seminars you can check them out on our YouTube channel.
WOMEESA local face-to-face bimonthly catch-ups
WOMEESA local catch-ups are bimonthly but on hold in locked down regions at the moment. If you are interested in organising a F2F in your own state or neighbourhood contact Heather Handley (heather.handley@mq.edu.au) to find out how.
Dorothy Hill Women in Earth Science Symposium 2021
The 3rd Dorothy Hill Women in Earth Science Symposium has been postponed to 2022.
Newsletter Editor-in-Chief
Melanie Finch
Melanie is a WOMEESA team member and geoscience lecturer at Monash University. Please contact Melanie if you see something to include in next month’s newsletter Melanie.Finch@monash.edu.
Newsletter Contributors
Heather Handley
Heather Handley is the Co-Founder and President of WOMEESA, Adjunct Assoc. Prof. at Monash University and Honorary Assoc. Prof. at Macquarie University.