The other day a postdoc told me that his big telescope proposal was rejected. He’d also gotten a rejection letter for a scientific fellowship he’d applied for.* He seemed really bummed out. I felt bad for him — rejection is a bummer. As a co-I on the proposal and one of his letter-writers, I was [...]

Career Profiles: Astronomer to Non-Tenure-Track Lecturer

The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy and the AAS Employment Committee have compiled dozens of interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths. Below is our interview with an astronomer/astrophysicist turned non-tenure track lecturer at a large research 1 institution. If you have [...]

Career Profiles: Astronomer to Electrical Engineer

The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy and the AAS Employment Committee have compiled dozens of interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths. Below is our interview with Andre Wong, an astronomer turned electrical engineer at Teledyne. If you have questions, suggestions, advice [...]

Professional development at the 2014 Winter AAS Meeting

The number of professional development opportunities at the annual AAS meeting seems to grow every year. And the upcoming January meeting is no exception. This year’s conference features workshops, panel discussions, and talks on everything from Python programming to interviewing skills to changing demographics and to maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Here’s a quick rundown [...]

Friday links: the gender and enrollment gap

A recent New York Times article asks: why are there still so few women in science?  Despite growing awareness of a gender gap in the sciences and concerted efforts to support women and minorities to pursue careers in science, progress is slow. Cultural biases seem soaked deep in to the psyches of hiring committees. Even more [...]

Career Profiles: Astronomer to Physics Department Head

The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy and the AAS Employment Committee have compiled dozens of interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths. Below is our interview with Edmund Bertschinger, an astronomer turned tenure track faculty and chair of the Physics Department [...]

The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy and the AAS Employment Committee have compiled dozens of interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths. Below is our interview with an astronomer turned tenure track faculty and project scientist at an observatory. If you have [...]

Careers for Astronomy PhDs

This guest post is by Nick Lee who is a graduate student at the Institute for Astronomy, U. of Hawaii. In Spring of 2013, I led a series of weekly seminars for grad students and post-docs at the Institute for Astronomy, UH Manoa, discussing career opportunities available to Astronomy PhDs.  The current state of the [...]

Career Profiles: Astronomer to Consultant

The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy and the AAS Employment Committee have compiled dozens of interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths. Below is our interview with Joseph Pesce, an astronomer turned consultant. If you have questions, suggestions, advice to share, etc. [...]

Data Visualization at IRSA

This is a guest post by Vandana Desai, a research scientist at the Infrared Science Archive (IRSA). The Infrared Science Archive (IRSA) is part of the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) at Caltech. We curate the science products of NASA’s infrared and submillimeter missions, including Spitzer, WISE, Planck, 2MASS, and IRAS. In total, IRSA [...]