500 Women Scientists is excited to announce the launch of its new and improved “Request a woman in STEMM*” platform. Based on feedback from users and database members, the new database sports an improved UI experience, individualized profiles, and improved capabilities. Developer Critigen has designed and implemented a much more accessible and usable platform that will help find women experts across scientific fields and change perceptions of what a scientist looks like. 

500 Women Scientists’ central mission is to serve society by making science open, inclusive, and accessible through the transformative leadership of women in *science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) fields. To meet that mission requires changing the face of what a scientist looks like. 500 Women Scientists has leveraged a network of over 300 Pods (or local chapters) around the world to increase representation of women in STEMM through a number of locally-driven initiatives.

Two years ago, 500 Women Scientists launched the “Request a Woman Scientist” platform. Tired of constantly seeing the same faces, mostly white men, representing science in the public sphere, the platform was developed to provide opportunities for members of the media, scientific colleagues, conference organizers, educators, and others to find and include more women and underrepresented identities. In the past two years, the platform has grown globally to include more than 12,000 individuals from over 140 countries and territories. The new and improved platform features more information about platform participants, individualized profiles, improved searchability, ability to save profiles, and many other updated features. As a part of the new platform, 500 Women Scientists hired Concolor Research to assess the platform’s reach and impact. With generous support from the Simon’s Foundation Science Sandbox and Lyda Hill Philanthropies, 500 Women Scientists worked with the development team Critigen to update and revamp the platform, making it more accessible. There is truly no excuse for not including women scientists’s voices in the public science discourse.  

M.S. AND PH.D DEGREE OPPORTUNITIES IN INTEGRATIVE BIOLOGY. The Department of Integrative Biology at Oklahoma State University is recruiting graduate students for Fall 2020 admission to join a collaborative and productive degree program. The Department of Integrative Biology takes an integrative approach to research in organismal biology, focusing on increasing our knowledge of organisms and their environments through studies ranging from the molecular to the ecosystem level. We have three inclusive areas of study: evolution, ecology, and environmental stress, which we define quite broadly. Among other areas, we conduct studies in conservation ecology, genomics, neurobiology, behavioral ecology, environmental toxicology, science education, ecosystem studies, and physiology. Graduate Teaching Assistantships with competitive stipends are regularly available.

Oklahoma State University is located in Stillwater, a thriving college community with a low cost of living, diverse restaurants, a thriving music scene, air service through American Airlines, and close proximity to both natural and major metropolitan (Tulsa and Oklahoma City) areas.

Information on applying to our graduate program can be found here: http://integrativebiology.okstate.edu/graduate-program/admission-procedure. For questions regarding the application process, please contact our departmental Graduate Coordinator, Dr. Jen Grindstaff (jen.grindstaff@okstate.edu). The application deadline is February 1, 2020.  Evaluation will continue after that date, but students are encouraged to apply as early as possible.

Come join the McCullagh Lab, starting January 2020! Masters and PhD students welcome! Postdocs may be recruited based on availability of funding. The McCullagh lab is interested in understanding how the brain uses sound information provided by the ears to determine the location of a sound. We investigate this question using several different strategies:

1. Studying different model organisms to see how they use the brain to localize sound. (Examples: Naked Mole Rats, Frogs, Horses, etc.)
2. Using disease models that are known to have difficulties with sensory information (Examples: autism and Fragile X Syndrome)
3. Use modern techniques to manipulate the brain and see what happens to sound information processing (Examples: optogenetics, etc.)

