Women In Technology - Friday Links - 29/09/2023
Hello everyone,
Today is CERN’s birthday! To celebrate, read on to learn more about some of the pioneering women who have worked at CERN throughout its history. We also feature the International Day for Universal Access to Information, and invite you to join us for what promises to be a stimulating roundtable discussion on paternity leave. Keep reading for a call for volunteers, opportunities for students, and some upcoming events!
Have a nice weekend!
Kate, for WIT SC
Happy birthday, CERN!
On September 29, 1954, CERN officially came into being. Let’s take a look at some of the trailblazing women who laid the foundations for the future generations:
- Women in science throughout the decades (CERN Courier) explores the impact that women have had on particle physics and at CERN from the very beginning, including the relatively unknown and uncredited “scanners”, who analysed bubble chamber events by hand, with incredible speed and accuracy.
- This (slightly dated) video from the CDS archives shows a “scanning girl” at work, starting at the 3:00 mark.
September 28: International Day for Universal Access to Information
"Equal and Universal Access to Information is essential to promote human rights and dignity, to eradicate poverty and to build inclusive knowledge societies. The International Day for Universal Access to Information aims at spreading awareness concerning the need to expand laws related to information and their actual implementation. The expansion of these laws helps in building inclusive institutions access the world. "
- The theme of this year’s event was: “the importance of the online space for access to information”.
- This article from the OECD Forum reminds us that "there remain many in our world that are excluded from the benefits that information provides. This is a particular problem for women.”
WIT roundtable on paternity leave
Please join us on Tuesday, 7 November at 12:15 CET in the IT amphitheatre (31/3-004) or on Zoom: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1299527/.
WIT would like to raise awareness about the need to improve paternity leave conditions. The goal of the roundtable is to learn about paternity leave in the world and at CERN today, listen to four colleagues who will share with us their experiences and choices regarding paternity leave, and open the floor for exchange and discussion with our community.
Please, note that after the event, those interested are welcome to join us in R2 for a networking lunch to continue the exchange and the discussion.
If you would like to learn more about how paternity leave benefits everyone, revisit this article from a previous edition of Friday Links: A fresh look at paternity leave: Why the benefits extend beyond the personal.
Call for volunteers
CERN Micro Club and CERN WIT are co-organising with RightsTech Women a free training "Learn to use Satellite Data to understand Climate Change" at CERN IdeaSquare on Saturday 9th December.
The free training is offered to girls and women aged 14+ to familiarize them with STEM and data science, with a focus on the environment and climate change. We will use Google Earth Engine as an introduction to data acquisition, visualization, cloud computing etc… We expect a maximum of 36 participants at any time (one session in the morning, another new session in the afternoon).
We are looking for up to 12 volunteer coaches to :
- Learn the training material and practice coding with Google Earth Engine
- Provide coaching to the participants
- Mentor the participants and answer their questions about CERN, STEM careers in particular
Training as a coach takes about 3 hours in total, which will take place online ahead of the event. If you are interested to become a coach, please join the Mattermost channel Satellite Data Training 2023.
Student opportunities
CERN is currently recruiting students who are eager to gain valuable work experience in scientific, engineering, technical, and administrative fields! The following programmes are accepting applications (deadline: November 6):
- Technical student programme for undergraduates (Bachelor / Master)
- Administrative student programme for undergraduates (Bachelor / Master)
- Doctoral student programme
To learn more and apply, visit https://careers.smartrecruiters.com/CERN/. Please share with your networks!
Upcoming events
- Moving out of academia to consulting. Online event organised by CERN Alumni, October 6 at 14:00 CEST.
- Argusa data challenge, October 18 at EPFL: a one-day hackathon where you will get to know what real world problems we solve at Argusa. You can also win up to 1000 CHF and exclusive job interviews.