Inspiring women in science, part II

Lise Meitner was born in Austria in 1879. She and Otto Hahn discovered the first long-lived isotope of protactinium and articulated how the nucleus of an atom could be split into smaller parts in their paper “Disintegration of Uranium by Neutrons: A New Type of Nuclear Reaction” published in Nature in 1939. The figure above illustrates fission fragments in an uranium-lined ionization chamber connected to an oscillograph. The large pulses were caused by ionization bursts of fast moving nuclei from uranium bombarded by neutrons. Element 109, meitnerium, is named in her honour.

To me, this quote counters the argument that theologists often direct to athiests - that to not believe in the supernatural is to live in a world that is flat and dull. No! Far from it! To pull away the curtains of silly supernatural explanations is to allow yourself to peak at reality, a truth that is far more awe-inspiring and magestic then anything that could have been invented by primitive desert-dwellers. 

Inspiring women in science, part I

Rather than directly address the ridiculous sexist comments by Tim Hunt, I thought I would post a series of quotes by inspiring female scientists. These quotes adorn my office, and were a gift from my wife - who is an inspiring scientist herself.

Françoise Barré-Sinoussi was born in France in 1947. She was part of the team that discovered and identified HIV as the cause of AIDS in 1983. The figure above is of viruses budding from lymphocytes, from “Isolation of a T-lymphotropic retrovirus from a patient at risk for acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)”, Science, 1983; 868-871. She also identified important factors contributing to mother-to-child transmission of HIV. She received the Nobel Prize in 2008.

To me this quote encapsulates the inspiring nature of science. When you look around yourself, science is everything that has transformed life from being nasty, brutish and short, to one where many of us have love, luxury and peace. This transformation can be extended to everyone if only we use science and evidence-based decision-making.

Pathway to a PhD

From my son's colouring-in book:

Relocate your lab to Belgium?

If you've ever thought of relocating your lab to Belgium, there is rarely a better deal than tenure plus up to €7.5 million in funding over five years. The Odysseus grants are opening!

New VIB group leader position available

The VIB is starting up a new group leader position in Hasselt University focused on autoimmunity research. The position will come with a €1.4 million start-up grant. Interested? Apply here.

I can see my future...

Five years as a junior faculty member

In 2010, after one year as a junior faculty member, I wrote up that year in numbers, and in 2012, at three years as junior faculty, I wrote this. The last two years have been different, mostly due to having a small baby to look after (fewer conferences), but also due to a shift in the lab as it became established (less grant writing, more research paper writing). Now I have finished five years as junior faculty, so I can be quantitative about my entire tenure-track period:

265: the number of grants I have reviewed for various foundations
119: the number of articles I have reviewed for different journals

85: the number of grants submitted (27 project grants, 33 fellowship applications and 17 grants as collaborator)
        31: grants accepted (15 project grants, 11 fellowships and 5 grants as collaborator)
        46: grants rejected (12 project grants, 22 fellowships and 12 as collaborator)
        5: grants pending (tenure application and 4 fellowships)
€5.7 million: euros given to the lab in project grants
€4.1 million: euros spent in research

46: invited talks
19: conferences
8: lectures

97: article submissions and resubmissions
        53: articles published or in press (31 primary papers, 15 reviews, 6 book chapters)
3: number of edited volumes

22: number of lab members
      12: PhD projects ongoing
       1: Masters projects ongoing
       19: number of full-time researchers in the lab 
(34: number of ex-lab members)

0: still the number of days I've spent doing experiments

So what is an average month for me? Well, I'll typically submit one grant, with nearly a 50% acceptance rate. I'll submit 1-2 papers, and have one accepted. I spend a fair bit of time reviewing - 4 grants and 2 papers per month, not counting favours for friends. I'll go give an invited talk or attend an international conference. My lab will spend ~€70,000 each month (not counting fellowships), and one new person will start or an old person will leave.

Next week I find out whether this is enough to get tenure at the University of Leuven.

Being a post-doc means...

...you love science more than an income.

Sex discrimination in academia - Flanders edition

This is a very interesting article about the sex discrimination in academia in Flanders. In Flanders only 11% of professorships are held by women, making Flanders one of the worst regions in the EU for sex equality in academia. The "glass ceiling index" has been calculated for Belgium as a whole at 2.25, meaning that it is 2.25 times harder for a woman to get a professorship than a man - again, almost the worst value in the EU. 

As the largest and oldest university in Belgium, KU Leuven bears a great deal of responsibility for this situation. Despite 600 years of history, KU Leuven has never had a female Rector. Even in Biomedical Sciences, a field dominated by women at the graduate level, only 25% of professors are female, and the situation gets much worse in the traditionally male-dominated areas. Worst of all, despite performing so badly in this area, the university has no systematic policy directives to even start to correct the problem. To try to compete in an international high performance field while ignoring half of the available talent is absurd, to say the least.

Is this a cut-and-dried case of blatant sexism? In consideration, I would suggest probably not. The effect is certainly sexist, women are not getting opportunities given to men. The primary cause, however, is probably not so much sexism as conservatism. Marc Hooghe (KU Leuven) says "What Belgian universities still have is this kind of closed-shop attitude", where old white men pick people who look like themselves for the next generation academia. Alison Woodward (VUB) points out "In Belgium, no one knows about two-thirds of the jobs. How did that guy get it?" and notes that this old boys' club excludes not only women, but also foreigners and ethnic minorities. So rather than just trying to improve parental issues*, perhaps Flemish universities should instead focus on open merit-based hiring. If women are just given a truly equal chance, I have no doubt that soon they will hold at least 50% of positions.

* One of my pet peeves, as the data showing that having a child is detrimental to women but not men is not a cause of discrimination - it is an effect of discrimination. If men actually did half the parenting, then parental issues would have absolutely no effect on sex equality. By all means, try to make child raising easier, just don't think that this alone creates sex equality.

Faculty position opening up in Leuven

See the details on NatureJobs