President’s note
Glad to see our Melbourne and Victoria WOMEESA Team and members out and about again and able to catch up face-to-face this week following the most recent lockdown. But with rising cases numbers in Sydney and school holiday period restrictions in place, we send our best wishes to those affected and hope that everyone manages to stay safe and well. Having not been outside my own state in over a year now, I’m keeping everything crossed, but not holding my breath, that I can make it in person to the deliver the Ralph Tate Memorial Lecture in Adelaide next week and to Victoria in mid July to give a talk on volcanoes at an event celebrating 21 years of community ownership of Mt Elephant volcano.
Months after New Zealand’s announcement of paid bereavement leave to parents after a miscarriage or stillbirth, its encouraging to see that the NSW government are now set to introduce a bereavement policy for parents in the NSW public sector to access paid leave in the event of miscarriage or stillbirth. I really hope that more states and private companies will follow suit to support families during such challenging emotional, mental and physical times.
It’s been a bit of a mixed last month for women (including myself) and other staff at Macquarie University with the wonderful news that Prof. Sue O’Reilly will have a mineral named in her honour (see below). But being very disappointed by the effective end of geosciences at Macquarie University this year, and with none of the four remaining positions going to women.
Huge thanks to Melanie Finch for putting together another show-stopping newsletter and hope you all enjoy reading about what some of the fantastic ‘WOMESSA’ have been up to!
Heather Handley
WOMEESA News
Victoria/Melbourne WOMEESA catch up
A local face-to-face WOMEESA catch-up took place in Victoria this month, with NSW and Queensland catch-ups delayed due to COVID concerns. Stay tuned for updates about rescheduling those events. WOMEESA local catch-ups are bimonthly, so the next dates will be in August. 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.
Online Seminar Series
On the first Wednesday of 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 June seminar was presented by Dr Rachelle Kernen about “Creating and Promoting Gender Equity and Diversity in Professional Geological Societies” and you can watch it here. She is also publishing a paper on this topic, the preprint is available here.
Don’t miss the next WOMEESA Seminar:
Wednesday 7 July 2021, 2pm AEST (Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne time)
Dr. Teagan Blaikie, CSIRO
“Aeromagnetic interpretation of the Tanami Region and northwest Aileron Province”
Register here for the zoom meeting details
Future seminars:
Wednesday 4 August, 2pm AEST (Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne time)
Dr. Jacqueline Halpin, University of Tasmania
— Note that from September the seminar moves to the 2nd Wednesday of the month—
Wednesday 8 September, 2pm AEST (Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne time)
Dr. Anita Parbhakar-Fox, The University of Queensland
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.
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 25 June, 12 pm (Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane time) the zoom link has been 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
NAIDOC week
The theme for NAIDOC week 2021 (4-11 July) is Heal Country! It calls for all of us to seek greater protection for First Nations’ lands, waters, sacred sites and cultural heritage from exploitation, desecration, and destruction. We can do this by embracing First Nations’ cultural knowledge and understanding of Country. Listening to the knowledge of First Nations’ people was the theme of this brilliant Tedx talk by Jacinta Koolmatrie, an Adnyamathanha and Ngarrindjeri person who works as a curator at the History Trust of South Australia. She highlights the deep expertise of Aboriginal elders about the Australian land and environment, which is informed by more than 50,000 years of continuous culture and learning. The Women’s Agenda also focussed on First Nations’ leaders in a recent episode of their Leadership Lessons podcast, where they spoke with young Indigenous women leaders about what it’s like to be a leader in their communities and why their work and voices are so important.
Fantastic article about Volcanology research
Heather Handley at Ambrym volcano in Vanuatu, wearing a mask due the hazardous volcanic gases present.
Heather Handley (President of WOMEESA) published a really cool article in the Conversation this month about volcanoes in Australia and how she determines when they're next going to erupt. This is part of a series in the Conversation called "Photos from the Field" that gives us an insight into the world of different scientists through photos from their research.
Emma Brand elected President of the ASEG
Emma Brand | Origin Energy
Emma Brand from Origin Energy was recently elected President of the Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists. Congratulations Emma! Emma recently wrote a fantastic article about diversity in geoscience. She highlights how we as geoscientists have long realised that scientific research requires use of many methods and that diversity is key to making discoveries. Likewise diversity in people and points of view is critical for being able to see the full picture.
