We have hosted two lively crowds of 50-60 women at our September and October Programs. We're always happy to see old friends return after summer break, and it's a pleasure to welcome new members, and prospective members who have heard about AWIS. Welcome all!

People come to our meetings for many different reasons: get job leads, network and improve connections, meet colleagues, or listen to the speaker.

It is my experience that we have many things in common with colleagues who attend AWIS meetings- more than love of science. If you take a minute to chat with the person sitting beside you and ask her not only what she does but also what she likes to do outside of work. You may find you share an interest in art, music, flowers, kids, hiking etc. that may be the start of a new friendship.

Bring business cards with you, or make `introduction cards' that have your interests and contact information on them. Practice handing them out- it can seem awkward until you've done it a few times. Even if you are not job-hunting, this is a useful exercise. It is an easy way to maintain connections, helps you remember who you met, and keep track of job titles and company addresses.

At a Super Board Brunch, where sixteen Board members from all four Bay Area chapters got together recently, you might guess one thing we did was exchange business cards and create a contact list. Staying in touch is as important as getting in touch.

Look forward to seeing you on 11/19 for 'Microbes and Malignancy' and on 12/8 for Networking and a recipe exchange. Let's stay in touch!

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage." —Anais Nin

The Commission on the Advancement of Women in Science, Engineering and Technology Development Act (H.R. 3007) has passed both House and Senate approval and needs only the President's signature. The Commission will address the problems of women, minorities and persons with disabilities in science and engineering by recommending policies to help breakdown barriers to recruitment, retention and advancement.

Technology Subcommittee Chairwoman Connie Morella (R-MD) introduced the Act (H.R. 3007) from the House Science Committee in May in response to a 1996 National Science Foundation report. The Commission will consist of seven representatives from U.S business and four individuals from education in science or engineering, which will be appointed by the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the National Governors' Association to ensure that the private sector and the States have a strong voice.

Representative Connie Morella said, "By addressing the barriers that face women and minority scientists and engineers, Congress has taken the action to help ensure that our labor force is ready for the information age and that our high-tech economy continues to flourish in the 21st century."

Entelos, Inc. has positions for Life Scientists, Systems Modelers, Scientific Writers, and Software Engineers available. Please contact Zarin Randeria at randeria@entelos.com (650-470-0860 x115).

"One-liner" job ads (see above), can be placed for free by members. Contact kuokaty@ricochet.net for pricing on quarter page and half-page ads.

The next AWIS-PA Board meeting is scheduled for January 12^th. Meetings are open to all members. Look for details in the next issue of the newsletter.

It’s almost time again for Members Appreciation Night! Keep an eye out in the next newsletter issue for the January program date where great gifts will be given away before the program begins!

The Newsletter Committee is looking for volunteers who can help contribute and edit articles. Contact Katy at kuokaty@ricochet.net.

A great way to network is to help organize a major event. Volunteers are needed in developing a career web site for women in science (see page 5) and for planning our 1999 NCC Conference (see next column).

Mentors, especially in the fields of Engineering and Computer Sciences, are needed to provide support for Stanford students. Read the details in the accompanying article on this page.

Winter is a great time to cozy up to a good book. Send reviews of science-related books for future newsletter issues to kuokaty@ricochet.net.

Think of science education outreach as a gift that you can give to many children this holiday season. Sign-up with the Outreach Committee to volunteer or to request more information (form on page 6).

The byline on the Ice Cream Social report in the September/October newsletter should have been credited to Iris Schrijver of the Program Committee.

For the past seven years, the AWIS mentoring program has provided support for women graduate students in the sciences at Stanford University. Many women scientists feel isolated, particularly during their graduate studies. Isolation, lack of contact with peers, and lack of feedback can cause difficulty with self-evaluation and engender unrealistic expectations. Contact with other women who have gone through the training process often reveals new options and boosts morale. Recent studies show that having a supportive mentor greatly increases the likelihood of a woman staying in her field.

We provide an environment such that each participating student has the opportunity to work closely with a local professional woman scientist. The one-on-one mentoring pairs are created based on similar interests and values such as scientific focus, career growth, cultural/ethnic background, and work/family goals. We also provide opportunities for informal mentoring and networking within group forums such as our evening topic events and grad student on-campus luncheons.

To maintain and expand our program, we are recruiting new mentors for '98-'99. We plan to organize four evening events and five on-campus lunches for the coming year (a description of last year's programs can be found at the AWIS-PA website at www.bridgesonline.com/ba/org/awis/). For the first time, we have expanded our graduate student pool to include women grad students in both the sciences and engineering disciplines.

