President’s note

In November WOMEESA will be hitting the conference circuit. Several of our members will be speaking at conferences across the region and we will be hosting a number of workshops. If you can make it to the Dorothy Hill women in Earth and Environmental Sciences conference in Brisbane or the Geological Society of New Zealand conference in Palmerston North be sure to come along to the WOMEESA workshops and our stall. For those who can’t make it, our workshop at DHS is going to be held online and is open to all. See the details below on how to register.

We also have our Annual General Meeting this month where we will tell our members about WOMEESAs achievements for 2022 and what we have planned for 2023. We will hold our ordinary committee member elections and if you are interested in becoming part of our fabulous team you can nominate for a position.

With so much on this month I look forward to meeting a lot of our fabulous members in person for the first time or online.

Melanie Finch

WOMEESA President

WOMEESA news

WOMEESA @ the Dorothy Hill women in Earth and Environmental Sciences Symposium

The Dorothy Hill Women in Earth and Environmental Sciences Symposium is being held in Brisbane on November 7-9. There are quite a few WOMEESA members presenting at the conference, including our President Melanie Finch, Partnerships coordinator Caroline Tiddy and members Janelle Simpson and Jessica Stromberg. WOMEESA will have a booth at the conference where we will be selling limited edition prints and postcards of the fabulous linocut portraits of Prof. Leanne Armand (insert), Prof. Emma Johnston and Mibu Fischer from our exhibition of the Australian women who shaped Marine Science exhibition in June.

We are also hosting an online workshop on the first day of the conference that is available to all our members. We have managed to bring together some incredible panelists and facilitators for this workshop, so we think it is really going to be a special event.

Cracking the code: mid-career re-entry, transition and promotion for Earth and Environmental scientists

We are thrilled to present a stellar lineup of panelists at our workshop for mid-career Earth and Environmental scientists. Mid-career professionals may not have navigated the recruitment and interview process for a decade or more, and need support to understand the language of recruitment in other sectors (academia, government, industry, consulting).

Hosted by WOMEESA in association with the Dorothy Hill Women in Earth Sciences Symposium, we present an insightful workshop and discussion forum to support mid-career Earth and environmental scientists who are

· seeking promotion within their current sector;

· seeking to transition across to a new sector; or

· seeking to re-enter the workforce after a significant career break.

Our experienced panelists will share their insights into some common pitfalls where women can strengthen their application or promotion pitch in a competitive merit-based system.

Registration is $20 and available at this link

WOMEESA @ the Geological Society of New Zealand conference

The GSNZ Conference is on November 28th-December 2nd in Palmerston North. This year they are celebrating women in geoscience with all plenary and public lectures being given by women. WOMEESA will be hosting a lunchtime session on November 29 with Dr Debalina Dutta of Massey University who will be sharing some of the results of her research into women in STEM in NZ, focusing on how we perceive and define expertise. You can register for the conference here.

Womeesa Annual general meeting

The WOMEESA AGM will be held on online on 17 November at 12pm (AEDT, Sydney time). We will be updating members on our busy year and electing a new ordinary committee (more details below). You can register for the zoom link here.

We are thrilled to announce that at the conclusion of the AGM we will be hosting a special screening of Earth Futures Festival award winning film: Rola (Stone), which was directed by WOMEESA member Dr Marissa Betts from the University of New England. Marissa will join us for a Q&A after the screening.

Ordinary committee member election

Nominations are open for WOMEESA ordinary committee members for a term duration of one year (the positions of President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary have a two-year term and are not open for nomination in 2022). To nominate yourself or someone else, please fill in the form at this link. Eight ordinary committee member roles are up for election this year. We particularly encourage nominations from members working in industry or government and members from New Zealand or Asia-Pacific countries to increase our representation in these areas.

Nominations close 10 November at 5pm. If you have any enquiries or issues please email womeesa.network@gmail.com or melanie.finch@jcu.edu.au

WOMEESA seminar series

Each month we host a seminar via zoom from a WOMEESA member. Our seminar series aims to increase the visibility of women in science and provide inspiring role models. Attendance is open to everyone, including non-members.

Details of upcoming seminars on posted the seminar webpage here, and past seminars are posted on our YouTube channel here. We’re also compiling a list of talks by women in earth and environmental sciences in the region which you can find on the seminars webpage.

The September WOMEESA seminar was presented by Christina Riesselman. You can watch it here.

Don’t miss the next WOMEESA Seminar:

Wednesday 23 November 2022, 2pm (Sydney time)

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR KATHRYN AMOS, UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE

“Reflections on my experiences with academic promotions and leadership: the good, the bad (advice), and the ugly”

Register for the zoom link here and see our website for more information

Local meet ups

WOMEESA organises bi-monthly local meetups in our major centres, which are a great opportunity to meet other members in your local area and to build a stronger community.

