Martha L. Booz
Dr. Joan Steinau Lester has agreed to conduct our February workshop on Saturday, February 6, 1999, from 10 am to 2 pm, on our current theme: Taking Charge of Your Career. Her most recent book is titled "Taking Charge: Every Woman's Guide to Personal, Political and Professional Success. She will bring copies of her book to sell to participants. Here is a synopsis and review of the book (from Amazon.com).
Synopsis
"This nuts and bolts guide shows how to achieve success on one's own terms and empower women in the workplace and the world. A motivational gift for young women just starting their careers, as well as for mature readers who want to re-enter the job market or change professions, Taking Charge shows how to grab hold of the equality, status, and esteem that has so often eluded women.Ó
Midwest Book Review
"Taking Charge: Every Woman's Action Guide To Personal, Political & Professional Success is a practical book for women of all ages that offers a ten-point plan for becoming more effective in their personal, professional, and political lives. Joan Lester is a long time advocate of women's rights and offers effective strategies for individuals as well as groups, and provides encouragement and guidelines for goal setting. Whether read cover to cover, used as a workbook, or perused for specific advice or inspiration, Taking Charge is a highly useful tool for women at all stages of self development. Taking Charge is essential reading and a very valuable addition to any women's studies reading list.
"I grew up thinking I wanted to be somebody. Now I realize I should have been more specific."
-- Lily Tomlin
Notes from the Prez
Susan Bernhard, President
Check This Out
Job Opportunities!
Beckman Coulter, Inc. has a position for a Scientist (Reference 32201) to join the Genetic Analysis Rapid Development Group. Please send resume to Human Resources, Beckman Coulter, Inc., 1050 Page Mill Road, Mail Stop Y-17, Palo Alto, CA 94303 or fax to (650)859-1526, or email dwebb@beckman.com. More information can be found at http://www.beckmancoulter.com.Covalent, a new company focusing on mesoscopic structures for use in biomedical and electronic products have the following positions open: Group Leader, Organic Chemist; Senior Organic Chemist; Chem. Librarian / Information Specialist. Please contact AWIS member, Gayle, by sending resume and cover letter to resume@covalent.to.
Entelos in Menlo Park has an opening for a photocopier person. Their web page at www.entelos.com has the details. (Submitted by Annette Lewis, AWIS-PA member)
Protein Design Labs has many openings at all levels (BS/MS/Ph.D.) at their Fremont facility. See www.pdl.com for details.
There is an opening for Associate Technical Specialist at Amersham Pharmacia Biotech in the Alameda office. For more information please contact me or send a resume and cover letter by mail, fax or email to Chris Rozanas (chris.rozanas @am.apbiotech.com) at Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, 1025 Atlantic Ave., Alameda, CA 94501 (800-526-3593 x6210, fax 510-769-1957).
Newsletter Copies
Do you have a friend who would like her/his own issue of our newsletter? Just send a request with the recipient's name and full address to kuokaty@ ricochet.net before the first week of the next issue.What Is Member Appreciation Night?
It is a fabulous gift give-away, held once a year, at the beginning of our January meeting. Only members are eligible to win gift prizes. If you haven't joined, you can sign up and pay the annual dues at the door. This is the Palo Alto Board's way of saying THANKS to all the members who have supported the chapter over the year - by attending meetings, volunteering for committee work, and encouraging friends to join AWIS. Come on Jan 26th for the fun, camaraderie, and a great speaker following the give-away.
Krista Bowman, Programs Committee
Have you wondered who are the women who arrange the monthly AWIS-PA programs and provide the pizza and delicious desserts? The AWIS-PA Programs Committee is composed of 13 women who have a great time being involved with the chapter and planning the monthly programs. The committee meets twice a year to share a meal, enjoy one anotherÕs company, and brainstorm for new program ideas and potential speakers. The rest of the planning occurs mainly by phone and email (yea...fewer meetings!!).
A special thanks to the members of this yearÕs committee: Susan Bernhard, Krista Bowman, Gerlinde Chan, Jane Leong, Annette Lewis, Elizabeth Pavel, Arti Prasad Roth, Ines C. Roinestad, Iris Schrijver, Laura Smoliar, Brenda Wallach, Colleen Woo, and Adrienne Yang. The large number of volunteers provides more program ideas than we can fit into a single year and lessens the workload for each individual in planning a given program. We hope that our members and guests have found the meetings interesting, informative and a good forum for networking.