Please join us on the evening of Tuesday, November 10th, to participate in the second event for the 1998-1999 academic year! To participate as a mentor, see page 3 for a volunteer form.

National AWIS will hold its first biennial career conference, Leadership for Women in Science, in Washington DC in the fall of 1999. Northern California AWIS hopes to schedule a thematically related event locally, perhaps including a satellite hookup to capture some of the speakers at the National event. Volunteers are essential for the duration of the planning effort, as well as for smaller sub- projects. Contribute to having a program that meets your needs and volunteer! Contact Martha Booz at mlbooz@earthlink.net (510-741-6821) or Mary Alice Yund at yund@worldnet.att.net (510-525- 1715).

Mail the completed form to: Lisa Wang, Ph.D, 1545 Floribunda Ave. #312, Burlingame, CA 94010

or email to lisawang@well.com

Name:

Home Address:

Home Phone:

E-mail:

Department/Year:

Department Address:

Mail Code:

Work Phone:

FAX:

Please list your previous and anticipated degrees, including the major, school, and date.

Please list career experience, including job function, industry, and years of experience.

Is it important to you to have a mentor who shares the same scientific interests? Yes or No

If you are a postdoctoral research affiliate/fellow, would you also be willing to mentor a graduate student woman in science? Yes or No

In addition to a one-on-one mentor, would you be interested in having an additional e-mail/phone mentor? Yes or No

Please include any information about yourself or your situation (specific career path of interest, problems currently encountered with which you would like interaction/support, interest in combining family/career, etc.). Please keep in mind that the more specific you are in conveying to us the issues that resonate strongly with yourself, the easier it is for us to locate a mentor who may reflect those interests.

Five AWIS volunteers were guest speakers at a luncheon hosted by Genencor (Palo Alto) on September 16th. More than 30 Genencor employees came and listened attentively. Several stayed to discuss, almost all are on the email and newsletter prospective list, and someone volunteered to be an email contact for an internal email distribution list at Genencor. Many expressed interested in mentoring or outreach and made contact there. Our NCC rep and Chapter Secretary, Deborah Farag, was the moving force behind the scenes and her counterpart in H.R. at Genencor was Kathy Maloney.

A friend at Genencor who attended wrote me to say, "I enjoyed the AWIS Brown Bag lunch, because it supplied a lot of information about the organization that I have never heard formally presented. People who were interested in getting involved with the Mentoring and Outreach programs stuck around and talked to the relevant people. In addition, several women I talked to afterwards were very interested in joining."

Many thanks to those who participated! If you would like AWIS to visit your company, please contact Deborah Farag.

The microscopic microbial universe unfolds in all its multifaceted splendor in "Microbes: Invisible Invaders…Amazing Allies", an exhibit from October 3rd - January 10th at the California Academy of Sciences on what is commonly known as "germs". Sponsored by Pfizer and produced in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health, this exhibit integrates many forms of media--including 3D animation, a simulated electron microscope, video games, holograms, artifacts, and plaster figurines to animate this level of life that is so often forgotten and misunderstood. Every part of this exhibit combines science with hands-on fun and interaction to spotlight human relationships with the hidden world of germs - from those that sustain life on Earth to those that threaten our health and even our existence.

It just so happens that our November program is on Microbes and Malignancy: Infection as a cause for Cancer. Check out both events.

http://www.calacademy.org/exhibits/microbes/microbes.htm

The AWIS-Palo Alto Bridge to the Future Program has been fully funded! We received a $500 grant from National AWIS in September. Our very own NCC will provide the balance of funds. This money will be used to support our science education outreach programs for young women in grades 6-12.

We are working with teachers and students in two local schools: Castilleja, a private girls school in Palo Alto, and Eastside School, a college prep school in East Palo Alto. Our program provides speakers, hands-on activities, job shadowing and e-mail mentoring to encourage young women and minorities to consider science careers. AWIS scientists act as role models by demonstrating their enthusiasm for science and talking about their careers - what drew them to science and their particular field of study.

National AWIS funding for the Bridge Program is from the NEC Foundation of America, a grant-giving agency of the NEC Corporation, an international high-tech company.

If you would like to join the AWIS Outreach team, send in the sign-up form on page 6.

