Happy New Year to all of you! Our first newsletter of the new millennium brings you our activities and an exciting calendar of  upcoming events that are of interest to women in science. 

AWIS provides the opportunity to network for career advancement and to voice the issues facing women scientists with employers and with policymakers.  Join the national AWIS registry - a unique database of women scientists that serves as a resource. Register by calling 202-326 8940 or go to AWIS.

If you are interested in serving on the Metro-NY AWIS Executive Board or would like to be involved in our mentoring program, please contact Alice Deutsch.

Please make our lives easier! We want to keep you up-to-date! Please send your email address to Nancy Tooney.

        This MetroAWIS annual event at the New York Academy of Sciences was well-attended by over 75 people, including students, professors, scientists, and a contingent from Girls' Inc.  The staging of a cocktail hour complete with hor d'oeuvres allowed the attendees to mingle and get to know one another. Each awardee received a corsage and a small pewter engraved bowl.  After the speakers were introduced and spoke, the group adjourned to have coffee and French cookies. 
        Tamar Schlick introduced Helen Berman, our first awardee, who is a crystallographer at Rutgers University.  She hails from Brooklyn and, in her undergraduate days,  took the subway up to Barnard College, where she was greatly influenced by Bernice Segal in her studies.  She eventually, through various positions, found herself in the fields of  teaching and research, which she loves.  Her current research focuses on the crystallography of fragments of DNA and bioinformatics, and she is contributing to the protein data base (PDB).  She advises students, if at all possible, to pursue an MD./Ph.D. program. 
        Phillip Landrigan introduced our next awardee, Luz Claudio, a community health scientist at Mt. Sinai College of Medicine,  as "a young scientist who has advanced the public good."  She was trained in Puerto Rico at the University of Puerto Rico.  She has studied the blood-brain barrier and its destruction by toxic chemicals such as lead, and has recently shifted the emphasis of her work to the study of asthma and its bilingual, bicultural, socioeconomic aspects.  (She was featured on the front page of the Metro section of the New York Times this past summer for this work.  She also has a short piece in the November 1999 issue of Scientific American about her work.) She has found that there are enormous discrepancies among communities in NYC----asthma is over twenty percent higher in poorer communities.  She is now helping to develop a blueprint for citywide asthma prevention.  Her lab is "jumping" with students, who "are a multi-ethnic array of people who display a love for science."
        Dr. Claudio began her remarks with, "My grandmother was a scientist.  She knew all the plants and would use various concoctions on us when we were sick. She said that she wanted to do something with her life that blended the fields of environment and health.  After nine months of camping out in Hawaii and studying "prawns in ponds', she decided to study neuroscience at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.  This work, and her work with the U. S. EPA on pesticides and children, has lead her to her current path as a community environmentalist.
        Lynn Francesconi introduced our final awardee, Dixie Goss, a chemist at Hunter College, by noting that Dr. Goss had helped initiate a Scientists in the Schools program through the New York Academy of Sciences.   She was educated in a one-room schoolhouse in Nebraska.  She was always only one among a few students---twenty-two being the largest class size in high school. She later attended Nebraska Weslyan University. 
         Dr. Goss espoused what she thought Nobel Prizes should be given out for:
        1.  A Nobel Prize for the Inspiration of Students
        2.  A Nobel Prize for Advice and Consent----on the matters of grant proposals, letters, nominations for professional awards. 
        3.  A Nobel Prize for Aiding and Abetting---spouses, people who help students, sympathizers
        4.  A Nobel Prize for Unidentified Co-conspirators---those who help "behind the scenes"
        5.  A Nobel Prize for Sanity---those who inspire and initiate laughter, and restore a sense of humor.
        Dr. Goss made us realize with this list that we do not go it alone, nor do we need to!  We also should acknowledge those that help us.  Her closing remarks were, "Think big, work hard, and buy champagne!"

MARCH 9 - WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH EVENT.  The Women in Science section at
New York Academy of Sciences (www.nyas.org) 2 E 63rd St. The speaker is Dr
Nancy Hopkins, Amgen Professor at MIT,and a prime mover  for the ground-breaking study of women faculty that has resulted in substantive change at MIT and Dr. Helen
Davies, immediate past President of National AWIS, discussant. The MIT
report has been featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education, public
radio and CNN has filmed a segment to be shown later in the year. 
Contact Nancy Tooney 718/260-3121 or ntooney@poly.edu for more
information.
Free lecture at 6 PM; for dinner reservations contact Bruce Soffer at 212.838.0230, x426

MARCH 30 - SECOND "MENTORING GIRLS IN SCIENCE AND MATH PROGRAM" at St. Francis College, 180 Remsen St., Brooklyn, NY, 4-6 P.M. Speakers to be announced.  Light refreshments---open to teachers and students. Contact: Kathy Nolan---knolan@worldnet.att.net, or 718-489-5439.

