The OWSD fellowship is awarded to women scientists from Sub-Saharan Africa and Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to pursue a PhD at a centre of excellence in the South in a field of the natural sciences. Applications are accepted from female scientists in all branches of the natural sciences. 

See http://owsdw.ictp.it/activities/postgraduate-training-fellowships for more information on the application procedure, eligibility criteria and to download the application form.

Deadline for submission of applications is 31 July 2013.

Macromolecules, Polymers, Plastics – Not just your disposable shopping bag!

An enormous fraction of what you see around you can be identified as a macromolecule or polymer. Most people will think of plastic shopping bags and children’s toys. In this lecture, a number of different applications of polymers will be highlighted that are less well known. What is the role of polymers in the treatment of certain diseases? What is the added value of polymers in water purification, or in the construction of the next generation flash memory? It all comes down to “playing with molecules” – design and construct them to a certain shape, size and functionality.

Date:     Wednesday 15^th May 2013

Time:    17h00 (Tea will be served from 16h30)

Place:    South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) Auditorium, Observatory Road,  Observatory* 

*Directions to SAAO Auditorium : Coming from the N2, turn off to the M57 – Liesbeek Parkway; turning in the direction of Cape Town and continue to the traffic lights with Hartleyvale (hockey and football) on your left. Turn right at traffic lights into Observatory Road, pass the River Club; the S A Astronomical Observatory is next on the left. Once through the security gates bear left following the SALT signs to the last building on the left (white with stoep & ramp). 

NO BOOKINGS / ALL WELCOME

The survey aims to collate data on research and diagnostic facilities engaged in life science activities in South Africa. The survey will provide a clear and up-to-date understanding of the current distribution and focus of the life sciences in the country. This is the first part of a multi-faceted study to assess systematically the state of biosafety and biosecurity and the application of ethics in the life sciences in South Africa through an evaluation of practice, and of legislation at national and institutional level, and to address the need for a sustained dialogue between scientists and policy makers. In order to ensure that this survey is as widely distributed as possible, ASSAf has launched an appeal for heads of departments or institute directors of diagnostic laboratories, research facilities, universities and private colleges to undertake the 5-minute survey available online at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CB6JP65. The survey focuses on basic information pertaining to laboratory-based life science research and diagnostics in these facilities. The results of the survey will form a database that will be securely stored at ASSAf, and will not be distributed to any third party for commercial gain. This database will provide a clear understanding of life science research in the country and will form the basis of future ASSAf studies that will assess the extent of biosafety, biosecurity and bioethics knowledge amongst the scientific community. ASSAf is the official national science academy of South Africa The Academy’s mandate is to provide evidence-based scientific advice to the South African scientific and policy community. A better understanding of all life science research undertaken in the country, and the distribution of life science researchers will be invaluable for future developments in scientific R&D. Please help the ASSAf achieve this goal by distributing this survey link as widely as possible.

1. Full name of the nominee and complete address, including current professional affiliation;
2. Nominee’s biodata and C.V., including his academic or professional, current position, refereed communications and publications in learned journal, etc.;
3. A critical appraisal of 1,000-2,000 words summarizing the candidate’s achievements in relation to the purpose of the Prize, and supported by published or other relevant evidence, and 3 sets of the most important and relevant reprints or documents, to be available to the Selection Committee;
4. An indication as to whether the work (part or whole) has been recognized by any other prize or award;
5. The names of at least 3 referees with their full addresses including telephone, telex, fax, etc., from whom further information could be sought;
6. Written consent to candidacy by the nominee plus 2 recent passport size photographs; and
7. Name and professional affiliation of the Nominator, with full contact details.

 The Olusegun Obasanjo Prize for scientific discovery and/or innovation is intended to reward and honor African Scientists who have made outstanding contributions in the scientific discovery or technological innovation. The prize has been named in honor of President Olusegun Obasanjo in recognition of his exemplary statesmanship and leadership at national, regional and International levels and the positive role he has played in nurturing the spirit of scientific discovery and technological innovation in Africa. The prize is awarded every two years to individual scientists or a group of scientists that the Prize Selection Committee deems to have made outstanding scientific discovery or technological innovation that generate social and economic benefits of the development of the continent.

South Korean ranks last of the countries in the study in female economic status, access to resources, supportive policy, and participation in the knowledge and STI sectors. While it shows strong participation of women in education at all levels, the country is failing to adequately support women to participate in its growing economic success.  A low level of female participation in the knowledge society overall demonstrates a clear lack of correlation between a country’s GDP and gender equality.

The full gender benchmarking study maps the opportunities and obstacles faced by women in science in Brazil, South Africa, India, the Republic of Korea, Indonesia, the US, the EU. The study was conducted by experts in international gender, science and technology issues from Women in Global Science & Technology (WISAT) and the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD), and funded by the Elsevier Foundation. The research was led by Dr. Sophia Huyer, Executive Director of WISAT and Dr. Nancy Hafkin, Senior Associate of WISAT 

Despite efforts by many of the countries in this study to give women greater access to science and technology education, research shows negative results in the areas of engineering, physics and computer science. In South Korea:

• Women remain severely under-represented in degree programs for these fields – less than 30% in most countries – and less than 15% in South Korea.
• Overall science and engineering enrollments (including bio and health sciences) are under 21%. In addition, the numbers of women actually working in these fields are declining across the board, dropping to 11% in South Korea.
• Even in countries where the numbers of women studying science and technology have increased, it has not translated into more women in the workplace.
• In Korea, the share of women in professional fields remains substantially lower than men, and at less than 50%, is well below the average for member countries of the OECD.
• Women make up less than 18% of IT workers.
• In the private sector progress has also been slow, with women making up less than 1% of corporate board directors, and the percentage of women-run businesses with more than one employee at 21%.