If you would like to suggest ideas for interesting programs or dynamic speakers or to join the committee, please feel free to communicate them to any of the above committee members or contact one of the committee co-chairs: Krista (krista_bowman @axyspharm.com), Iris (schryver@cmgm. stanford.edu), or Adrienne (Adrienne.Yang @rp-rorer.com). Our goal is to meet the needs and interests of our diverse AWIS-PA membership. Having more women involved will help us to meet that goal. Our next brainstorming gathering will occur sometime in February 1999. We hope to see you there.
Katy Kuo Korsmeyer
Our chapter board is made up of volunteers who dedicate much of their time and energy to bring you all sorts of wonderful events. We want to thank Audrey Ringer and Mary Alice Yund for their years of service and dedication on both the Membership Committee and as our chapter representatives to NCC. Thanks also go to Bless Castro for churning out numerous Newsletters. We are grateful to have benefited from their talents. A warm welcome to Susan Fife, our new Newsletter Contributing Editor, and Kay Brown, Membership Committee Chair, who already has given much time to updating our membership database.
Mary Alice Yund (ed., Susan Fife)
The Palo Alto chapter is looking for volunteers for the easy but important job of designated representative to the Northern California Chapters of AWIS (NCC-AWIS) committee. The volunteers are responsible for communicating specific messages between the NCC-AWIS committee and the Palo Alto Chapter Board.
The NCC-AWIS have several joint activities including the February Career Development Workshop, the Recognition Awards Dinner, corporate fundraising, and career conferences. Chapter members working on these activities form a joint committee, the NCC-AWIS Committee, that operates under the collective authority of all four chapters' boards. For all other committees, the committee chair is responsible for communication between the committee and the chapter board. However, NCC-AWIS Committee is a joint committee and each chapter designates individuals as chapter representatives to handle the communication function.
The designated representative duties are: 1) Attend the NCC-AWIS Committee meetings to present any decisions, instructions or concerns from the Palo Alto Board to the full committee, and, 2) Attend the Palo Alto Board meetings to report on the NCC-AWIS Committee activities and present any queries, concerns or requests from the Committee to the Board. No written reports are required as the Committee and the Board each have secretaries who prepare minutes of the meetings. Nor is it required that the representatives have any other Committee or Board responsibilities, although past representatives have acquired other AWIS responsibilities. It is the representativeÕs responsibility to see that someone else is able to perform this important communication function if the she is unable to attend.
Be the first to contact Debbie Faraq at dfaraq@pacbell.net to volunteer for the NCC-AWIS Committee designated representative positions!
Mentor / Protegee Introductions
Meredith Williams
Mentoring Committee
The mentoring committee kicked off the academic year with two events. The first was an introduction to mentoring where participants discussed concerns that are expressed consistently by protegees: balance of work/family, difficult advisor problems and alternative careers. At the second meeting, paired mentors and protegees were introduced to each other. All protegees were given the opportunity to discuss what they hoped to gain from their mentoring relationship. Mentors shared how they have benefited from their own mentoring experiences - both as mentor and as protegee. In addition to these two events student protegees had a networking lunch at Stanford in November.
The upcoming February program is Monday February 22. There will be a workshop with Doree Allen, who is a lecturer here on campus with the Center for Teaching and Learning. Her talk will be entitled "Oral Communication: Speaking with Authority". It will be in the Hartley Conference Room in the Mitchell Earth Sciences building, on the first floor at the usual time of 7-9 pm.
Members
Members
Kay Brown, Membership Committee
The membership committee is seeking volunteers to help maintain the new membership database and mail out forms and letters. If interested, please contact Kay Brown by phone at 650-856-2703(w), 650-843-7844(h) or e-mail to kbrown@ PremierBiosoft.com. Or, better yet, let us get together over coffee or go for a short hike on the bay lands to get acquainted and talk about it.
Orchard Supply Hardware Makes Outreach Donations
Katy Kuo Korsmeyer
Outreach Committee
Two local Orchard Supply Hardware stores made generous donations of supplies for a recent Young Explorers session on building Stethoscopes. Mr. James Roberts, First Assistant Manager at Foster City, and Mr. Doug Serrao, manager at Redwood City, provided over $60 worth of vinyl tubing and plastic funnels used in building working stethoscopes for the preschooler science education program. The 35 girls and boys learned about the importance of the heart as a muscle, built the stethoscopes, and used them to hear how their heartbeat changed during various activities. We applaud OSH for making community outreach a corporate responsibility.
