Walach, Maria-Theresia, Agiwal, Omakshi, Allanson, Oliver, Owens, Mathew J., Rae, Jonathan, Sandhu, Jasmine and Smith, Andy (2022) UK magnetosphere, ionosphere and solar-terrestrial (MIST) awards taskforce: A perspective. Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, 9. p. 1011839. ISSN 2296-987X
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Abstract
“We don’t live in a meritocracy, and to pretend that simple hard work will elevate all to success is an exercise in willful ignorance.” (Reni Eddo-Lodge wrote in her book “Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race” (Published by Bloomsbury, London, p. 79, ISBN: PB: 978-1-4088-7)). This echoes through the academic scientific community, and can be readily seen in the demographics of physics prize winners. Prizes are extremely influential in both projecting how a community is outwardly perceived and actively shaping the community through facilitating career advancement. But how can biases in the awards process be addressed? We do not pretend to have all the answers, nor is there a single solution, but in this perspective article we explore one pragmatic approach to tackling chronic underrepresentation in the space sciences when it comes to nominations for awards and prizes.
| Item Type: | Article |
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| Additional Information: | Funding information: M-TW acknowledges financial support through the United Kingdom Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) grant number NE/T000937/1. OlA acknowledges financial support from: 1) the University of Exeter; 2) the United Kingdom Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Independent Research Fellowship NE/V013963/1; 3) as well as the NERC Highlight Topic Grant NE/P017274/1 (Rad-Sat). AS acknowledges financial support through the United Kingdom Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) grant numbers: NE/P017150/1, NE/V002724/1. MO acknowledges support from Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) grant numbers ST/R000921/1 and ST/V000497/1, and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) grant numbers NE/S010033/1 and NE/P016928/1. JS and IR acknowledge support from NERC grants NE/P017185/2, NE/V002554/2 and STFC grant ST/V006320/1. OmA acknowledges funding from NASA under Grant No. 80NSSC21K0157 issued through the Solar System Workings Program (Boston University, US) and STFC grant ST/R504816/1 (Imperial College London, United Kingdom). |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | awards, prizes, medals, recognition, bias, inclusion, diversity, equitable |
| Subjects: | F500 Astronomy |
| Department: | Faculties > Engineering and Environment > Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering |
| Depositing User: | John Coen |
| Date Deposited: | 18 Oct 2022 12:11 |
| Last Modified: | 18 Oct 2022 12:15 |
| URI: | https://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/50406 |
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