18th Anna Mani Lecture by Prof. Lisa Kewley: 11th December 2024, Wednesday at 6:30 pm IST
YouTube live stream link: https://youtube.com/live/nx79YOGIV1A?feature=share
Title: “The achievement of gender parity in a large astrophysics research centre”
Abstract: In Australian astronomy, women's representation remains at historic lows, despite a decade of initiatives aimed at improving the representation and support of women in astronomy and academia more generally. Drawing from research in the fields of sociology and psychology, we designed a new evidence-based program to increase the percentage of women recruited and retained in astronomy, without gender-specific hiring or quotas. We applied the identical recruitment method to 47 fixed-term postdoctoral positions across nine universities from 2017-2022 within the ARC Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D). Through this method, ASTRO 3D achieved 50% women in 5 years, including 53% women postdocs and 56% women students recruited. A tipping point was reached at 40% women overall, after which women students enrolled in the Centre in accelerating numbers. Evidence-based retention initiatives were highly successful, yielding greater retention of women than men. The percentage of women in teams correlated strongly with the team lead gender, highlighting the importance of diverse team leadership. This work presents a clear pathway for organizations to achieve gender equity.
About the Speaker: Lisa Kewley, Director of the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian, obtained her PhD in 2002 from the Australian National University on the connection between star-formation and supermassive black holes in galaxies. She was a Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Fellow and a NASA Hubble Fellow. Her awards include the 2006 American Astronomical Society Annie Jump Cannon Award, the 2008 American Astronomical Society Newton Lacy Pierce Prize, and the 2020 US National Academy of Science James Craig Watson Medal. In 2014, Kewley was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science “for her fundamental advances in understanding of the history of the universe, particularly star and galaxy formation”, and in 2015, Kewley was awarded an ARC Laureate Fellowship, Australia’s top fellowship to support excellence in research. In 2020, Kewley was awarded the US National Academy of Sciences James Craig Watson Medal, in 2021 she was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences, and in 2022 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. From 2017-2022, Kewley implemented her scientific vision through her Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in All-Sky Astrophysics in 3D (ASTRO 3D).