Colleen Woo, Programs Committee
AWIS will be kicking off the New Year with a seminar entitled: "Opportunities for Ph.D.Õs Beyond the Bench: Strategies and Solutions" by Dr. Rivka Sherman-Gold. It will be held at SLAC on January 26th. Dr. Sherman-Gold will be sharing why and how she made the transition from the bench to business development for biotechnology companies. She will also discuss what actions she took that turned out to be the most helpful during her years in the biotechnology industry. There will be a question and answer period following her seminar, during which she will provide ideas as to what steps graduate students and Ph.D.Õs can take to explore opportunities beyond the bench.
Dr. Sherman-Gold currently serves as Director of Business Development of Abgenix. From September 1993 to October 1996, she was Associate Director of Business Development at Athena Neurosciences, Inc. Dr. Sherman-Gold received both a B.Sc. in chemistry and a M.Sc. in biophysics and physiology, from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, a Ph.D. in Life Sciences from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, and a MBA from the California State University in San Jose. Dr. Sherman-Gold helped found the Palo Alto chapter of AWIS and has previously served as its President.
Susan Bernhard
On November 18th, Ann Reisenauer, Lisa Wang, and myself joined Ellen Weaver and Rona Giffard in San Jose, for the 1998 Women of Achievement Award dinner ceremony. This was the 23rd annual Awards ceremony, sponsored by The Women's Fund of Santa Clara County, to benefit the Women of Promise Scholarship. Awards are given in 14 categories including Science and Technology, Arts, Education, Public Service, Sports. Dr Weaver, who served as President of National AWIS from 1992-1993, received the Women of Achievement Award in 1972. Dr Giffard, who was AWIS Palo Alto Mentoring Chair for many years, was one of two nominees for the award in Science and Technology this year. It was very inspiring to see this crowd of very talented, spirited, accomplished women all together! There is definitely a role for AWIS in nominating women for awards like this one. I suggest our chapter take a leadership role in generating names for next year's award winners.
Katy Kuo Korsmeyer, Outreach Committee
A lot has happened this fall in the Outreach department. HereÕs a glimpse of the various ongoing programs.
Young Explorers: Doing the Eye Tricks session was a lot of fun. We even had some parents and teachers fooled! The goal was to understand that our eyes communicate to our brain through nerves. And, we can't always believe what we see. Our Stethoscope session went well. The goal was to learn something about the heart as a muscle and how the heart rate changes due to different activities. It was very active! We just finished doing Holiday Gak, a chemistry polymer activity. It also was a lot less messy than I had feared!
Eastside School: We had a Lab Warming Party during one of the worst storm nights! Several scientists and AWIS members came with lots of useful supplies for Eastside's first new lab. A copy of the Merck Index will be our holiday gift (it was on the teacher's wish list). At less than $50, it's a bargain!
Castilleja School: Ginny Zeitman (AWIS-PA member) gave a presentation on Black Holes to a crowd of 50 girls! Two other teachers have an interest in a presentation on Toys in Space. There's possible interest in a presentation on the digestive system. Our gift to CastillejaÕs science faculty was a copy of the XXX science dictionary.
AAUW: We have collaborations with their San Jose and Palo Alto chapters. Our chapter will be providing guest scientists and activities to Tech Time (3 presentations in spring) and Tech Excellence (for Jan and March). Both AAUW chapters have agreed to pay for activity expenses and travel costs.
Colleen Woo, Programs Committee
A Holiday Party was held at SLAC on December 8th for AWIS Palo Alto's last get together of 1998. Dinner, drinks and desserts were provided. This semi-annual event was revealing in that not only do we have scientists (from varying fields), but we also have master cooks! Quick but yummy recipes were exchanged as people formed small groups. Once in a group, stories and experiences about work and/or school were shared. Everyone was asked to find a new group to join after a fifteen-minute interval. People were able to socialize, network and have fun in a relaxed atmosphere. Susan Bernhard will put together a cookbook from the collection of recipes she has received. A lot of thanks go out to the AWIS Programs Committee for putting together this social event. Have a happy and safe holiday!
