Women Academics From The United States

"Be thoughtful, appreciate everyone’s contributions, and organize your life so that you can pursue science. Science is more than a full-time job, and so is raising a family and being part of a community. Get help with the house, logistics, and anything else you can. Try to spend your time doing what matters most to you."

"“Age is a quality of mind,” said Julia. “If years have left your dreams behind, if hope is cold, if you no longer look ahead, if your ambition’s fires are dead, then you are old.” “But if from life you take the best, if in life you keep the zest, if love you hold, no matter how the years go by, no matter how the birthdays fly, you are not old.”"

"And finally, have fun. My motto all along has been “work hard, play hard,” although now for me playing hard means spending evenings with my kids. Scientists have the greatest career in the world. We get to decipher humankind’s greatest mysteries, and pursue our own unique, creative visions. There are few things in life more rewarding than that. It’s an absolute privilege to be able to spend your work life innovating and pursuing questions no one has ever known the answer to. Remember that."

"Ignore mean-spirited people, if all attempts to establish harmony fail. Also ignore people who evaluate you not by your research contributions but by their stereotyped impression of you, whether that be because of your gender, background, or something else. You can’t control what other people think. Science (like other careers) can sometimes bring out people’s less prosocial instincts. When it does, I just focus on my science, and on the mentors, friends, and family members who love and support me. Even if you’re not the most popular person, if your science is true, then I believe what my mother-in-law says: The cream rises to the top."

"Don’t compare yourself to others, and don’t worry too much about what other people think. There is always the temptation to compare your level of success with others’, but that is a trap. You’ll find happiness when you set your own internal standard for what you want to do, and do what you find internally rewarding."

"Share everything you can, and don’t be paranoid. If you’re racing to the finish line with other scientists, it’s better for you to support each other and get there together than to hold each other back. Excitement in fields is built by people doing things together, replicating and building off each other."

"... Our popular name of , doubtless arises from the giant size of some of these plants, and I am told that in Japan this prefix sometimes designates an unusually large species. For instance, a monstrous thistle is called devil-thistle. Also a large variety of the particular rhomboidal-shaped Chinese nuts called are popularly known in Japan as devil-hishi. However, with the Japanese as with us, devil may mean "armed," or uncanny in appearance, as the "devil-lotus," one with very prickly leaves. Our well-known , when cultivated in northern Ohio, is somewhat generally known as devil's tongue, which must seem a most fitting name to any one who has imprudently filled the tips of his fingers with the insinuating barbed bristles."

"Briggle. — To be in an uneasy mental condition, to shift the attention rapidly from one thing to another. “Don’t briggle so.” In common use in Ohio. —Fanny D. Bergen, Cambridge, Mass."

"The West African monsoon season begins in late April or early May with the onset of spring rains along the n coast near 4°N. The precipitation maximum remains over the coast until late June or early July. At that time, the rainfall maximum shifts into the southern , near 12°N, often over the course of a few days. This shift in the latitude of the rainfall maximum is known as the West African monsoon jump."

"The ' lies above the , extending to about 48 or 1 , and is capped by the '. It is a vertically stable, stratified region—hence its name—in which increases with altitude. The ' ("middle sphere") stretches from the stratopause to about 80 km, with temperatures again decreasing with height. The region of transition to interplanetary space, about 80 km, is the '. ... The only region where the incoming is strongly absorbed is in the stratosphere, where absorbs wavelengths. The stratopause marks the level of maximum absorption of solar radiation by ozone, but it is not the location of the greatest ozone concentration. Ozone concentrations generally peak near about 25 km elevation, but much of the ultraviolet radiation has been removed from the incoming solar beam at that level by the ozone above."

"The (AEJ, also known as the West African jet) is a prominent feature of the complicated structure that forms over in summer. ... The jet may be instrumental in creating an environment in which African wave disturbances develop through and instability (e.g., Rennick 1976; Thorncroft and Hoskins 1994a,b) and may play a role in determining the region’s precipitation distribution through these wave disturbances (e.g., Payne and McGarry 1977; Rowell and Milford 1993) or through its role in determining the large-scale column moisture convergence (Rowell et al. 1992). In addition, the African wave disturbances have long been identified as sources of activity in the Atlantic (e.g., Frank 1970). A better understanding of why the jet forms, and its sensitivity to surface conditions, will be useful for understanding the mechanics of the region’s basic climate dynamics as well as its intra- and interannual variability; such an understanding is necessary to advance our prediction capabilities."

