Friday Link Roundup

Various women in science articles from the past week:

Stanford News reports that "eight leading experts in science, gender studies and policy formation will be in residence at the Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Studies during the 2007-08 academic year to collaborate on advancing the national agenda on women in science, engineering and technology." The fellows are: Cynthia M. Friend (Harvard Chemistry Dept), Sabine C. Girod (Stanford Department of Surgery), Myra M. Hart (Harvard Business School), Nancy Hopkins (MIT Biology Department), Michell Murphy (University of Toronto History Department), Kavita Philip (U.C. Irvine Women's Studies Department), Sue V. Rosser (Dean of Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at Georgia Tech), and Sheri D. Sheppard (Stanford Mechanical Engineering and Center for Design Research). Each of the fellows has a long list of accomplishments and affiliations. Read the whole press release for details.

Zuska writes about the recent Nature Physics editorial about the American Physical Society Gender Equity Workshop.

Sheril R. Kirshenbaum guest blogs on the Intersection about why she is a marine biologist.

According to Macon.com, Wesleyan College president Ruth Knox has vowed that the school will not become coeducational.

Despite perceptions that men and women are educated equally, research shows a bias against girls in middle and high school when it comes to being skilled in some areas, like science or math. That bias can carry over in a coed collegiate setting, said Vivia Fowler, director of the Center for Engaged Learning at Columbia College, a women's college in South Carolina. Fowler starts at Wesleyan as dean and vice president for academic affairs in July. At a women's college, women are empowered to find their voice and become leaders, she said.

Improbable Research reports that Dr. Yvette Hancock, a research associate in the Laboratory of Physics and the Helsinki University of Technology, has recently published a new book in her series of children's books (featuring Ellie the Electron) on quantum physics.

Jim Horning writes about a paper by Robert Meyer and Michel Cukier titled "Assassing the Attack Threat due to IRC Channels." Silent IRC bots with feminine screen names received an average of 100 malicious private messages a day, while those with male screen names received an average of 3.7 malicious messages. Jim asks, "If this hostility is anywhere near the typical Internet experience, is it any wonder that computing and IT are increasingly losing the women?"

Susan Heathfield (About.com: Huamn Resources) writes about a Women in Technology luncheon she attended at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis.

BoingBoing writes about the death of Pamela Low. Low had a degree in microbiology from the University of New Hampshire, but her claim to fame is her work as the flavorist who created Cap'n Crunch.

Florida Today reports on the annual Women in Engineering Programs & Advocates Network (WEPAN) conference at Walt Disney World Resort's Coronado Springs Resort.

What does [executive director Diane] Matt believe is the best way to attract the young girls to a field that includes people ranging from designers of roads to creators of microchips?

"It's important to reveal that everything you touch and everything that is part of your life has been engineered -- even the simple, day-to-day things," Matt said. "One of the things that's been discovered is kids really don't know what an engineer is, but you can say an engineer is someone who solves problems to make the world a better place for people.

Six MIT seniors are the first group of women to graduate after having participated in the MIT Women's Technology Program (WTP). WTP allows female students to "explore engineering through hands-on classes, labs, and team-based projects" between their junior and senior year of high school.

The Daily Utah Chronicle reports on the University of Utah's summer ACCESS program for incoming female freshman in mathematics, science and engineering.

ACCESS gives women the opportunity to do field and lab work in the areas of sciences and math. The program will also provide young women access to college professors, faculty and peers in their fields of interest. Participants get the advantage of being placed in a research program of their choice at the U during their freshman year.

According to StateCollege.com, Raytheon has donated $75,000 to Penn State to sponsor the Women in the Sciences & Engineering (WISE) Camp program. This is a one week science and engineering program for high school girls.

Tags: computer science, gender gap, physics