CWIS: Christian Women in Science - American Scientific Affiliation

Faith Tucker on CWIS for Students and Early Career Women

Posted By Alice C. Linsley, Thursday, November 28, 2013

Faith Tucker

As a young organization, the CWIS Board has spent a lot of time thinking about our goals and aims. We seek to be a home to women from a broad range of scientific disciplines, professional positions, and faith backgrounds where we can share of love of science and of Christ together as part of a rich, diverse community. As a current graduate student myself and the youngest member of the CWIS Board, it is my responsibility and pleasure to help provide support and engage the student and early career contingent of our growing community.

Students and early-career scientists are a vital part of the CWIS community for myriad reasons. It is these younger members who are the future of their disciplines and of the expanding place of women, and particularly Christian women, in the scientific community. The academic and professional environments we experience today have been in large part shaped by the women that proceeded us, just as we have the opportunity to affect change for those who come after us. On a personal level, the choices we make today as students, post-docs, and young faculty will likely influence the trajectory of our careers, our personal lives, and the ways in which we serve God through our science. These early days certainly have many unique challenges and thrills of their own.

One of the great benefits of CWIS is that we include many women who have walked before us through choosing a school to attend, finding an advisor, conducting research, searching for a position, and balancing work-life responsibilities. Most importantly, these women have navigated this jungle with a desire to see our Lord Jesus honored and served in all areas of their lives. This is no easy task, and the women of CWIS are a valuable resource. We hope that through this community we can build inter-generational relationships that support, encourage and inspire women of all ages.

So without any further ado, here are some of the CWIS programs you can be looking forward to as a student or early-career scientist:

CWIS Mentorship Program pairing students and early-career scientists with established Christian women in their discipline
Role Model Stories on the blog profiling the women of CWIS who blazed the trail before us
Virtual (and hopefully at times physical) community and support of other women in the same stage of their schooling or career
A platform to request answers to specific questions regarding school, research, career, family, faith, or anything else
And more!

If you're a student or early career scientist interested in getting involved or an established scientist willing to serve as a resource, email me at ftucker@stanford.edu.

Student/Early-Career Webpage

Welcome to the CWIS Student and Early-Career page! Whether you're a high school student, a post-doc, or a junior faculty, this button will take you to current information about all CWIS resources for younger members. You will be able to connect with peers and mentors regarding the student and early-career experience. Watch for news about our upcoming programs and resources and check the CWIS website regularly to learn more.

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Charter: Christian Women in Science

Posted By Alice C. Linsley, Sunday, November 17, 2013

CWIS CHARTER

Revised August 12, 2013

Christian Women in Science is a fellowship of women in science and related disciplines who share a common fidelity to the Christian faith and a commitment to integrity in the practice of science. Christian Women in Science was founded in July, 2013.

Mission

The mission of Christian Women in Science[1] is two-fold:

· To encourage Christian women of all ages to pursue, sustain, and grow in a career in science, technology, engineering or math, and

· To encourage women in these endeavors to pursue, sustain, and grow in the Christian faith.

Stakeholder Communities

Our community of stakeholders includes:

· We strive to serve those women involved or interested in science[2] in high school or college or just starting their careers, those in the middle of their careers, and those who are established leaders in their careers.

· We strive to benefit and support the American Scientific Affiliation (ASA[3]), of which we are an affiliate.

· We strive to bring special benefits to women who formally join our fellowship.

· We strive to serve the public with information and insight.

Goals

We have many specific goals related to our mission. The highest priority goals at any point in time will depend on the individuals that are available to help pursue those goals.