"In the absence of regulation and/or some prohibitive cost attached to the release of es into the , will freedom in the climate commons bring ruin to all? Or will a more complex scenario develop, in which unequal use of the climate commons brings benefit to some and ruin to others?"

"That mess about judging people by the content of their character and not the color of their skin — that's some bullshit. Nobody has the right to judge anybody else. Period. If you ain't been in my skin, you ain't never gonna understand my character."

""Slavery is not the only story about black people. It’s only a small story! Don’t they know that if tomorrow a slave ship arrived at Elmina to carry us to America, so many Ghanaians would climb on board that this ship would sink to the bed of the ocean from our weight?" He laughed. I couldn’t help laughing myself. But who was the butt of the joke?"

"Through the 1980s and early 1990s, the course of American health research was increasingly shaped by for two particular diseases, and . Even as national stakes rose, both in dollars spent and growing demands on the medical system, breast cancer and AIDS advocates made government policy-making for research ever more public and controversial. Through skillful cultivation of political strength, interest groups transformed individual health problems into collective demands, winning notable policy influence in federal agencies such as the (NIH) and (FDA). Activists directly challenged fundamental principles of both government and medical systems, fighting to affect distribution of research funds and questioning well-established scientific methods and professional values. In the contest for decision-making power, those players achieved remarkable success in influencing and infiltrating (some critics said, undermining) both the politics and science of medical research. Between 1990 and 1995, federal appropriations for breast cancer study rose from $90 million to $465 million, while in that same period, NIH AIDS research rose from $743.53 million to $1,338 billion."

"Engineering education in the United States has had a gendered history, one that until relatively recently prevented women from finding a place in the predominantly male technical world. For decades, Americans treated the professional study of technology as men's territory (Bix 2000b; Ogilvie 1986l Rossiter 1982, 1995). Until World War II and beyond, many leading engineering schools, including Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Georgia Institute of Technology, and California Institute of Technology, remained closed to women. The few women admitted to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) struggled against a hostile intellectual and social environment. Women studying or working in engineering were popularly perceived as oddities at best, outcasts at worst, defying traditional gender norms. As late as the 1960s, women still made up less than 1 percent of students studying engineering in the United States, and critics either dismissed or ridiculed interest in the profession. Throughout the last half of the 20th century, activists fought to change that situation, to win acknowledgment of women's ability to become engineers."

"During the colonial era of American life, "" offered young girls elementary literacy, while s taught wealthier girls to raise their matrimonial prospects by becoming proficient in attractive arts, including , and , music, dancing, and . But by the Revolutionary and early national periods, influential figures such as , Abigail Adams, and Benjamin Rush argued for extending young women's education beyond such "ornamental" skills as a political and social asset to the country."

"Amy Bix's fine book, carefully researched and gracefully written, surveys the extent of everyday hardship during the . She concentrates on the debates over in the United States, debates that were "entwined with particular musings about the meaning of American history, the western frontier, and a sense of national destiny" (p. 8). She convincingly describes the lives and emotions of employed and unemployed Americans. She also summarizes some of the social research conducted during the depression years."

"Her legacy will live on through her many contributions to the world."

"Former Chancellor Blank was a tireless leader whose impact on campus is undeniable."

"She made a significant impression on all who knew her."

"Everything that helps to wear away age-old prejudices contributes towards the advancement of women and of humanity."

"Recognizing that the university needed to tap new sources of revenue in order to thrive, she envisioned a multifaceted, strategic plan to move us forward. She built a collegial and talented team, was always available to problem solve, react to, or guide the essential work of the university."

"Becky tirelessly fought the good fight for all that she believed in. Her pathbreaking scholarship informed actionable policies for reducing poverty and inequality, for which she fiercely advocated in her various government and nongovernmental roles."