How do you like our new T-shirt design? The all new, our very own, AWIS-Palo Alto T-shirts will be on sale at the November 19^th meeting. The price is expected to be between $12-15. The design depicts the scientific disciplines of chemistry (ball and stick molecule), molecular biology (DNA helix), biology (single cell) as well as the scientist herself (human hand)!

Networking is a great way to connect yourself with other people of similar interests, remain abreast of scientific advances, get help when you have a specific need (e.g. job searching), and keep in touch with a wider world of science than you can maintain on your own. Real networking is a two-way exchange where both partners learn from each other.

One simple and direct way to begin building a network is to attend dinner meetings, professional society meetings, or the AWIS Networking Socials. These settings require you to `put on' your most outgoing personality, a smile, and practice delivering a 30 second summary of your interests (along with a business card) to a series of perfect strangers. Take advantage of opportunities (and create some yourself!) to talk to everyone. You never know who has a friend, relative or contact in just the field in which you are interested. You'll have to follow up with a call or email, and put some energy into building a relationship in order to turn these informal contacts into networking partners. Try to be active in your networking. Working on a particular project, hiking, eating a meal, mentoring, etc. alongside others provides golden opportunities to share information about yourself! Keep in touch with your contacts fairly frequently, not just when you are doing a job search or a candidate search. You too have useful information to offer to others. When job searching, don’t merely ask others if their respective companies have positions available. Ask specific questions regarding areas of research, institutions or companies in the local area, potential growth with new hiring in a specific company, etc.

Try a few of these networking tips:

• consider how you would like to be approached

• touch bases again after meeting someone new

• volunteer for a specific activity

• serve as a committee member

• attend professional society meetings (AWIS, NCPDG)

• go out to lunch with someone regularly

• collect business cards and a list of contacts

• ask people about themselves

• network within your own company

• alert someone to an interesting journal article

• know the latest scientific breakthroughs and/or read BioWorld

For more valuable advice on networking, interviewing, and career development, consult: Network your way to your next job fast by Clyde Lowstuter and David Robertson and Knock `Em Dead by Martin Yates. Most of all, be patient and persistent. Sometimes the best results happen in the most unusual ways. Start by attending the AWIS-PA December Networking Social and meet some very interesting women! More importantly, let them meet YOU!

The Chapter Relations Committee of National AWIS is developing an online list of web resources to support career development for women in science. It will be developed on the East Bay/NCC-AWIS web site and transferred to the members-only section of the National web site at the end of the year. The sites will be listed under each main topic and subtopic, with an annotation about the kind of information. Content will focus on career development skills, how to look for a job, alternative careers, self reliance, career transitions, managing to have a personal life. A variety of volunteers (students, practitioners, etc.) are needed to review sites, categorize information and suggest additional sites from their respective areas of interest. Contact Mary Alice Yund, Chair of the Chapter Relations Committee, at yund@worldnet.att.net (510-525-1715).

The U.S. Postal Service recently released its new "Fund the Cure" stamp to help fund breast cancer research. Ethel Kessler of Bethesda, Maryland designed the stamp. It is important to support research to find a cure for this disease that kills so many of our mothers, sisters, friends.

Instead of the usual 32 cents first-class rate, this one costs 40 cents. The additional 8 cents goes to fund breast cancer research. If all the stamps are sold, it will raise an additional $16,000,000 for this vital research! We at AWIS would like to show our support such as in the mailing of this newsletter issue with these new stamps.

  Scientist to a Patent Agent

For our September program, Dr. Alexandra Baran, gave a talk titled "A Scientist as a Patent Agent." First, she gave a broad overview of the different law careers available for scientists, namely the area of patent law, business law or environmental law. Each requires the basic skills of classification ability, concept organization, analytical skills, strong communication skills, and lastly, knowledge in a specialty field. Dr. Baran stated that law is a "service profession" and warned that those with strong ego will experience an "ego shift", as she did when she switched from being a scientist to a patent agent.

Next, Dr. Baran explained the definition of a patent: that it is a legal instrument that entitles the patent holder the right to make use or sell inventions, as well as the right to exclude others from this practice. Furthermore, a patent is only issued only if an invention is novel, useful and unobvious. Because of this, patents are very important to any company.

For anyone wishing to find out more about this career option, Dr. Baran recommends Full Disclosure: Do you really want to be a Lawyer? (Peterson's Guide, '89, Patent It Yourself (Nolo Press) and the web sites at http://lawyers.martindale. com/marhub and http:/www.foleylardner.com.

