The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) has named Dr. Tiffany Barnes, Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at North Carolina State University, the recipient of the 2022 Harrold and Notkin Research and Graduate Mentoring Award. NCWIT has also named Dr. Christine Alvarado, Associate Dean for Students of the Jacobs School of Engineering and Teaching Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California, San Diego, the recipient of the 2022 NCWIT Joanne McGrath Cohoon Service Award. The Harrold and Notkin Research and Graduate Mentoring Award is sponsored by the NCWIT Board of Directors and recognizes faculty members from non-profit institutions who distinguish themselves through outstanding research and excellent graduate mentoring, as well as those who recruit, encourage, and promote women and minorities in computing. It is given in memory of Mary Jean Harrold and David Notkin, to honor their outstanding research, graduate mentoring, and diversity contributions.

Katya Echazarreta previously worked at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is pursuing her master's in engineering at Johns Hopkins University, and is a popular SciCommer on TikTok. Now she became the first-ever Mexican-born woman to go to space!A rocket built by Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin carried its fifth group of passengers to the edge of space, including the first-ever Mexican-born woman to make such a journey. The 60-foot-tall suborbital rocket took off from Blue Origin's facilities in West Texas at 9:26am ET, vaulting a group of six people to more than 62 miles above the Earth's surface - which is widely deemed to make the boundary of outer space - and giving them a few minutes of weightlessness before parachuting to landing. Most of the passengers paid an undisclosed sum for their seats. But Katya Echazarreta, an engineer and science communicator from Guadalajara, Mexico, was selected by a nonprofit called Space for Humanity to join this mission from a pool of thousands of applicants. The organization's goal is to send "exceptional leaders" to space and allow them to experience the overview effect, a phenomenon frequently reported by astronauts who say that viewing the Earth from space give them a profound shift in perspective.

Women are more likely to win awards that aren’t named after a person than prizes named after a man, research has found. The study1, presented on 25 May at the European Geoscience Union (EGU) general assembly in Vienna, reviewed almost 9,000 recipients across roughly 350 awards in the fields of Earth and environmental sciences and cardiology, as well as those given out by national scientific bodies in the United Kingdom and United States. The study has yet to be published. It found that women have received only around 15% of these awards, going back to the eighteenth century. For the 214 awards that are named after men, female winners fall to just 12% (see ‘Award winners by gender’). But women were the winners 24% of the time for the 93 awards not named after anyone - a trend that was consistent over time, says Stefan Krause, an Earth and environmental scientist at the University of Birmingham, UK, who presented the research at the EGU meeting. The results suggest that there might be a link between the name of an award and who receives it, he says. “If the awards are not named after a person, the gender balance in prizes is more balanced,” he adds.

Cynthia Rosenzweig, a senior research scientist and head of the Climate Impacts Group at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City, received the 2022 World Food Prize from the World Food Prize Foundation on May 5. According to the World Food Prize Foundation, the World Food Prize is a prestigious international award conceived as the "Nobel Prize for Food and Agriculture" with a mission to elevate innovations and inspire action to sustainably increase the quality, quantity, and availability of food for all. Rosenzweig was selected for the award for her research to understand the relationship between climate and food systems and forecast how both will change in the future. Her modeling work has provided a foundation for decision-makers around the world to create strategies to mitigate climate change and adapt our food systems to a changing planet, which has helped communities worldwide address the consequences of Earth’s changing climate.

Attend Women In Technology International's 28th Annual Virtual Summit 2022 that will feature: Keynotes showcasing women worldwide who are tackling climate change and accelerating sustainability; Tech sessions on AI/ML, Agile/DevOps, Blockchain, Cloud, Cybersecurity, DX Leadership, Robotics, and more; Panels and workshops on leadership and mentoring; Global networking sessions so you can connect and share with other professional women around the world; And back by popular demand: WITI’s coaching circles, pairing speakers with small groups to discuss professional development topics to further your career – including creativity, teamwork, and problem-solving.

AWIS is proud to release their 2021 Annual Report! They achieved several milestones in their 50th anniversary year - thanks to their members, donors, and advocates.

Forward-thinking women understand that climate change is an urgent challenge, a generational responsibility … and a professional opportunity. The good news is that we women in technology are the world’s best bet in the fight for a clean, healthy, and sustainable planet. And we have the tools to do it: Digital Transformation (DX) helps organizations do a better job of both delivering their traditional value propositions and creating new ones – especially those focused on sustainability. Accenture finds that by using public cloud services, enterprises could cut their IT-related greenhouse gas emissions by some 6%, the equivalent of taking 22 million cars off the road. At the crux of achieving sustainability through DX are exciting new technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things. This will create both technical and non-technical career opportunities, and WITI is here to help you explore them. WITI’s 2022 Virtual Summit will feature: Keynotes showcasing women worldwide who are tackling climate change and accelerating sustainability, Tech sessions on AI/ML, Agile/DevOps, Blockchain, Cloud, Cybersecurity, DX Leadership, Robotics, and more, Panels and workshops on leadership and mentoring and Global networking sessions so you can connect and share with other professional women around the world.

Trust in science is rising worldwide, according to a 3M-backed survey released Tuesday, and more people expect it to solve the world's problems. But the fifth annual 3M State of Science Index also showed many are worried that misinformation could lead to more public health crises, greater societal divisions and lack of action on climate change. Since 2018, 3M has sought to measure global attitudes about science and the role it plays in society to help shade decision-making. Global research firm Ipsos surveyed 17,000 adults in 17 countries last fall: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Singapore, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the U.S. Ninety percent of respondents said they trust science at least somewhat, up from 84% in 2020. About half of respondents said they consider science important in their everyday lives - and 61% of those under 40 said so.

The World Economic Forum Gender Gap Accelerator programme has significantly improved the professional prospects of women in work in Chile. By bringing together leaders from the private and public sectors, the Forum has been influential in enhancing the quality of work for more than 130,000 local women – the equivalent of 7% of salaried employees in Chile’s private sector. Data indicates that the Forum’s three-year accelerator programme in Chile has effectively promoted female representation in member companies, which include Accenture, Cargill, IBM, Invest Chile, LatAm Airlines, Microsoft, Nestlé, PwC, SAP, Salmon Chile, Siemens and Unilever. On average, these companies report that 41% of staff members are women – almost 10 percentage points above the national average, which stood at 31.7% in January 2019. More importantly, these employers have reduced the gender pay gap by 37.5% between 2016 and 2019. Put differently, men hired by the group of 180 companies receive, on average, 5.6% more remuneration per hour of work, a gap that is considerably lower than the national average, where men earn almost 18% more wages, on average, per hour worked. Continued collaboration intends to reduce this gap even further.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly mainstream across sectors and has great potential to benefit society. But its full potential can only be realised if the technology represents the diversity of the populations it represents. Read about three women in AI who are working to address gender equity in the technology's development. Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly advancing across sectors and industries and while it has great potential to benefit society, this can only be realized if AI truly represents the diversity of the populations it represents. Gender equity, specifically, is not currently realized in AI development. A technology meant to replicate human functions learns from and relies on the data and teams that put it together and manage it. A lack of representation from women in these spaces creates bias and can make technology untrustworthy.