New mineral, Oreillyite, named after Sue O’Reilly
Sue O’Reilly
Researchers working in Australia and Israel discovered a new rare mineral that formed in the mantle due to mixing of reduced fluids and volatiles. In honour of Sue O’Reilly’s decades of pioneering work on metasomatised mantle xenoliths, they named the new mineral Oreillyite. Oreillyite has the formula Cr2N and it was brought to the surface in volcanic eruptions in Northern Israel. You can read all about the discovery in this article by Philomena Manifold and Jo Condon.
Picture a Scientist documentary on Netflix
If you have not had the opportunity to see this ground-breaking documentary yet, we cannot recommend it more highly. It’s quite shocking, but it’s important viewing for all scientists (well, for everyone really, but especially scientists). The stories in this doco are probably some of the most serious accounts of abuse and harassment in science that you will hear, but we know these women are not alone. It also provides an insight into the toll it takes on women to be constantly fighting for change. Those among us who have tried to address gender inequity in science know that it can be a rocky road, to put it lightly. Netflix subscribers can watch it here (and for those not on Netflix, they have trial periods you can sign up to for free).
Disappearing Dead Sea
There was an awesome episode of Foreign Correspondent on ABC recently about how the Dead Sea is slowly disappearing in Israel. It featured hydrogeologist, Dr. Carmit Ish-Shalom, who has spent years figuring out what is happening and why. As the sea retreats it leaves behind huge sinkholes and Dr Ish-Shalom has been figuring out why they have formed so rapidly and so dramatically. You can watch it here on iview and the ABC made a cool infographic about it too.
Podcasts
If you’re anything like me and the general public, you might have heard vaguely about hydrogen as an energy source but not know much about it. If you’d like to learn more about it, this recent episode of ABC's Future Tense podcast goes into all the issues around hydrogen as an energy source and its potential (or not) as a pollution-free source of power.
Opportunities
The National Exploration Undercover School (NExUS) is a three week course that bridges the gap between university and the mineral exploration industry. People who have done this course say it is invaluable and that they learn a lot of practical skills that can be directly applied to industry. The course is free and runs from late November to early December. It is optimally suited for final year geology students and honours students. To find out more and apply, check out their website. Applications are now open and close in July.
On the Rocks film festival is a geological film festival for everybody. You can submit a video about your research, ideas, or Earth-related interests that is made using any possible technique (e.g., animation, puppet show etc). Videos need to be under 4 mins 55 seconds and if you check out their twitter to see last year's winner (@OTRfilmfestival) you'll see that you don’t need to be a film maker or editing whiz to enter - it truly is a film festival that anyone can enter. The deadline for entries is 25 July and they have lots of advice about making your film on their website.
Nominations are open for the ASEG Awards and Honours and close on the 23 July 2021. We encourage you to nominate a WOMEESA member and you can find more details here.
Fulbright Postdoctoral fellowships, Fulbright Australia (06 July)
Early Career Academic Research Grant for Women, Capstone Editing (07 July)
Regular and junior fellowships (Germany), Hanse-Wissenshaftskolleg (15 July)
Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellowships, Queensland Government (19 July)
The Phillip Law Postdoctoral Award for Physical Sciences, The Royal Society of Victoria (30 July)
E.S. Hills Medal, Geological Society of Australia (31 July)
Garry Davidson Award, Geological Society of Australia (31 July)
Early Career Researcher Grant, Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering (31 July)
The University of Sydney is hiring level A and B academics in geography and environmental science
Research Associate/Research Fellow in Plate Tectonics and Geodynamics
AGU: Contribute to our #AGURocks, #DrawnToGeoscience or #RhymeYourResearch blog series
Do you perform music, create art or write poetry about science? Do you want to show off your talent while also pulling back the curtain to show your creative process? Then contribute to one (or all) of our #SciArt blog series! Learn more about the different series and submit your post today!
AGU: Submit your Postcards from the Field
Are you performing fieldwork this summer? Show us your field site! Submit to our Postcards from the Field blog roll on Tumblr and let us know what being in the field is like for you.
Have an opportunity you’d like to share then let us know!
Upcoming Events
The WOMEESA shut up and write July session
The next #SUAW is this Friday 25 June at 12 pm AEST (Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, Melbourne time), check your email for the zoom login details.
WOMEESA virtual seminar series
The July seminar in our monthly series will be presented by Dr. Teagan Blaikie from CSIRO on July 7 at 2 pm (AEST, Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney time). To find out more and register to attend head over to our website. WOMEESA seminars are on the first 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, so the next dates will be in August. 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
Save the date: 3rd Dorothy Hill Women in Earth Science Symposium, 15-17th November 2021 starting with an ice-breaker on the late afternoon/evening of the 15th and then two full days of action packed in-person meeting. Find out more here.