Each year we give two awards to recognize women scientists who have helped other women in their careers. Criteria for selection are both accomplishments in science, basic research or technological advancements and the support of other women in career development. Such support could be indirect through professional societies or schools or directly to women through mentoring and career development assistance. The Judith Poole award is given to a senior scientist established in her field. The Ellen Weaver award is given to a woman early in her career. The recipients need not be AWIS members.

To nominate, please send a letter of nomination describing the candidate's work for women in science and a resume or CV with professional background and accomplishments to Mary Alice Yund, 723 Woodhaven Road, Berkeley, CA 94708. Nominations are due by February 15th. But don't wait, do it now! Questions? Call Mary Alice at (510-525-1715) or email yund@worldnet.att.net.

Mail the completed form to: Katy Korsmeyer, Dept of Chemistry SJSU San Jose, CA 95192-0101

or email kuokaty@scientist.com

NAME:

ADDRESS:

TEL.: ________________________________E-MAIL

PROFESSION:

SCIENCE SPECIALTY:

ACTIVITIES YOU WOULD LIKE TO PARTICIPATE IN: (no previous experience required!)

___ Presenter for Expanding Your Horizons Conference

___ Young Explorers (Hands-on Science for preschoolers)

___ Bridge to the Future (Program for girls in grades 6 - 12)

___ Will lead hands-on science experiments

___ Will host 1 or 2 students for job shadowing

___ E-mail mentoring for 1 or group of students

"Almost every newspaper has a daily astrology column. How many have even a weekly science column?" - Dr. PA Moore

Dr. PA Moore informed and entertained 35 women on Tuesday, October 13 as she discussed "Science and the Media: Why can’t they get along?" In her role of public information officer at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, she specializes in trying to translate among scientists, the media, and the general public to further a greater understanding of basic research and improved science literacy. Dr. Moore presented her view of "the media" and then allowed the women in the audience to engage in small group discussions to determine "what is science?" The activity was entertaining in and of itself!

Together, we considered areas in which science and the media converge and diverge. Two highlights of the media that scientists find particularly disappointing are that money drives the news and that the time dedicated to a particular science or "pseudo-science" issue is often disproportionate to its importance. Journalists, we learned, see science as cold, arrogant, and narrowly precise. Dr. Moore suggests that we need to start really talking and building relationships among scientists and journalists. We need more scientists trained in media relations and more journalists trained in science.

While there is no easy answer to help mend this division and build such relationships, it is imperative that we try. Science literacy must improve in order to help us all to act wisely and vote intelligently, continue our material and economic progress, and maintain our inspiration and challenge to discover the unknown.

Our newsletter used to be the responsibility of the sole Editor to request, edit, and write articles. For you to receive this newsletter, it takes many volunteers to help fold and stamp each issue every other month. Thankfully, we’ve now formed a Newsletter Committee where many will pool their talents and time to bring you the newsletter. Anyone with a talent for writing, have tidbits to share, or other comments, please email them to the Managing Editor at kuokaty@ricochet.net.

National AWIS has a grant to establish a registry or database for women in science. The prototype is designed to collect information, to help the National office suggest nominees with strong science research credentials to committees, and to assist companies looking for high level employees or appointees. Register yourself, or research the registry at the AWIS web site (www.awis.org). The site will be modified to include women in industry and science-related professions, and to provide information that will allow career development connections between women with assorted knowledge and experience. To participate in the changes to the registry, contact Martha Booz, President of the East Bay chapter, at mlbooz@earthlink.net (510-741-6821).

Dr. Rona Giffard has been nominated for the Women’s Fund "Women of Achievement Award in Science and Technology". Dr. Giffard is an Associate Professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine Department of Anesthesia, and an active member of AWIS-Palo Alto. She has received many awards including the Ellen Weaver Award at the NCC-AWIS Awards banquet last spring.

Dr. Ellen Weaver, the first recipient of the "Women of Achievement Award", nominated Dr. Giffard this year. The Women‚s Fund is a non-profit organization whose mission is to recognize women for their accomplishments, to fund programs that improve the lives of women and girls, and to provide scholarships for training and education. More than 180 women have been recognized for their accomplishments in career, community service and leadership since 1972.

Dr. Weaver said the award dinner "is a big affair…Getting the award was an important turning point for me - it was a wonderful boost." The Women’s Fund and the San Jose Mercury News will present the 23rd Annual Women of Achievement Awards at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose. Tickets for the dinner are $150 and everyone is invited to attend. For more information contact the Women’s Fund at 408-249-6636 or by email at Wofund@aol.com.