· Encourage more Christian women to get into science and engineering

· Encourage more women in science to be bolder in sharing their faith or to seek Christ for the first time

· Encourage Christian women in science to remain active in their careers and in their faith

· Help more Christian women move into leadership or management positions in science and engineering

· Grow ASA membership by reaching out to Christian women in science

· Bring more gender diversity to ASA membership and leadership

· Provide connections, encouragement, information, and role models for pre-career and early-career women in science

· Support mid-career women with work/life problems related to being a Christian, a woman, and a scientist

· Provide opportunities for our established leaders to make a difference in the lives and careers of other Christian women in science, to share their wisdom and experience, and to be recognized for their service

Beliefs

As an affiliate of the American Scientific Affiliation (ASA), we support the ASA’s statement of faith and policies: [4]

· We accept the divine inspiration, trustworthiness and authority of the Bible in matters of faith and conduct.

· We confess the Triune God affirmed in the Nicene and Apostles' creeds, which we accept as brief, faithful statements of Christian doctrine based upon Scripture.

· We believe that in creating and preserving the universe God has endowed it with contingent order and intelligibility, the basis of scientific investigation.

· We recognize our responsibility, as stewards of God's creation, to use science and technology for the good of humanity and the whole world.

Membership

The general public will benefit from the work of CWIS through information provided on its public website, and specific activities that the Board makes available to the general public.

· CWIS members will become members by first joining ASA and then joining the CWIS affiliate. The ASA has several categories of membership, including Regular, Associate, Student, Friend, and Fellow.[5] ASA/CWIS members in any of these categories (except Friend, by definition) will sign the ASA statement of faith as given above under "Beliefs.” ASA/CWIS members will receive special incentives, such as being able to access the CWIS affiliate membership directory, participating in special activities open only to CWIS members, or other member-only privileges.

· People interested in CWIS but not interested in ASA membership can become ASA/CWIS Followers. A follower will provide email and other information about himself/herself, and does not need to sign the statement of faith, but will not have access to the CWIS member directory or other member privileges.

Organization and Management

Christian Women in Science will operate under the rules and requirements for affiliates of the ASA listed in the ASA By-Laws.

The affairs of Christian Women in Science will be led and managed by the Board. The duties of the Board are to:

· Set policy and direction of Christian Women in Science.

· Determine the proposed activities for the next year that Christian Women in Science will initiate and sustain to achieve its mission and goals for its stakeholder communities.

· Recruit, select, train, motivate, and guide volunteers to implement these activities as needed.

· Respond to suggestions for new or additional activities as they are offered by the membership or others.

· As necessary, review official communications (blogs, newsletters, website material, etc) of Christian Women in Science before publication or dissemination.

· Report periodically on activities to the membership and to the ASA leadership.

The Board will consist of at least three and no more than ten CWIS members, who are also officially members of ASA. The perpetuation of the Board will be decided at a later date. Also, any other structure of the Board (such as President, Vice President, Secretary, etc) will be decided at a later date.

The Board will conduct its business through email, teleconferences, and other electronic means as needed, and will meet in person at the ASA national meeting each summer to the extent possible.

Directors receive no compensation for their services. Decisions about CWIS requiring dues of members, or some other type of financial transactions or funding, will be decided at a later date.

[1] http://network.asa3.org/members/group.aspx?id=117829

[2] References in this document to science, or to science and engineering, should be assumed to refer to all four areas of science, technology, engineering, and math.

[3] www.asa3.org

[4] http://network.asa3.org/?ASAbeliefs

[5] https://asa3.site-ym.com/general/register_member_type.asp

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Dr. Lin Allen Shares a Vision for CWIS

Posted By Alice C. Linsley, Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Alice C. Linsley

One of the members of Christian Women in Science (CWIS) is also on the Rocky Mountain Board of the American Scientific affiliation. Dr. Lin Suzanne Allen is in the Humanities and Social Sciences at University of Northern Colorado. Her research includes court case analyses that address scientific questions. The research focuses on language and images in court argument and the construction of heroic imagination in public memory.

Lin holds a B.A. degree in Speech and Drama from Idaho State University; an M.A. in Communication Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and a Ph.D. in Rhetoric from the University of Oregon.

Lin has served as Director of Forensics and Debate for Idaho State University and taught in the Greenspun School of Communication at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Allen volunteers as a lector at St. Peter Roman Catholic Parish in Greeley and is a Parish Council Member. Other volunteer work includes CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate), and Presidency of the Colorado Chapter of PARTNERS of the AMERICAS.

