Greetings!

The Top 7 Energy Sector Jobs
According to the Department of Labor, the general perception of energy careers is that they are unstable and low-skilled, but there are many skilled and high-tech careers in energy that boast healthy salaries and low stress including Petroleum Engineer and Geologist.  The projected growth for many energy sector jobs is also better than the national average.

Energy to work

Number of Women Deans in Academic Medicine Doesn't Keep Pace
According to a new study published in the August issue of Academic Medicine, of the 534 appointments of medical schools deans from 1980 through 2006, only 38, or 7 percent, were women. In the most recent period, 2000 to 2006, 15 percent of all new medical school deans were women. The percentage of women in dean positions is far below the percentage of women medical school faculty and students. 

Dean disproportion

Administration Calls on States to Fund Higher Education
Martha Kanter, undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Education and a key policymaker on higher-education issues for the Obama Administration, called on state leaders to provide "stable and predictable higher-education funding" to slow down the furious pace of tuition increases. The Administration is considering a proposal to tie federal student aid to affordability that would offer incentives for innovative programs that cut the cost of college and get more students to finish.

College funding

5 Considerations for Licensing Intellectual Property
AWIS Member Laura Smoliar points out that "a license that gives you the rights to use important intellectual property can be just as valuable as your own patent."  Read her five tips to bring inventions out of the lab and turn them into real products.

Licensing lessons

Female Scientist Working on Male Gel Contraceptive
Christina Wang, M.D., Professor of Medicine and Assistant Dean at the School of Medicine at UCLA, is the lead investigator of a study utilizing a contraceptive gel that has the potential to be used as a chemical birth control agent for males.  The preliminary results presented at the Endocrine Society Meeting & Expo revealed that up to 78 percent of men receiving the drug combination of testosterone and a synthetic progestin called Nestorone saw their concentrations drop to no sperm at all.  The data has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal. 

Beyond condoms and vasectomies

Multi-Tasking Improves with Meditation
A new study finds meditation can help workers become more productive, focused and less stressed, says David Levy, a computer scientist and professor with the Information School at the University of Washington.  Meditators showed improved memory for the details of the work they were doing in a post-training multitasking test compared to their performance in the pre-training test. Participants in the control group showed no such improvement.

Focused

Mothers Miss Work More Than Fathers to Care for Sick Children
According to a recent University of New Hampshire study, 74 percent of working mothers had stayed home from work to care for a sick child compared to 40 percent of working fathers.  They study found that 51 percent of working fathers and 46 percent of working mothers were eligible to receive at least five paid sick days to care for children who were ill.

Missing work

Volunteer Opportunity for Retired STEM Professionals

The AAAS/SSE STEM Volunteer Program is an effective and enjoyable way to contribute your scientific knowledge and experience to promote K-12 science education in the DC, MD, VA community.  Volunteers assist K-12 Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math (STEM) teachers, by helping to create and give demonstrations, assisting in lab experiments, speaking on special topics, assisting with homework, etc.  Each volunteer works out the details of the collaboration with the teacher.  Volunteers usually commit to assisting in at least one class a week for the school year.  See a demonstration on how AAAS-STEM Volunteers are assisting teachers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2RlVrYKbck.  Contact bcalinge@aaas.org and include in your email your home address; or call 202-326-6629.

ADVANCE Program Solicitation

NSF ADVANCE: Increasing the Participation and Advancement of Women in Academic Science and Engineering Careers (ADVANCE) is accepting proposals for projects that develop systemic approaches to increase the representation and advancement of women in academic STEM careers, thereby contributing to the development of a more diverse science and engineering workforce. 

2013 AWIS Educational Awards
The Educational Awards support travel for professional development, broadly defined. Individuals may request funding to attend a conference, to acquire specialized training, or to pursue professional development in other ways that take them from home. Any woman who works in a STEM discipline and who has earned at least a bachelor's degree is eligible. Individuals may be graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, employed scientists and engineers, or those seeking employment or to return to school. The next application process will open on August 1, 2012 and close September 16, 2012 for travel that starts between December 1, 2012 and April 30, 2013. 

Science Case Network Meeting
The SCN, a new Research Coordination Network for Undergraduate Biology Education, is hosting a networking meeting to help strategize how case study and problem based learning approaches could be used to address perceived gaps in undergraduate biology education. The meeting, called "Networking Strategies to Bridge Perceived Gaps in Biology Education: Content, Reaching Diverse Students, Faculty and Future Faculty Development, and the Biology Curriculum Continuum," is hosted by the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science and will be in Buffalo, NY on August 6-7, 2012.

BBRG Affiliated Scholars Program

The BBRG Affiliated Visiting Scholars Program is designed to accommodate scholars who would like to spend a relatively short period of time in residence, ranging from one month to six months. The BBRG Affiliated Visiting Scholars Program is open to senior and junior faculty (tenured and untenured), visiting scholars, postdoctoral scholars and independent scholars, from the U.S. and abroad, whose work is centrally on women and gender. Applicants must have the Ph.D. in hand one year prior to the beginning of the appointment. The BBRG accepts applications for the BBRG Affiliated Visiting Scholars Program throughout the academic year. 

Marie Curie Fellowship

Have you ever wanted to do research in Europe? Apply for a Marie Curie Fellowship. The goal of the Marie Curie Fellowship is to strengthen the human potential in research and technology by stimulating people to enter into the profession of research and attracting researchers from the entire world to Europe. This Fellowship addresses researchers at all stages of their careers, in the public and private sectors, from initial research training, specifically intended for young people, to lifelong learning and career development. Proposals are welcomed from all areas of scientific and technological research and the fellowship covers your salary plus your research expenses. To apply, you must have either a doctoral degree or at least 4 years' full-time equivalent research experience, after obtaining a degree permitting you to embark on a doctorate.
 

Small Business Postdoctoral Research Diversity Fellowship
The Small Business Postdoctoral Research Diversity Fellowship program aims to encourage creative and highly-trained recipients of doctoral degrees in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering and mathematical disciplines to engage in hands-on research projects in their areas of expertise at the kind of small innovative businesses that historically have fueled the nation's economic regime. This fellowship program offers small businesses the opportunity to attract top scientific and technological talent at a fraction of the usual cost, while recruiting postdoctoral fellows to work for at least a year outside an academic setting on cutting-edge research aimed at promoting scientific excellence and strengthening our nation's technological prowess. Each research fellow will receive a stipend of at least $75,000 plus health insurance benefits.

NSF's Career-Life Balance (CLB) Initiative
Scientists now have the opportunity to submit supplemental funding requests to support additional personnel (e.g., research technicians or equivalent). This will help sustain research when the Principal Investigator is on family leave. In FY 2012, up to 3 months of salary support may be requested (for a maximum of $12,000 in salary compensation) by CAREER awardees.

 
Toby Horn, PhD

Dr. Horn is the co-Director of the Carnegie Academy for Science Education (CASE) at the Carengie Institution for Science.

Learn more about Toby.