President’s note
It was wonderful this month to see women in our community recognised in the Australian Academy of Science awards and the Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists awards. These women are in diverse fields of science but the one thing they all have in common, apart from being excellent at their jobs, is their commitment to their community through their outreach and service work. That sort of work is often done in a volunteer capacity after hours and on weekends driven by a desire to make Earth and Environmental science a better place to work. It makes a huge difference, and we are so thankful for their efforts. There is more information about the award winners and their work below.
This year I have been part of the WOMEESA awards subcommittee, who identify excellent women in our community and work to get them nominated for awards. What that means in reality is that we find people who work closely with our intended nominee, and then work with them to fill out the paperwork and contact people for letters of support. What I have come to realise is that there are so many people in our community that are beyond worthy of the awards that are available but what differentiates the people who actually win these awards is that someone has put in the time and effort to get them nominated. This is a type of sponsorship and it makes a huge difference to the career trajectories of women who win awards. Please get in touch with WOMEESA if you’d like our help to get someone you know nominated for the Australian Academy of Science awards, which are open now and close on May 1.
All the best,
Melanie Finch
WOMEESA news
WOMEESA co-founder wins AAS award
The winners of the Australian Academy of Science awards were announced earlier this month and we were delighted to see WOMEESA co-founder and Vice President, Teresa Ubide was awarded the Anton Hales Medal, which recognises outstanding contributions to research in the Earth sciences. This is an incredible achievement that acknowledges the impact of Teresa’s research on volcanic eruptions. The AAS made a video showcasing Teresa’s work, which you can watch at this link.
Other awardees from Earth and Environmental science included Raffaella Demichelis who was awarded the Dorothy Hill Medal for her pioneering work on the chemistry of minerals and Catherine Lovelock who was awarded the Suzanne Cory Medal and lecture for her work on the impacts of climate change on coastal wetlands. You can learn more about their work here.
Nominations for the Academy’s awards are open now, closing on May 1. Now is the perfect time to start organising a nomination for an impressive woman you know - if you need a bit of help WOMEESAs awards committee can assist. More details on that below, or email us at womeesa.network@gmail.com.
Winners of the ASEG awards announced
The Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists also announced their awards this month. Janelle Simpson won the Early Achievement Award for "significant contributions to the profession by a member under 36 years of age, by way of publications in Exploration Geophysics or similar reputable journals, or by overall contributions to geophysics, ASEG Branch activities, committees, or events". A wonderful achievement that recognises Janelle’s leadership in exploration geophysics in Australia. Congratulations Janelle!
Kate Brand won the Distinguished Service Medal for “outstanding and distinguished service by a member in making major contributions to the shaping and the sustaining of the Society and the conduct of its affairs over many years”. Megan Nightingale and Tania Dhu both won the Distinguished Service Award for distinguished service by a member to the ASEG, through involvement in and contributions to State Branch committees, Federal Committees, Publications, and Conferences. Congratulations to all and thank-you for your service to our community.
Wikipedia edit-a-thon
WOMEESA’s annual Wikipedia project is starting next month!
We will meet online and work together to create, edit and improve Wikipedia pages of notable women in the Earth and Environmental sciences in Australasia. Any WOMEESA member can participate; you do not need experience editing Wikipedia pages.
Our first session will be on the 12th of April, from 12 to 13:30 AEST, where we will have an introductory session about wiki-editing, and you will be able to choose a wikipedia page to work on. During April and May we will have drop-in sessions, where you can join to work on your Wiki page or ask for help from the Wikipedia team. We will have a final session in June to publish the new pages and increase the representation of women in Wikipedia!
If you would like to participate, please register at this link to get the details of the zoom meeting. If you have any questions, contact Fernanda.AlvaradoNeves@monash.edu.
Local meet-ups
WOMEESA organizes bi-monthly local meetups, which are a great opportunity to network with members in your local area and build a stronger community. The next meetup will be held in May.
You don’t need to be in a capital city to organise a local meetup, WOMEESA members are everywhere! If you would like to organise a meetup in your local area, contact our events coordinator Fernanda.AlvaradoNeves@monash.edu before mid-April to get help or to let WOMEESA know your plans so we can help you with publicity.
