Congratulations to the innovators and technologists on TIME’s:100 Most Influential people in AI list. With all of the scientists, especially women and people of color, making waves in the artificial intelligence sector. What is unique about AI is also what is most feared and celebrated - its ability to match some of our own skills, and then to go further, accomplishing what humans cannot. AI’s capacity to model itself on human behavior has become its defining feature. Yet behind every advance in machine learning and large language models are, in fact, people - both the often obscured human labor that makes large language models safer to use, and the individuals who make critical decisions on when and how to best use this technology. Reporting on people and influence is what TIME does best. That led us to the TIME100 AI. Across the past century, the cover of TIME has reflected the forces shaping society; that has been true this year as well. Generative AI - a type of AI that can produce text, images, video, and other content, the best-known example being ChatGPT - first landed on our cover in February. “This shift marks the most important technological breakthrough since social media,” TIME correspondents Andrew R. Chow and Billy Perrigo wrote then. In March, TIME published an essay from AI safety advocate Eliezer Yudkowsky that prompted discussion in the White House press briefing room about the Biden Administration’s plan on AI. By May, they gathered a selection of voices to analyze the potential risks presented by this explosive new technology. That issue, with a cover asking if AI could mark the end of humanity, went online just days after hundreds of leading AI scientists and CEOs released a startling joint statement: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”

These Black women in STEM are using science to make the beauty industry more inclusive. Discover how Olay is ushering in a new era of inclusive beauty through innovative formulation. The inclusive beauty movement has evolved from a few early adopters who diversified their product offerings and marketing efforts to a concept that is now a must-have for brands to lead within their messaging. Olay has been at the forefront of that change, through consumer research, product development efforts, and a commitment to increase the number of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields. Announced in 2020, OLAY’s FacetheSTEMGap is an initiative to double the number of women in STEM and triple the number of women of color in STEM by 2030. The voices and lived experiences of these women are needed in the beauty industry and beyond, says Rolanda Wilkerson, PhD, senior director of fellow beauty care at Procter & Gamble. She and Black, both Black women, are two scientists powering OLAY’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts. They’re joined by cosmetic chemists, biologists, toxicologists, engineers, researchers, coders, IT professionals, and others, all responsible not only for bringing products to market, but also addressing social injustices and creating lasting change within the work they do.

When Margaret Rossiter, Ph.D. began digging around for evidence of women's contributions to science in the 1970s, she hit a wall pretty quickly. "People said there weren't any women scientists," Rossiter, a professor emerita at Cornell University, told Salon in a phone interview. "[They said] you'll never find anything and you're wasting your time." But time would prove them wrong. Rossiter persisted and ended up uncovering a paper trail of letters and documents that illuminated the lives of hundreds of women forgotten in science history. Some worked as volunteers in laboratories and research settings, invisible in the public eye, with their contributions overshadowed by those of their male colleagues. Others were recognized as professors or scientists, but parallel research in other corners of the globe conducted by men took home the glory instead. Rossiter named the phenomenon in which women's work in science is repressed or denied the "Matilda Effect," and it persists today. Although huge steps have been made toward equity today, women in science still make less money than male scientists and are underrepresented in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics.) A 2022 study published in Nature also found women still aren't getting the credit they deserve and are "significantly less likely" to receive authorship when working on a scientific study.

SWE-sponsored national exhibit draws attention to six women inventors. Women continue to influence all aspects of society through their groundbreaking research and inventions. What better place to draw attention to their contributions than in the National Inventors Hall of Fame Museum (NIHF) housed in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in Alexandria, Virginia. The achievements of six women were featured in a theme-based poster exhibit designed to inspire the next generation of women in STEM fields. Titled “Making Change: Structures, Systems, and Societies,” the exhibit features women whose work has had an extraordinary impact on the structures and systems of science and society. The hanging life-size posters positioned side by side on a truss bear vibrant images and brief biographies of each woman and greet staff and visitors as they enter the atrium to do business in the USPTO or swing by the adjoining museum. The tribute is the result of collaboration between SWE and the NIHF, a not-for-profit organization that recognizes individual engineers and inventors who hold U.S. patents of significant technology.

If you are exploring new career opportunities the AWIS Career Center is here for YOU. They have added a new section with helpful advice on topics from resumes and cover letters to networking and personal branding. On their page you can find essential tips for every step of your career journey.

Olay is paving the way for the inclusive beauty movement to move beyond a buzzword and deliver true equality in skin care. Meet the two Black scientists at the forefront of that change. Olay Senior Scientist Markaisa Black, PhD, dreams of a world in which anyone browsing store shelves or scrolling through products online can look at a beauty product and know it will work for them.

Humanity’s documented interest in space began millennia ago, with the systematic astronomical observations of the Assyro-Babylonians in 1000 BCE marking the first time humans created a system to understand the galaxy above us. It would take thousands more years before anyone actually ventured into space. Soviet pilot Yuri Gagarin made history for that in 1961, and in the years that followed, space exploration was limited to astronauts who’d spent their entire lives training for life in the sky. However, in more recent times, the accessibility of space has become a topic of conversation; slowly but surely, more people are looking to (temporarily) leave Earth to see what space is all about. On August 10, American aerospace company Virgin Galactic launched its first ever Private Astronaut Mission, making history by sending three people on a commercial flight beyond the stars - including 18-year-old Anastatia Mayers, the youngest person ever to travel space.

Christopher Nolan’s highly-anticipated movie “Oppenheimer,” set for release July 21, 2023, depicts J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role in the development of the atomic bomb. But while the Manhattan Project wouldn’t have been possible without the work of many accomplished female scientists, the only women seen in the movie’s trailer are either hanging laundry, crying or cheering the men on. As a physics professor who studies ways to support women in STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – fields and a film studies professor who worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood, we believe the trailer’s depiction of women reinforces stereotypes about who can succeed in science. It also represents a larger trend of women’s contributions in science going unrecognized in modern media. The Manhattan Project would not have been possible without the work of physicist Lise Meitner, who discovered nuclear fission. Meitner used Einstein’s E=MC² to calculate how much energy would be released by splitting uranium atoms, and it was that development that would prompt Einstein to sign a letter urging President Franklin Roosevelt to begin the United States’ atomic research program.

Award-winning AWIS Magazine is the premier publication written by and for women in STEM and allies. It is a record of women’s contribution to the STEM enterprise and their impact on society with story ideas that come from the real challenges our members face every day in labs, classrooms, corporate boardrooms, and government offices around the country.

Pen Pal Program encourages STEM Professionals of all kinds to get involved with Letters to a Pre-Scientist! STEM professionals send and receive letters throughout a school year from a curious middle school student. Pairs build a meaningful relationship by discussing STEM career pathways, higher education journeys, and how they’ve each overcome obstacles. Pen pals plant seeds that help students discover possibilities in STEM. Recruitment of new STEM pen pals for the 2023-24 school year is currently closed. Recruitment for next year will open in July 2024. You can sign up for their mailing list to learn more about their program and be the first to know next time they recruit volunteers!