Talks

Ladies in the Laboratory: A Brief History of U.S. Women in Science

Why has science historically been so dominated by men? And why is this still true for many STEM fields today? This talk includes a fast-paced dive into the history of women in science in the United States. We will start with colonial America and move through to the present day as we discuss notable women in science, why some sciences are more “masculine” or “feminine” than others, how gender has shaped the boundary between scientists and non-scientists, and what the heck home economics has to do with any of it. Hosted by Science on Tap Philadelphia.

Bridging Physics and the Household: Madalyn Avery’s Career at K-State, 2019 Ernest Fox Nichols Distinguished Alumni Lecture in Physics at Kansas State University

This talk concerns the largely forgotten history of Madalyn Avery and the field of household physics. Avery, a graduate of K-State and professor in the physics department for many decades, earned her BS in General Science in 1924 and her MS in Physics in 1932, when K-State was the Kansas College of Agriculture and Applied Science. Avery built her career working at the border of applied physics and home economics. Like many women of her generation who were trained in science, she found greater acceptance and respectable employment by concentrating on scientific problems traditionally associated with women. Although Avery is not well known today, she was the author of the highly influential textbook Household Physics which was used in over a hundred colleges and universities around the world. This talk will detail how Madalyn Avery taught generations of K-State students to apply their physics knowledge to problems of the household.

Hosted by the Kansas State University Department of Physics.


In the News:

Mary Margaret Clouse, “Women in physics take center stage at UR,” The Collegian (University of Richmond student newspaper), 31 January 2023 https://www.thecollegianur.com/article/2023/01/women-in-physics-take-center-stage-at-ur

Kortny Rolston-Duce, “Atom Computing Honors Lesser-Known Researchers and their Contributions to Quantum Computing,” Atom Computing news, 25 January 2023 https://atom-computing.com/atom-computing-honors-lesser-known-researchers-and-their-contributions-to-quantum-computing/

Andrew Grant, “The most popular Physics Today articles of 2022,” Physics Today, 15 December 2022 https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.6.3.20221215a/full/  

Johanna L. Miller, “Behind the cover: August 2022,” Physics Today, 5 August 2022 https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.6.3.20220805a/full/

Ryan Aghamohammadi and Leela Gebo, “Graduate students demand University support during pandemic,” The Johns Hopkins News-Letter, 2 May 2020 https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2020/05/graduate-students-demand-university-support-during-pandemic

Diva Parekh and Ryan Aghamohammadi, “Graduate students call for University to protect their rights as workers,” The Johns Hopkins News-Letter, 5 December 2019 https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2019/12/graduate-students-call-for-university-to-protect-their-rights-as-workers

“Letter to the Editor,” The Johns Hopkins News-Letter, 21 November 2019 https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2019/11/letter-to-the-editor

Rachel Juieng, “Lawmakers support Hopkins nurses’ efforts to unionize,” The Johns Hopkins News-Letter,  11 April 2019 https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2019/04/lawmakers-support-hopkins-nurses-efforts-to-unionize

Diva Parekh and Isabel Adler, “Grad students seek to unionize for workers’ rights,” The Johns Hopkins News-Letter, 27 September 2018 https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2018/09/grad-students-seek-to-unionize-for-workers-rightstru-rally

Talia Richman, “Johns Hopkins graduate students announce unionization plans,” The Baltimore Sun, 26 September 2018 https://www.baltimoresun.com/education/bs-md-ci-hopkins-union-20180926-story.html

Jaisal Noor, “Protest targets Johns Hopkins’ multi-million dollar ICE contract,” The Real News Network  22 September 2018 https://therealnews.com/protest-targets-johns-hopkins-multi-million-dollar-ice-contract

Brianna Dang, “How does the University support new parents?,” The Johns Hopkins News-Letter, 6 September 2018 https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2018/09/how-does-the-university-support-new-parents

Charles Day, “Science Sells,” Physics Today 71, no. 5, May 2018, pg. 8 https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.3908

Conevery Bolton Valencius, “Historians of Science March for Science,” Newsletter of the History of Science Society, July 2017, pg. 13-17. https://cdn.ymaws.com/hssonline.org/resource/resmgr/newsletter_archive/hss-nl-2017-vol46-n3-july.pdf

Nicole Gallucci, “Ms. Frizzle spotted at Science Marches across the globe,” Mashable, 23 April 2017 https://mashable.com/article/ms-frizzle-magic-school-bus-march-for-science

Carla Herreria Russo, “Ms. Frizzle Made The March For Science Protests Magical,” Huffington Post, 22 April 2017 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/march-for-science-magic-school-bus_n_58fbd806e4b00fa7de14d622

Rebekah Higgitt, “The best history of science fancy dress costumes,” The Guardian, 6 November 2015 https://www.theguardian.com/science/the-h-word/gallery/2015/nov/06/the-best-history-of-science-fancy-dress-costumes

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