International Women’s Day at WOMEESA
It was wonderful to see many of you at our International Women’s Day panel discussion early this month. Our panel discussed cracking the code to a successful career in Earth and Environmental science. If you missed it, you can watch the recording here.
WOMEESA committee member Caroline Tiddy did a presentation on diversity and inclusion for Geoscience Australia on International Women’s Day. Caroline’s research in this field is providing a unique and valuable insight into the issues that are still prevalent in our community.
WOMEESA at the AEGC
WOMEESA Vice President and co-founder Teresa Ubide presented the plenary talk on WOMEESAs behalf at the Australasian Exploration Geoscience Conference in Brisbane in March. The talk was very well received, with several organisations getting in contact with WOMEESA afterwards to learn more and discuss gender equity. It was wonderful that the AEGC organisers chose to give a plenary keynote to diversity, and then organised a diversity panel to discuss issues further. Teresa represented WOMEESA on that panel as well and also contributed to the educational panel, which discussed the problem of declining student numbers in Earth Science.
WOMEESA regularly presents talks at conferences, organisations and universities about the pathway to gender equality and what companies can do to increase equity. If your organisation is interested in hearing from WOMEESA, please get in touch womeesa.network@gmail.com.
Other WOMEESA news
Workplace gender equity implementation guide
The Office of the Women in STEM Ambassador launched a guide to implementing programs to increase gender equity yesterday. The guide provides practical advice for making change in gender equity, beginning with identifying the problem and possible solutions, through to evaluation of the effectiveness of implemented programs. It’s a very practical guide, with sections on how to convince leadership to make change and strategies for managing upwards. The guide is available at this link. The authors of the guide launched it at an online event, and finished the event with the quote they say around the office all the time: “To create change, you need to change something”. Sounds so obvious, but I can think of many times where change was hoped for, without recognition that something needed to be done to create it.
Awards season
Nominations are open for the Australian Academy of Science awards, including the Anton Hales Medal and the Dorothy Hill medal for Earth Science ECRs, the Nancy Millis medal for MCRs in the physical sciences and the Jaeger and Mawson medals, which are career awards for Earth scientists. To find out more and nominate someone, check out the website at this link. Closing date for nominations is May 1.
Other awards to keep on your radar: the Eureka Prize program is open now and closes 14 April.
Did you know that WOMEESA has a sub-committee that nominates women for awards? We started this sub-committee in 2022 because of the data that shows women in our community are under-nominated since we know that winning awards leads to further career success. We are hard at work organising nominations right now. Do you know of someone in the community who we should be nominating? Email us at womeesa.network@gmail.com.
Public consultation about gender equality
There are two Australian schemes about gender equality that are currently seeking submissions from members of the public .
The Department of Industry, Science and Resources is seeking submissions that detail your experiences with STEM to shape their vision to increase diversity, engagement and skills in STEM and support pathways for diverse groups into STEM. You can make a submission here.
The Office for Women has invited the public to make submissions on the National Strategy to Acheive Gender Equality. They say that the government wants to understand the Australian community’s vision for gender equality before developing the national strategy. Anyone can share their experiences by filling out the survey on this page.
ESWN event on navigating workplace hierarchy
The Earth Science Women’s Network are hosting a webinar on navigating workplace hierarchies on Friday May 19. You can read more about it and register at this link.
“you just look at rocks and have beards”
That is a quote from a new preprint on the perceptions of geology of the UK public. They found that people who had not studied geology think that it is boring, old fashioned and environmentally damaging, with limited career options outside the petroleum industry. Those who have studied geology see it as broad and interdisciplinary, but struggle to convey its appeal when asked. The authors make a number of recommendations for how change in public perception may be created. Definitely worth a read for those in geology.
Jobs and opportunities
Technical entry program at BHP in Perth and Brisbane, Australia - this is a recruitment program offering permanent part time and full time job opportunities for those new to industry with relevant experience or experienced professionals returning to the workforce after a career break or extended absence.
Lecturer/senior lecturer in paleontology/paleoecology at the University of Otago, New Zealand
Engineering geologist/geomorphologist at GNS science, New Zealand
If you have an opportunity available and want to get word out to WOMEESA members send us an email womeesa.network@gmail.com