"Suffragist, educator, visionary, public official, innovator, and groundbreaker."

"Although not as well-known as other famous American women, Dr. Blanton left a formidable legacy by improving the plight of women and children. Tenacious, persistent, and determined are words that aptly describe her."

"Her desire to elevate Wisconsin touched all facets of the institution."

"Our community has lost a brilliant leader who cared deeply about making this great public research university stronger, more accessible, better connected to the community and the state and better positioned to make a difference in the world."

"She believed that the power of women working together could promote positive change."

"Important to note is that Johnson is not trained as either a scientist or a theologian, nor has he ever practiced either discipline. His analysis of evolution is therefore based upon his own reading of the lay literature to which he has access and the interpretation on the scientific literature by popularizers. As a result, neither this book (Darwin on Trial) nor his subsequent ones provide a satisfactory scientific critique of biological evolution. Nor does it break new ground theologically. Nonetheless, its publication led to a large following, and he has had an active career on the lecture circuit as a result."

"Three of intelligent design’s most damaging constitutional problems: its singling out of evolution education for reform, its explicitly religious background, and it status as unsuccessful science."

"To be scientific in our era is to search for solely natural explanations."

"Thus, it seems clear that intelligent design should be considered a religion for First Amendment purposes."

"The actual point of the peppered moth example—that it illustrates how camouflage, a common adaptation that appears designed, can evolve through a simple natural process—is always completely ignored."

"To a biologist, the “it’s just microevolution” argument is painfully obtuse."

"ID, like creation science, has goals that are primarily religious."

"Significantly, the first publication to use the phrase intelligent design was not a theoretical paper but a high school textbook, Of Pandas and People! Ordinarily, one does the research first and then produces the textbook."

"To anyone familiar with the history of the antievolution movement, the attacks on evolution are perhaps the most obvious link between ID and earlier forms of creationism."

"ID advocates complain that their views are rejected out of hand by the scientific establishment, yet they do not play by normal rules of presenting their views first through scientific conferences and then to peer-reviewed journals and then in textbooks."

"In the creationist concept of created kind—and the creationist demand to “Show me macroevolution”—we have a classic example of the movable-goalposts strategy for winning. Any amount of evolution that can be demonstrated to the creationists’ satisfaction is effectively by definition microevolution within a kind. No matter how extensive the documented change is, the macroevolution goalposts are always out of reach. The inviolable biblical kind is protected with strategic vagueness."

"In special creationism, living things do not share common ancestry….common ancestry is the fundamental difference between special creationism and evolution."

"The first problem with this argument (“teach the controversy”) is that there is no scientific controversy about evolution, and the second problem is that intelligent design doesn’t qualify as a scientific theory."

"Creation science argues that there are only two views, special creationism and evolution; thus, arguments against evolution are arguments in favor of creationism. Literature supporting creation science is based on alleged examples of evidence against evolution, which are considered not only proof against evolution but also positive evidence for creationism. Understandably, there is nothing in the creation science canon providing a positive scientific case for the sudden emergence of the universe in its present form at one time, let alone for its specific doctrines a six-thousand-year-old Earth and universe, the occurrence of a worldwide flood responsible for the fossil record and geological features such as the Grand Canyon, and the impossibility of evolution except within sharp limits."

"Dogma doesn’t build better medical devices; good science does."

"The proponents of the latest tactical assault on evolution simply invent a new spin to describe their position or find new legal attacks. The rhetoric is designed to cover up the unquestionably religious motivation they have."

"The critiques of evolution offered in such ID literature, however, is recognizable as a proper subset of the critiques offered by creation science literature, and they are no more valid."

"The objections to evolution are not serious scientific arguments; they are superficially investigated and poorly reasoned talking points."

"By now it should be clear that “teaching the controversy” is not about the concern for good pedagogy but about advancing the antievolution agenda."

"In all these ways, her efforts to advance women lawyers mirror her efforts in so many other ways, both personal and professional, to advance all women in the profession."

"Her commitment to advancing women lawyers has had a profound effect on countless numbers of women in the profession in other ways as well."