Lin is indeed a very busy woman! In additional to all the above, she is Minor Advisor for Communication Studies, an advisor for Law Club, and a Faculty in Residence at Harrison Hall on the University of Northern Colorado campus.

She has been traveling a great deal also. Her first college credits were earned in an overseas European program the summer after high school graduation, studying Comparative Cultures and Governments. At the time of this interview she was in Phuket, Thailand. She has led a Study Abroad course in Athens on Classical Rhetoric in Greece. She studied cultural narratives of the New China in Beijing and presented research in Tokyo, Singapore, and Brazil. At home, she has delivered presentations in Texas, Chicago, Alaska, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.

What follows is a brief interview with Dr. Allen.

CWIS: What drew you to the Christian Women in Science organization?

Dr. Lin Allen

ALLEN: Lynn Billman's extraordinary gift of inspiring ASA members to view our world from a spirit of wonder and gratitude. Lynn is faith personified.

CWIS: What are your hopes for CWIS's future?

ALLEN: That there will be an openness to learn how faith, science and the humanities intersect and enrich one another.

CWIS: Please share your thoughts on ways CWIS can edify Christian women in science and technology.

ALLEN: By providing a creative forum for charting how the mythos of science and faith inform and influence our research questions and inspire directions for discovery. Human life is a mystery that becomes richer and deeper as we explore our scientific pilgrimage.

CWIS: In your view, how might CWIS serve to build and strengthen the greater Body of Christ?

ALLEN: An article by Pichaya Svasti published in the October 24, 2013, Bangkok Post provides a guiding illustration of how we create our lives via exploration. Titled "Diving into the past," the interview features Pornnatcha Sankhasprasit, Thailand's first female underwater archaeologist:

"With her love for solving mysteries, she was a volunteer assistant to underwater archaeologists since she was 19, after attending a summer camp at the Fine Arts Department's Office of Underwater Archaeology in Chanthaburi ....

Pornnatcha has undertaken a dangerous task in her hopes of better understanding the past, especially through recovery of artifacts from the Ayutthaya Era, a Siamese kingdom that existed from 1351 to 1767. Has she ever wondered what it would be like to live during that time? In keeping with Buddhist narrative, she says, "I think everyone was reborn from one point.”

For Pornnatcha science and religious belief go hand-in-hand. The two enrich each other. She illustrates how the archaeology of faith and the faith of archaeology can be a guiding vision. Likewise, CWIS can help to bring a renaissance of the science-faith, faith-science narrative.

CWIS: Tell us more about some of the cases you have worked on.

ALLEN: Some of my cases include Venice’s METAMORPH, the Lincoln Museum, the JFK memorial site, Memphis’ Graceland, and the narrative published by Mark Owen (pseudonym for Matt Bissonnette), a Navy SEAL who took part in the raid that ended the life of Osama Bin Laden.

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Liberating Women from the Curse of the Three-Stone Fire

Posted By Alice C. Linsley, Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Paul Arveson has been a member of ASA since 1974. He has a background in research physics and computer system management. Since 2008 Paul has served as a Director on the board of a local nonprofit called Solar Household Energy, Inc. Louise Meyer is co-founder of this organization and has been an international advocate and trainer for solar cooking projects in many countries.

By Paul Arveson

In some African wedding ceremonies, a woman is not considered married until she goes out in the desert and collects three large stones to make a hearth. She is literally married to her three-stone fire for the rest of her life. This is a cooking method that is still used by billions, and is the cause of health problems due to indoor smoke, deforestation, CO₂, black carbon emissions, and simply the poverty exacerbated by fuel costs¹. Women and children bear the brunt of the health effects, and they typically spend many hours per week gathering firewood for cooking, which has risks of its own.

