Scientista Dec 16th BiWeekly Round Up Post

STEM news:
Since the US elections, many scientists are concerned that the state of science and scientific discovery will suffer, especially immigrant scientists like Dr. Huda Yahya Zoghbi (who recently received $3 million dollars for her Alzheimer’s research as part of the cohort of awardees for the Breakthrough Science Award!)

With the victory of Donald Trump as our President-elect, some female scientists are fighting back. Dr Kelly Ramirez and 10,000 other women have signed an open letter to combat discrimination and ‘anti-science sentiment’. They did this to take action and empower women to continue to find a space and embark on careers in science. You can check out the powerful letter here. 
 
STEM solutions
Unfortunately, there are many obstacles that stand in the way of a female scientist’s career. One prominent issue continues to be unequal compensation: women are less likely to receive funding than their male counterparts. One way to combat this is to hold universities accountable on this issue and make sure that biases against women don’t stop them from getting funding for their research. 
 
Tracey Massey, the president of Mars Chocolate North America, writes in Fortune how her degree in chemical engineering was a key to her success.
 
Rad Women in STEM
A cool initiative: Rhys Archer, a PhD student at the University of Manchester in the UK started a blog called Women of Science, highlighting women scientists and their stories. Check out some inspiring stories about Lizzie, a synthetic chemist, and Neha, a materials scientist.
 
Another great STEM role model: You can check out this Q&A with epidemiologist Quarraisha Abdool Karim, who researches HIV. She is driven to study HIV because a ‘young women’s potential is ended before it begins. There is so much to do’.
 
The L’Oréal For Women in Science fellowship awards $60,000 to five female scientists who do amazing scientific work and as a role-model for younger women in STEM. You can meet some of them in an interview here.
 
Seventy-six women (76!!) are sailing to Antarctica right now on the largest all-female expedition, not only to study the important effects of climate change on the land and wildlife but to also the raise awareness and increase the representation of women in STEM. You can follow along their journey with the hashtag #homeworkbound16.
 
Bonus!

Check out this comic about Rita Levi-Montalcini, an amazing scientist and a bad-ass lady who won the Nobel prize in 1986 despite many obstacles, including fleeing her home during World War II!
 

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