Author: BARBARA SPECTOR, p.20 The good news for women astronomers is that their numbers are increasing, according to a recent survey of members of the Washington, D.C.-based American Astronomical Society. But along with this good news comes some additional, disquieting information: Many of these women astronomers reported having been the victims of, or having observed, gender-based discrimination or sexual harassment at some point in their careers. Pamela H. Blondin, who prepared the report,

While many who have left science have taken jobs that keep them in contact with the research community, others have divorced themselves completely from science. And that's the way they prefer it, they say. "I quit, cold-turkey," says Bud Grace, who has a Ph.D. in atomic physics from Florida State University and now draws a nationally syndicated comic strip, "Ernie." After getting his doctorate in 1971, Grace took research and teaching appointments at the University of Georgia and then back at

Nominations are now being accepted for the Chevron Conservation Awards, the oldest privately sponsored program of its kind in the United States. The $1,000 awards will recognize 10 professionals, 10 citizen volunteers, and five nonprofit organizations working to enhance U.S. air, water, land, and wildlife resources. The awards, to be presented in May, include a bronze plaque and a trip to Washington, D.C., for the presentation. The awards are important because "they attempt to recognize people

New York alliance offers guidance and support to Russian researchers who are seeking employment in their adopted country Alexander Bolonkin, a mathematician specializing in aerodynamics, has a 10-year gap in his r‚sum‚, from 1972 to 1982, because he was serving time in a Soviet prison camp. Bolonkin is now studying English, but he still has quite a bit to learn; he says he came to the United States "1« hours ago" when he means "1« years ago." Since arriving in the U.S.,

Love of their institutions motivates many to make the transition from university laboratories to executive offices What's it like to be a medical school dean? Geneticist Leon E. Rosenberg, dean of Yale University's School of Medicine, describes the experience as sometimes elegantly harmonious, sometimes extraordinarily fast-paced--and rarely dull. "When I'm feeling serene," Rosenberg says, "I say that [the job] is sometimes like being a conductor of an orchestra: searching for the right sound

Some university scientists willingly forsake their lab investigations; others strive to maintain a balance between research and administration Geologist Franli H.T. Rhodes knew the time had come when he had no idea where the time had gone. Now president of Cornell University, Rhodes was vice president for academic affairs at the University of Michigan when he reluctantly decided to stop conducting laboratory research. Research isn't the only activity that academic scientists abandon when they

When he assumes the presidency of the Rockefeller University next month, molecular biologist David Baltimore will be faced with the task of assessing the university's programs in the biomedical and related behavioral and physical sciences. One of the areas targeted for evaluation by Baltimore is the University Fellows Program, in which exceptional young scientists are recruited to head their own research groups and are given the title of assistant professor at the university. The program gives

Last year, deep-sea researcher Robert Ballard attracted media attention with his inauguration of the Jason Project, an expedition to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea that was telecast live to museums throughout North America. Assembled at these viewing posts were approximately 250,000 elementary- and secondary-school students, who were able to communicate via a satellite hookup with researchers on the expedition. The project, an unprecedented endeavor, was named after the underwater robot us

Last year, administrators at the California Institute of Technology received a pleasant surprise: a letter from a Hong Kong foundation asking if they would be interested in having the foundation support Asian graduate students at Caltech, particularly students from the People's Republic of China. The letter came from the Shaw Foundation, a private charitable enterprise established in 1973 by Sir Run Run Shaw, an 82-year-old native of Shanghai. Sir Run Run heads the Shaw Brothers Organisation,

With larger membership come questions of how the group can best serve the needs of its expanded constituency When approximately 40 undergraduate and graduate students meet this coming weekend on the campus of Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh to discuss military and environmental security, they will be advancing the goals of a movement that has sprouted across the nation in recent years. The event is a regional conference sponsored by Student Pugwash USA, a society whose name is still

A West German chemical com-pany's United States subsidiary intends to make its presence known in North America over the next five years by offering a bonanza to grad students at U.S. universities. The Henkel Corp., which opened its U.S. research facility in Ambler, Pa., last fall, will award at least four two-year fellowships of $20,000 per year to third- and fourth-year doctoral candidates in colloid and surface chemistry. The discipline, which focuses on the interaction between particles and

Board cites need to reassess program's direction; moratorium surprises many in scientific community Mary Lasker, the octogenarian president of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, has notified jurors that the foundation's Medical Research Awards - considered by many to serve as a "predictor" of the Nobel Prize - will not be presented in 1990. The decision, which was made by Lasker along with other foundation board members and was not announced officially to the press, has surprised and disap