Save the date: the next ACT bimonthly meetup is Sunday 27th November, 10 am at the National Museum of Australia for morning tea at the café followed by (optional) Museum Highlights guided tour including the new Great Southern Land gallery ($15 pp).

RSVP details coming soon.

WOMEESA #SUAW session

On the last Friday of the month we hold an online Shut Up and Write #SUAW session via zoom. We get together and talk briefly about what we want to achieve in the session, then write for about 50 minutes.

It’s a great opportunity to connect with other members and get some uninterrupted writing done. Even if you don’t have anything to write, you can just come along and say hi.

Our September SUAW is today Friday 25 November, 12 pm (Sydney time) and you can register for the zoom link here - watch your email for a reminder closer to the date.

Wikipedia edit-a-thon

We held our second WOMEESA Wikipedia edit-a-thon earlier this month. You can check out the statistics of our edits in the project dashboard at this link. We still have a lot of Wikipedia pages to work on and would love your help! If you would like to help to create new pages or edit existing ones, contact our events coordinator Fernanda.AlvaradoNeves@monash.edu for more information.

WOMEESA AESC session

Abstract submission is now open for the Australian Earth Science Conference, to be held in Perth in 2023. WOMEESA is convening a session on Diversity and inclusion in geoscience. Geoscience is one of the least diverse STEM disciplines, which leads to reduced innovation and a failure to attract the best people to our discipline. This session will explore the various factors contributing to this lack of diversity and the changes that can be implemented to make geoscience more inclusive. Contributions are invited from from both within and outside geoscience, on research about groups that identify as minority genders (women and non-binary), LGBTIQ+, people with disability, neurodiverse, indigenous, and minority races in Australian geoscience. Abstract submission is open until March 2023, and you can register at this link.

Other WOMEESA news

Marissa Betts takes out the EFF award

Marissa Betts from the University of New England won the Geoscience Professionals Award at the Earth Futures Festival. Marissa directed and produced her film: ROLA (STONE). Her film is available to view at this link and you can tune into our AGM to watch the film together and join us for a Q&A session with Marissa.

The Earth Futures Festival Awards Ceremony was hosted at the Australian Museum on 15th October and you can catch up on what you missed via this recording. As many of you know, WOMEESAs inaugural President Heather Handley created and directed the festival, and the awards ceremony marks the culmination of this hugely successful initiative. Congratulations Heather and thank-you for your tireless efforts to help increase understanding of the importance of geoscience for our sustainable future.

Virtual GESSS

Virtual GESSS is an online earth science student symposium organised by ECG (Early Career Geoscientists) from the Geological Society of Australia. Originally developed as an alternative to cancelled face-to-face GESSS events during the COVID 19 pandemic, Virtual GESSS provides students a platform to present their geoscience research to a broad audience around Australia and the world. It will be held online over two 2.5-hour sessions on the 15 and 16 November. Registration is free for students, Geoscience Australia staff, and GSA members. Find out more and register at this link.

EDIG Conference 2022

The Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Geoscience (EDIG) project began in 2020 and aims to promote effective, long-term change and help our community become more inclusive, equitable and accessible. Now, EDIG is running its second conference, to be held on November 21st and 22nd 2022. The EDIG Conference 2022 aims to harness the collective power of the geoscience community to enact change, promoting and improving the equity, diversity and inclusivity of geoscience for the benefit of all. The conference will be run virtually, across three time zones, allowing all of us to come together and engage under three main themes; data, awareness, and action. The EDIG conference is open to everyone who wants to learn about EDI related challenges and how to promote progressive action to help geoscience become more accessible and inclusive. Regardless of your career stage, background, current location or discipline, you are invited to the EDIG conference to listen, learn, and act. You can find out more at this link and register for the conference here.

Jobs and opportunities

The Association of Women in Science triennial Conference AWIS2023 will be replaced in 2023 with a combined AWIS / ICWES19 (19th International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists) conference to be held in Auckland, New Zealand in September next year. The two meetings are being mapped together in 2023 to provide NZ women scientists with an opportunity to globally showcase their science. Due to the overlap of the two meetings, combining the meetings is also for efficiency and cost savings. Then AWIS will be back in 2026! Abstract submission is open now.
Senior lecturer/lecturer in water science at Monash University (Nov 15)
Postdoc structural geologist focusing on basin hosted mineral system at CSIRO
Sample preparation technician to work with a characterisation team based in Perth at CSIRO

WOMEESA Newsletter October 2022