 

*For more information or to express interest contact elizabeth.mccullagh@okstate.edu

 

 

I made the cover of CU Medicine today for my work on the Request a Woman in STEMM platform. Excited to talk about all of my various side projects including the platform to end #manels, Northern Colorado Expanding your Horizons, #SciMomJourney, and Milk and Cookies. Check out the article here:

https://medschool.cuanschutz.edu/deans-office/cu-med-today/features/features-fall-2019/database-for-inclusive-scientific-panels-keeps-growing?fbclid=IwAR3Z7yJ-TlpIND6dKOlVgGb74KufXKn2YNeom8-HLU-4kUPSt7QZlmB1JxM

https://www.dw.com/en/making-space-for-female-scientists-voices-online-in-the-media-and-in-person/a-49258608

How Do You Solve the ‘Manel’ Problem for Scientific Meetings?

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/364/6444/twil

In Bid to Include More Women, ‘Request a Woman Scientist’ Has Recruited 10,000 Researchers

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01500-3

https://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/latest-news/2019/05/database-debunks-science-thats-stale-pale-and-male.html?page=all

https://www.natureasia.com/en/nmiddleeast/article/10.1038/nmiddleeast.2019.68

https://www.natureasia.com/en/nmiddleeast/article/10.1038/nmiddleeast.2019.69

https://www.laboratoryequipment.com/article/2019/05/diversifying-face-research-global-database-women-scientists

https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/living/story/female-scientists-start-database-showcase-work-9000-women-62781410

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/global-database-aims-improve-visibility-female-scientists

https://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/actualidad/490690-mujeres-ciencia-inclusion-laboral-igualdad/

UNAS 7.500 MUJERES SE UNEN A LISTA PARA AMPLIAR PRESENCIA FEMENINA EN CIENCIA

https://www.deutschlandfunknova.de/nachrichten/datenbank-forscherinnen-finden-leicht-gemacht

https://www.dossierpolitico.com/vernoticias.php?artid=218045&relacion=dossierpolitico&categoria=459

Unas 7 mil 500 mujeres se unen a “Request a Woman Scientist” para aumentar la presencia de científicas

https://www.kunc.org/post/group-aims-change-face-science-starting-database-women-scientists

https://www.va.se/nyheter/2019/04/24/hon-tog-saken-i-egna-hander-for-att-synliggora-kvinnliga-forskare—nu-har-hennes-initiativ-fatt-resultat/

Click to access 310.full.pdf

https://www.labmanager.com/news/2019/04/international-database-of-women-scientists-created#.XMHqaRZMGEc

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-management-administration/enrollment-in-database-of-female-scientists-soars-spurs-similar-tool-for-women-in-medicine.html

https://www.cuanschutztoday.org/cu-school-of-medicine-scientist-helps-create-international-database-of-women-scientists/

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/04/24/hundreds-massachusetts-women-scientists-have-joined-global-database-experts-change-face-science/J9Y6LLhUVnvT0q8m46Xn1H/story.html#comments

https://www.agenciasinc.es/Noticias/Una-base-de-datos-mundial-para-dar-voz-a-las-mujeres-cientificas

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.inverse.com/amp/article/55183-500-women-scientists-experts

‘This is the tip of the iceberg’: More than 8,500 women have joined the 500 Women Scientists database

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190423145517.htm

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/more-than-8000-have-joined-request-a-woman-scientist-database-65791

Request a Woman Scientist for conferences, classrooms, and more [Women’s History Month]

http://www.cronica.com.mx/notas/2019/1117178.html

So excited to see our article in PLoS Biology Community Pages come out today! We highlight the importance and reach of our “Request a Woman Scientist” platform that was launched a little over a year ago. In that short time, we have over 8,500 women representing 134 countries signed up to be resources for journalists, educators, and their peers to change what a scientist looks like. I am very proud of this work and can’t wait to see what this database becomes!

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3000212

I was featured as this week’s “Meet a Scientist” through 500 women scientists. Read the below coverage to learn more.

Use this women’s month to promote working STEM moms!

https://500womenscientists.org/updates/2019/3/11/developing-a-thick-skin?fbclid=IwAR0Hv-FzFfNP5nrkm0cCU40UHGNHNysPf_h9Gcf19qGPILuem1iYAkka20k

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton