Upcoming and Recent Events

(most recent at top; follow links for more info, recap, and photos)

Award-winning Science


Tuesday, May 5, 2009, 6 PM
Northeastern University, Mugar Life Sciences Building, Room 412 Campus Map
GWIS AO travel grant recipients will present their latest research results
Linnea van Griethuijsen, Department of Biology at Tufts University
Erin Hodges Trail, Department of Microbiology, Boston University School of Medicine

Refreshments will be served.
Everyone (men and women) welcome!

Effective Scientific Communication: How NOT to confuse and alienate people when presenting scientific data


Monday, February 9, 2009, 12 noon
Northeastern University, Mugar Life Sciences Building, Room 412 Campus Map

This informative and engaging workshop will be presented by Dr. Melissa Landon, postdoctoral fellow at Brandeis University.
Lunch served, RSVP to gwis@heimdall.org

Repair of Basic Laboratory Equipment


Charles Moses

Tuesdays, January 13 and 20, 2009, 7 - 9 PM
MIT Building 68 Room 077 Campus Map

Engineer Charles Moses will conduct a course on repair of laboratory equipment, geared toward but not limited to beginners. Equipment will include: electrophoresis units, spectrophotometers, motors on shakers and centrifuges, etc. General topics will also include: assessing the tools required to disassemeble, fix and reassemble a piece of equipment; tool quality; and rational disassembly of equipment when the function of some component is not known. Bring broken equipment on which to practice. Session starts at 7:00 p.m. in Project Lab, Bldg 68.

Strategies for Getting and Staying Organized, Tuesday, October 28, 2008, 6 PM
Denise King, of Clear the Clutter (www.mycleartheclutterhome.com) and a member of The National Association of Professional Organizers, will present strategies to get and stay organized in your home and professional lives. Northeastern University, 114 Mugar (www.campusmap.neu.edu ) Download poster

Garden in the Woods Trip and Big Bugs Exhibit, Saturday, October 11, 2008
meet at the Garden at 1 PM for a picnic lunch, followed by a tour.

Award-winning science and reception
Tuesday, May 13, 2008, 6:00 PM
412 Mugar, Northeastern University http://www.campusmap.neu.edu

"The Clownfish/Anemone Symbiosis: Further Lessons from Finding Nemo"
Ann Cleveland, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Marine Biology
Chair, Corning School of Ocean Studies
Maine Maritime Academy
GWIS fellowship recipient

"The effects of HIV-Tat protein on brain and behavior"
Amanda Carey
Graduate student, Department of Psychology
Northeastern University
GWIS AO travel grant recipient

Refreshments will be served.
Everyone (men and women) welcome!

Two Hours that will Make You a Better Speaker
Tuesday, March 18, 2008, 6:30 PM
412 Mugar Hall, Northeastern University
http://www.campusmap.neu.edu

Beryl Loeb brings over twenty-five years of communication, leadership, and management skill-building experience to her current role as Loeb Group founder, senior-level consultant, trainer, and facilitator. This workshop will help make you a better speaker! You will learn to: 1. Engage your audience with your passion and conviction. 2. Connect emotionally – telling a story rather than reciting a list of bulleted points. 3. Think of your speech or presentation as a conversation – and constantly answer the questions, “so what?” and “who cares?”

Advance Assignment: Everyone attending this workshop needs to prepare a very brief (one to two-minute) mini-presentation (no slides please) describing a time when you were a particularly successful speaker (either you just “felt it” or received positive feedback). During your mini presentation you need to convey one reason for why you were effective. PLUS…For those interested in professional critique of the slides you currently use in your presentations, please bring 20 copies (color preferred) of a printout of your typical slides. We'll dedicate a portion of our workshop to exploring ways to enhance the impact of your slides.
Download flier with more details.

Equity in Science: Progress and Prospects
GWIS at the AAAS Meeting

Friday, February 15, 2008, 12 noon - 1:30 PM
Sheraton Boston, Third Floor, Fairfax B, 39 Dalton Street, Boston

Professor Nancy Hopkins will speak on an assessment of progress in gender equity at MIT and beyond, and expectations for the future. She is the Amgen, Inc. Professor of Biology at MIT and among her many honors is her membership in the National Academy of Sciences. She is also an Honorary Member of SDE/GWIS. Professor Hopkins has made outstanding contributions to the fields of vertebrate developmental biology, retroviral genetics and bacteriophage genetics.

Professor Hopkins was also the driving force in establishing the MIT Committees on Women Faculty in the School of Science. These committees were established to study gender equity issues in faculty resources in the MIT School of Science. Professor Hopkins chaired the First Committee and served on the Second Committee. This initiative has had a tremendous impact on the careers of female scientists at MIT and elsewhere.

Project Management 101


Tuesday, January 29, 2008, 3-4:40 PM
MIT 35-225 Campus Map

Co-sponsored with the MIT Postdoctoral Scholars Advisory Council
Panelists: Claude Canizares, Peter Dedon, Steve Winig, Maria Zuber
A panel of faculty researchers and administrators discuss what project management means and how it can be applied in an academic setting either at the laboratory level or individual level; learn about allocating resources, using and tracking resources to achieve goals such as publishing a paper, obtaining a grant or completing experiments in a desired time frame.

Repair of Basic Laboratory Equipment


Charles Moses

Wednesday, January 23, 2008, 6 - 9 PM
MIT 68-077 Campus Map

Engineer Charles Moses will conduct a course on repair of laboratory equipment, geared toward but not limited to beginners. Equipment will include: electrophoresis units, spectrophotometers, motors on shakers and centrifuges, etc. General topics will also include: assessing the tools required to disassemeble, fix and reassemble a piece of equipment; tool quality; and rational disassembly of equipment when the function of some component is not known. Bring broken equipment on which to practice. Session starts at 6:00 p.m. in Project Lab, Bldg 68.

Persuasion in Collaborative Environments


Bruce Godzina

Monday, December 17, 2007, 6:00-7:00 PM
MIT Bldg E51 Rm 372 (Tang Center) (whereis.mit.edu)

Bruce Godzina is an MBA candidate from the University of Notre Dame who will graduate in 2008. He is also an attorney who has specialized in immigration law for several years, representing asylum seekers in immigration court. His undergraduate degree is from Rice University in Houston, Texas, where he studied economics and management. Bruce has had experience in large organizations as well as small ones. He has been a solo practitioner in his own law firm, but he has also worked for the federal government during the massive mobilization of disaster relief funds after hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. His international experience includes comparative law programs at McGill University in Canada and Oxford University in England. He has also been part of a team organized by the Department of State sent to Serbia to establish a legal aid clinic at a local university. Bruce is very interested in how incentive systems are set up in organizations to make them run more effectively.

Managing Difficult People: getting others to do what *you* want

You know you'd be really productive... if it weren't for all those people in the way! Come find out how to get the most out of your peers, your staff, your boss, and maybe even your mom. A conversation with Mary Rowe, MIT Ombudsperson.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007, 6 PM, MIT 1-375
Resources for managing difficult people, courtesy of Mary Rowe.


“Women Don’t Ask” book discussion and BBQ

Friday, June 1, 6:30 PM, Email beuning at neu dot edu for directions and more information.

 

Award-winning Research

GWIS Travel Grant Award winner Sharotka Simon and GWIS Fellow Jocelyn Muller

Thursday, April 12, 206 Egan, Northeastern University, 6 PM

 

Award-winning Research

GWIS Travel Grant Award winners Marielle Postava-Davignon and Leila Shokri will present their research

Tuesday, March 20, MIT Bldg 4 Rm 231, 6 PM

Career Profiles: Academic Careers

Prof. Becky Rosengaus, Dept of Biology, Northeastern University, PECASE awardee,

will speak about her career and her research on disease susceptibility in complex insect societies.

Monday, February 12, 2007

412 Mugar, Northeastern University, 6 PM

Repair of Basic Laboratory Equipment

Engineer Charles Moses will conduct a course on repair of laboratory
equipment, geared toward but not limited to beginners. Equipment will
include: electrophoresis units, spectrophotometers, motors on shakers and
centrifuges, etc. General topics will also include: assessing the tools
required to disassemble, fix and reassemble a piece of equipment; tool
quality; and rational disassembly of equipment when the function of some
component is not known. Bring broken equipment on which to practice.

 

Tue Jan 9 and/or Wed Jan 17, 7-9:00pm, MIT 68-077

 

Don’t Miss our Mentoring Panel, focusing on academic careers

“Getting the Mentoring you Need and Being an Effective Mentor
Wednesday, November 8, from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. at the MIT Stata Center, 32-141

Co-sponsored with the MIT Postdoctoral Scholars Advisory Council

 

Featuring:

Melissa Franklin, Physics, Harvard University

Jonathan King, Biology, MIT

Marc Muskavitch, Biology, Boston College

Carol Warner, Biology, Northeastern University

 

Communicating Evolution
October 17, 6 PM, MIT, Bldg 10 Rm 250

Norman Johnson, Department of Plant, Soil, and Insect Sciences
UMass, Amherst

Norman will suggest strategies for scientists to communicate the
importance of evolutionary biology to the general public and to explain
how Intelligent Design theory does not fit with accepted scientific
evidence. He will also highlight what molecular evolutionary studies can
tell us about the natural history of our species.

 

Lotte Bailyn speaks on Women in the Work Place
IF YOU GO TO ONE MASS AWIS/GWIS EVENT THIS YEAR--MAKE THIS THE ONE!!  Membership open house--members and non-members welcome--bring a friend. DATE:  Sunday, September 17th, 7:00 PM
LOCATION:  MIT Campus, Room 56-114
Co-sponsored with AWIS (Association for Women in Science)

 

Xenotransplantation: Lessons, experiences and the future

Dr. Julia Greenstein-Bleicher, Life Science Advisors

Tuesday, May 23, 5:30 PM, MIT Bldg 1 Rm 135

Award-Winning Science

Wednesday, April 26, 5:30 PM, MIT Bldg 1 Rm 150 Recent graduate student awardees will present their research.

Ying Wei, Northeastern University, winner of the 2005 Alpha Omega travel grant and

Elizabeth O'Day, Boston College, Winner of the Undergraduate Poster Award at the 2005 NSYCC

 

 

Everything you ever wanted to know about graduate school, but were afraid to ask

Graduate Student Panel, Thursday, March 23, 2005

Northeastern University, Room 305 Shillman Hall, 5:30 PM

Is graduate school right for you? What inside information will help prepare

you for success in grad school? Come and learn from a panel of current grad students in all fields of science from universities throughout the Boston area.

 

Download Poster Here!


 

"Venice, finally out of peril?"

Paola Malanotte-Rizzoli, Professor of Physical Oceanography in the

Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at MIT

Thursday, February 23, 5:30-6:30 PM

MIT Bldg 68 Rm 374 (http://whereis.mit.edu)

Italian desserts will be served.

 

Paola Malanotte-Rizzoli is a physical oceanographer interested in climate, the general ocean circulation and ecosystem models, which she studies through development of mathematical numerical models and assimilation of different datasets into models. She also has worked to solve the problems facing Venice, specifically modeling the Adriatic general circulation and wind-wave field responsible for the destruction of the lagoon coastline during the storms. She is currently working on the Venice problem as a consultant for the construction of the mobile gates designed to close the lagoon inlets and protect the city from the floods.

 

Repair of Basic Laboratory Equipment

Engineer Charles Moses will conduct a course on repair of laboratory
equipment, geared toward but not limited to beginners. Equipment will
include: electrophoresis units, spectrophotometers, motors on shakers and
centrifuges, etc. General topics will also include: assessing the tools
required to disassemble, fix and reassemble a piece of equipment; tool
quality; and rational disassembly of equipment when the function of some
component is not known. Bring broken equipment on which to practice.


For more information, contact sgodzina@mit.edu.


Wednesdays, Jan 11 and 25, 2006, 6-8 PM, MIT Bldg 68 Rm 077

 

Career Profiles: Deborah Douglas, MIT Museum Curator of Science and Technology

Includes MIT Museum Tour, brief talk, and time for networking and refreshments

Tuesday, Dec 6, 2005, 4:30 PM, MIT Museum (265 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA)

Co-sponsored by GWIS and the NESACS Younger Chemists Committee

View and Download Event Poster!

Starting in Our Own Backyards: How Working Families Can Build Community and Survive the New Economy

Prof. Ann Bookman, Executive Director of the MIT Workplace Center

Thursday, Nov 10, 2005,  4 PM, MIT Bldg 68 Rm 274

Prof. Ann Bookman is a social anthropologist who will discuss her new
book, Starting in Our Own Backyards: How Working Families Can Build
Community and Survive the New Economy (Routledge 2004), which extends the
discourse on work-family integration to include issues of community
involvement and civil society. Bookman has held a variety of teaching,
research, and administrative positions and has also worked in government,
as a presidential appointee during the first term of the Clinton
administration, as Policy and Research Director of the Women's Bureau at
the U.S. Department of Labor, and as Executive Director of the bipartisan
Commission on Family and Medical Leave.

Co-sponsored by the MIT Postdoctoral Advisory Council

The (Un)Changing Face of the Ivy League, presentation and discussion

Monday, May 16, 2005, 6:30 pm

Despite recent initiatives to increase the representation of women in
academia, from 1993 to 2003, the percentage of women in tenure-track
positions at Ivy League universities went from 31% to 34%.
Women average only 1 in 5 tenured faculty.
We invite you to a presentation and discussion of the report,
"The (Un)Changing Face of the Ivy League", with Kate Clancy, PhD student
and one of the report's authors.
The full text is at:
http://www.yaleunions.org/geso/reports/Ivy.pdf
This report was also covered in the New York Times
("Little Advance is Seen in Ivies' Hiring of Minorities and Women",
March 1, 2005).

Dudley House Common Room (2nd floor), Harvard University
http://map.harvard.edu/mapindex.cfm?mapname=camb_allston

Sponsored by GWIS (Graduate Women in Science) and HGWISE
(Harvard Graduate Women in Science and Engineering).

For more info, please contact gwis@mitvma.mit.edu.
 

Career Profiles: Nutrition Science Research in Industry

Marge Leahy, Ph.D. will discuss her career path to Ocean Spray, challenges and benefits of working in industry, as well as the science behind the health benefits of cranberry juice and cranberry products.

 

Wednesday, April 27, 2005 12:30 -1:30 PM

Rm 118 Jaharis, Tufts University-New England Medical Center

(150 Harrison Ave, Boston)

 

Everything you ever wanted to know about graduate school, but were afraid to ask

Graduate Student Panel, March 29, 2005

Northeastern University, Room 135 Shillman Hall, 5:30 PM

Is graduate school right for you? What inside information will help prepare

you for success in grad school? Come and learn from a panel of current grad students in all fields of science from universities throughout the Boston area.


There will be free pizzas and drinks. Everyone is welcome!

 

Careers in Industry for Scientists, February 22, 2005

Dr. Gail Martino, Gillette Advanced Technology Center

MIT Bldg 56 Rm 114, 6:30 PM

Considering a career in industry?
Wondering about the tradeoffs involved in doing research in a
company vs academia?
How do you build and maintain your network while working in
industry?
Dr. Martino, who has experience as a researcher in both
academia and industry, will address these issues and more in her
dynamic and engaging presentation.

 

Basic Scientific Instrument Repair, January 12, 2005

MIT, Bldg 68, Project Lab (Basement), 6:30 PM

 

Winter Social    

Wednesday, December 1, 2004, 6:30 PM

306 Egan (#60 on map), Northeastern University

Great Food and Door Prizes!

Everyone is welcome!

“Can Scientists Speak Truth to Power? Issues in US Energy Policy”
Scott Olson, Energy Delivery and Management Consultant, Nexant, Inc
Monday, November 1, 2004, 6:30 PM
MIT Bldg 4 Rm 231

 “The New Politics of Science Policy”, Prof. Sheila Jasanoff, Ph.D., J.D.,

Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government

Tuesday, October 19, 2004, 6:30 PM

MIT Bldg 4 Rm 237

Garden in the Woods Trip and Big Bugs Exhibit, Saturday, October 16, 2004, meet at the Garden at 11 AM

GWIS Summer BBQ, Saturday August 28

* Click here for information about previous events