APRIL 1 - THE 9th ITLAG -”IS THERE LIFE AFTER GRADUATE SCHOOL? YES!”
at New York University
Are you thinking about a career change out of science? Come and listen to speakers who have made successful career transitions.  A great opportunity for ideas and networking! Look for a detailed program in the mail or at our chapter website.

On Monday Jan 10th I took a bus up to Harlem to visit the Girls Inc. program at Central Park East Secondary School (CPESS).  The School is located on Madison Ave between 106 and 107 Streets in Manhattan.  I was scheduled to meet with 2 groups each of 15 seventh-grade girls.  I was billed as a “Mystery Guest.”  I walked into the first classroom and met the Girls Inc group leader, Natalie Neer and a community leader. The girls were divided into 2 “teams” and were asked to come up with a list of yes and no questions that they could ask me to find out what I did for a living. Each team took turns asking me questions.  The girls, with some hints from me, ultimately guessed what I did.  I was identified as “the sperm doctor” . ( For those who don’t know, I develop kits for evaluating male fertility.)   After talking with the girls about what I did, how much education I had and answering lots of other questions about being a scientist, I left and went to the second classroom which had a second group of girls.  The group leader there was Vanessa Karubian.  A similar scenario ensued. I again had a chance to talk to the girls about a career in science.  Then the bell rang and it was all over. Natalie and Vanessa thanked me for taking the time out to come up to their program gave me a Girls Inc. tee-shirt.  I was on my way after spending an exciting and stimulating morning at the Girls Inc program at CPESS. 

This mentoring experience is part of our collaboration with Girls Inc. If you would like to participate by meeting with a group of girls, having them visit you in your lab or accompany them on a science trip, please contact me.

Barbara Gerolimatos and Alison Keith gave a brief introduction elucidating their respective roles at Pfizer.  Barbara informed us that her women's health team is focusing on the three leading diseases of  women's health: cardiovascular disease, depression, and arthritis.  " In an AHA survey, only 30% of physicians considered heart disease a serious risk for women" yet heart disease is the number one killer of women. One in 25 women die of breast cancer;  while 1 in  2 women die of heart disease," Barbara noted.  Alison reminded us that we need to keep posted on two key health policy issues today: medicare reform and social security.  As women live longer than men, these services will be greatly important to us as we age. 
        Gene Mancino, the keynote speaker, said that as a college graduate at 23, he had absolutely no idea about what he wanted to do. (Sound familiar?)  He worked for Proctor and Gamble for a brief time, and then met Ted Blau, who invited him to work for Blau Associates, an executive search firm, specializing in the life sciences.  "Sometimes there is no planning!" Gene remarked, "I didn't know what an "executive search firm" was, and now, 20 years later, I'm president of the company." 
 "It is important to have a historical perspective of an industry and to try to fully understand the product that you are dealing with," he said, "What you think might be a dead-end opportunity, could, through serendipity, turn into something great for you."
      Gene made no bones about the fact that he is a "head-hunter", and that he feels quite comfortable with the term. He said that it's good to take an active role in your career by checking in with your head-hunter frequently. If you've had job problems in the past, it is important to be honest about them, rather than take a defensive posture.  "Always be on the offensive; tell your head-hunter about what you can do."  Gene seemed to feel that there are a lot of opportunities out there in small companies and start-ups, and that, in general, the traffic is good for job hunters.  (He did note that it was hard to move people from Pfizer because it was a good place to work.). He suggested that companies were looking for good leadership skills, and suggested that women join boards, if possible.  He extolled the virtues of networking---"Ask everyone you know about job contacts, join associations, attend conferences--hey, all of you are a professional opportunity for me."  (I did take his advice and collected a few cards myself!)
 He said that THE most important thing to remember is that, "the world runs by sales", and that it is very important to "present an argument cogently". A discussion arose from the audience as to the existence of the glass ceiling.  One woman remarked that she had participated in a "Power Study" that was published in a pharmaceutical publication in November, 1999.  She said that the glass ceiling exists in some places but that it is subtle.  "The important thing to do is to increase diversity in the workplace, so that it better reflects the customers we are selling to."  She remarked that women of color might experience "glass walls as well as glass ceilings". 
 Something new that I had not considered--the use of an employment attorney--was brought up by a member of the audience.  Gene suggested to use the attorney to look over contracts before signing, "After all, you use an attorney when you buy a house."   As an academic, I would say that sales are important in most any field, including academia.  We "sell" ourselves as good teachers to the students and administrators, whether we like it or not.  By making the maximum use of the public relations vehicles available to us, we "sell" ourselves by publicizing all the things that we do outside of the classroom, that eventually (hopefully) enhance the education of the students.  I know that Gene didn't give me any big tips as to how to get into industry--I think I need to go for the MBA or do some volunteer lab work or something, but I'm not ready to switch yet.  Speak to me next year after the tenure decisions have been made