Infection as a Cause for Human Cancer
Iris Schrijver, Programs Committee
Our featured speaker on Thursday, November 19th, was Dr. Julie Parsonnet, Epidemiologist and Infectious Disease Specialist in the Departments of Medicine and Health Research and Policy at Stanford University. Her major area of interest concerns the epidemiological associations between infections and human cancer and the mechanisms of carcinogenesis imputed to these infections.
After a light dinner and networking opportunities with the 70+ attendees, we heard a very interesting presentation despite a rather uncooperative slide projector! We learned about the historical aspects of cancer research and the infectious agents that may play a role in cancer etiology. It is currently believed that 15 to 20% of all cancers are caused by an ever-increasing number of infectious agents. Examples of these are Hepatitis B and C in liver cancer, Schistosomiasis in bladder cancer, Herpes virus in Kaposi sarcoma, and Epstein Barr virus in Burkitt lymphomas in Africa as well as nasopharyngeal malignancies in Asia.
Our speaker's most recent work has focused on Helicobacter pylori, a stomach bacterium that causes both ulcer disease and stomach malignancy. Gastric cancers are the second leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide, even though their incidence in this century has decreased in industrialized nations due to improved sanitation and hygiene. Infections of H. pylori though common are usually harmless. The infection can be detected in patients with ulcer disease by a serological test, breath test or biopsy and can be cured with a regimen of antibiotics. Only recently has the mechanism of infection leading to malignancy begun to be elucidated. Several culprits are named: free radicals that damage protein and DNA, bacterial consumption of antioxidants and increased cell death which, in turn, leads to increased cell proliferation. To find out more about this fascinating topic, look for a book recently edited by Dr. Parsonnet titled "Microbes and Malignancy: Infection as a Cause of Human CancerÓ, Oxford University Press.
The NCC-AWIS 5th Annual Recognition Awards
Mary Alice Yund, NCC Committee
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. 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. Questions? Call Mary Alice at (510-525-1715) or email yund@worldnet.att.net.
Science Alliances AWIS Meets AAUW
Ann Reisenauer, Outreach Committee
AWIS-PA is working together with the Palo Alto and San Jose branches of AAUW (American Association of University Women) to encourage girls to study science and consider science as a possible career. Our Outreach program provides scientists to present hands-on activities for Tech Time and Tech Excellence, science/math/technology enrichment groups run by AAUW. The middle school girls in these groups have very little scientific background but are inquisitive and enthusiastic about learning. We want them to have fun doing science.
In January and April, AWIS member Loretta is going to do Gak Attack with the girls. What is this, you ask? Gak is a simple silly-putty type of polymer made from glue and Borax. It introduces a simple chemistry concept to the girls while providing hands-on fun. Katy Korsmeyer, our Outreach coordinator, will work with Loretta to develop this activity and her presentation.
We are looking for a Tech Excellence presenter for the program on March 9th. The girls will go on a field trip to the bay lands and learn about loss of habitat in the S.F. bay. Then, they will return to the "lab" and learn more about biology. Complementary biology/natural science activities that come to mind include dissecting of owl pellets, squids, or cow's eyes. Want to have fun doing dissections with the girls? Contact Katy at kuokaty@scientist.com
NCC Committee Meeting
Life Science Associates Career Expo (now part of Kaplan
Career Services)
Wednesday, January 20
Job fairs are free, bring resumes.
AWIS-Palo Alto Open Board Meeting
Tuesday, January 12
ebAWIS Chapter Meeting
Thursday, January 21
AAAS Annual Meeting and Science Innovation Exposition
January 21-26, 1999
AWIS is an AAAS Affiliate
GREAT GIFT GIVE-AWAY!
Tuesday, January 26
MEMBERS APPRECIATION NIGHT
NOTE: You must be a member to qualify for this great gift give-away. It will be possible to sign up on the evening of the meeting. Contact Susan at bernhas@baxter.com
AWIS-PALO ALTO JANUARY MEETING AND SEMINAR
Tuesday January 26
Opportunities for Scientists Beyond the Bench: Strategies
and Solutions
UCSF CAREER FAIR
Friday, January 29
UC San Francisco Biotech Industry Day
Non-UCSF participants may attend the fair for a fee of $25,
payable at the door
NCC AWIS FEBRUARY WORKSHOP
7th Annual Career Development Workshop
Taking Charge of your Career and Personal Goals
AWIS-PA Mentoring Program
Monday, February 22
Communicating with Authority
Speaker: Doree Allen