This is a photo of a Haitian woman in her kitchen, where she will stir the pot, holding a child, as they breathe the smoke of the indoor cooking fire for hours a day. What's wrong with this picture? You can see that outside the sun is shining brightly. Many regions of the world are rich in one resource: a solar irradiance of about 1 kilowatt per square meter that is going unused.

Researchers at organizations like Solar Household Energy, Inc. have designed efficient solar cookers that can replace fuel-based cookstoves on sunny days. Solar cookers simply use reflectors to concentrate sunlight enough to cook a large pot of food in a couple of hours. However, the labor time is minimal because food does not need to be stirred – like a crock pot in an American kitchen. This frees up time to care for children, tend a garden or do other profitable activities. There is less need for gathering, chopping and carrying firewood (except for use on cloudy days). There is no smoke inside the house (respiratory diseases are a major cause of illness and death according to WHO¹). The solar cooker can complement a fuel-efficient stove to further reduce the labor, emissions and costs involved with fuels.

Despite the simplicity, health benefits, labor saving, fuel saving, forest saving, and other benefits of solar cookers, this technology has gone largely unrecognized and there are no significant programs to promote or distribute solar cookers by USAID, the UN, the Gates Foundation or any other major funding source. There are plenty of projects to distribute food and clean water, but little effort has been focused on how to cook the food, or pasteurize the water. That is why I decided to focus my efforts on this concept².

This photo shows a solar box cooker. A small number of these were distributed in Haiti by Solar Household Energy, Inc. in a partnership with The Nature Conservancy.

Research is needed for matching product designs to the requirements of specific regions, and this research is complex and interdisciplinary. We need the help of anthropologists, economists, climate scientists and physicists, as well as ample feedback from the end users of various stove designs, to optimize them for long-term acceptance and use. Despite the huge potential benefits of solar cookers and fuel-efficient stoves, so far there has been limited awareness and demand for these innovative products.

A Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (GACC) has been established to encourage governments and other potential sponsors to recognize the opportunities these products offer to help solve many economic and environmental problems³. The GACC has recently initiated work toward a set of testing protocols for all types of cookstoves, including solar cookers. I am a participant in the development of this standard, and I would be delighted to engage other interested women scientists in this effort.

Paul Arveson, Physicist

Louise Meyer, Solar Cooking Consultant

Solar Household Energy, Inc.

Washington, DC

http://www.she-inc.org/

References:

1. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs292/en/

2. http://www.she-inc.org/docs/143.pdf

3. Igniting Change: A Strategy for Universal Adoption of Clean Cookstoves and Fuels, Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, http://cleancookstoves.org/blog/ignitingchange/

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Engineering job opening: Messiah College

Posted By Ruth D. Miller, Monday, October 7, 2013

CWiS colleagues:

Messiah College is looking for an engineering professor, preferably (but not absolutely) in Mechanical or Biomedical Engineering, and they really really want to hire a woman. The job listing is here:

https://jobs.messiah.edu/postings/2675

Ted Davis is one well-known ASA member at Messiah and would probably be happy to answer questions. Please forward this on to whomever you think would be a good fit.

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Goals of Christian Women in Science (CWIS)

Goals of CWIS

Women earn fewer than a third of the PhDs in computer sciences, earth, atmospheric, and ocean sciences; mathematics and statistics; physical sciences; and engineering. Many of the women with PhDs in science and engineering leave the workforce or academia soon after they begin employment.

The extent of this problem is described in Rosser, S.V., Taylor, M. Z. "Why Are We Still Worried about Women in Science?” in Academe, magazine for the American Association of University Professors, May-June 2009. CWIS exists to help correct this problem. Here are our goals:

Faith Tucker on CWIS for Students and Early Career Women

INDEX of Topics

Charter: Christian Women in Science

Mission

Stakeholder Communities

Goals

Beliefs

Membership

Organization and Management

Focus on Jennifer Wiseman

Dr. Lin Allen Shares a Vision for CWIS

2013 Board of Christian Women in Science

Liberating Women from the Curse of the Three-Stone Fire

NY Times article on Women in STEM

Engineering job opening: Messiah College