“These economies are operating under the existing paradigm that if we give girls and women greater access to education they will eventually gain parity with men in these fields,” states Sophia Huyer, the lead researcher and founding executive director of Women in Global Science & Technology. “This has dictated our approach to the problem for over a decade and we are still only seeing incremental changes. The report indicates that access to education is not a solution in and of itself. It’s only one part of what should be a multi-dimensional policymaking approach. There is no simple solution.”

The data show that women’s parity in the science, technology and innovation fields is tied to multiple empowerment factors, with the most influential being participation in the labour force, larger roles in government and politics, access to economic, productive and technological resources, quality healthcare and financial resources. Findings also show that women have greater parity in countries with government policies that support childcare, equal pay, and gender mainstreaming.  One of the main findings is that few countries collect consistent and reliable sex-disaggregated data in all of these areas, which inhibits their ability to implement effective supporting policies and programs.

“We found that the absence of any one of these elements creates a situation of vulnerability for economies that want to be competitively positioned in the knowledge economy,” Huyer says. “No one country or region is ticking off all the boxes, and some are falling dismally short. This is a tremendous waste of resources. We are wasting resources educating women without following through, and we are missing out on the enormous potential that women represent.”

“This broad and ambitious assessment is a critical starting point for measuring the participation of women and girls in science, technology and innovation in emerging and developing worlds,” said David Ruth, Executive Director of the Elsevier Foundation, “This study identifies key areas of national strength and weakness, and we hope it will help form the basis of evidence-based policy making and aid going forward.”

The report, funded by The Elsevier Foundation, which provides grant programs targeting women scientists in the early stages of their careers, was also supported by futureInnovate.net, a non-profit that supports initiatives that strengthen innovation systems in Canada and around the world.

# # #

Notes to Editors

The project summary and Key Findings, the Gender Equality and the Knowledge Society Scorecard, as well as  graphical scorecards for each country studied, can be found at www.wisat.org Please contact Ylann Schemm (y.schemm@elsevier.com) for more information or to arrange an interview with lead researchers Sophia Huyer and Nancy Hafkin.

About the Researchers

As founding executive director of Women in Global Science & Technology, Sophia Huyer has published and spoken widely on international gender, science and technology policy, including Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and social development. She is also research director of the Gender Advisory Board of the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development and Senior Advisor to the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World. She was a major contributor to the UNCTAD report Applying a Gender Lens to Science, Technology and Innovation (2011) and the UNESCO International Report on Science, Technology and Gender (2007).

Recently inducted into the Internet Society’s Internet Hall of Fame, Nancy Hafkin played a key role in developing Africa’s ICT infrastructure through her work with the UN Economic Commission for Africa.  She also worked with the Association for Progressive Communications to provide email connectivity to more than 10 countries there. In 2006 she co-edited “Cinderella or Cyberella: Empowering Women in the Knowledge Society,” with Sophia Huyer and in 2012 she authored a chapter on gender issues for “Accelerating Development Using the Web: Empowering Poor and Marginalized Populations,” edited by George Sadowsky.

# # #

About OWSD
The Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) is an international sister organization of TWAS, the academy of sciences for the developing world.  OWSD is headed by eminent women scientists from the south, consisting of more than 4,000 members. Created in 1989, OWSD’s overall goal is to work towards bridging the gender gap in science and technology. The central role is to promote women’s access to science and technology, enhancing their greater involvement in decision-making for the development of their countries and in the international scientific community. OWSD promotes leadership, exchanges and networking for women scientists to assist in the development of national capabilities to evolve, explore and improve strategies for increasing female participation in science. www.owsdw.org

About WISAT
Women in Global Science and Technology is a international non profit which promotes innovation, science and technology strategies that enable women, especially those living in developing countries, to actively participate in technology and innovation for development. Women should be able to benefit from access to technologies and full participation in innovation systems. www.wisat.org

About The Elsevier Foundation

The Elsevier Foundation is a corporate charity funded by Elsevier, a global provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The Elsevier Foundation provides grants to knowledge centered institutions around the world, with a focus on developing world libraries, nurse faculty and scholars in the early stages of their careers.  Since its inception, the Foundation has awarded more than 60 grants worth millions of dollars to non-profit organizations working in these fields. Through gift-matching, the Foundation also supports the efforts of Elsevier employees to play a positive role in their local and global communities. www.elsevierfoundation.org  

Media contact
Ylann Schemm

Senior Corporate Responsibility Manager, Elsevier
+31 20 485 2025

y.schemm@elsevier.com

The full gender benchmarking study maps the opportunities and obstacles faced by women in science in Brazil, South Africa, India, the Republic of Korea, Indonesia, the US, the EU. The study was conducted by experts in international gender, science and technology issues from Women in Global Science & Technology (WISAT) and the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD), and funded by the Elsevier Foundation. The research was led by Dr. Sophia Huyer, Executive Director of WISAT and Dr. Nancy Hafkin, Senior Associate of WISAT.

South Africa ranks fifth overall compared to the other countries studied. South Africa’s results include the following rankings:

• Second in knowledge society decision-making with comparatively high rates of women on corporate boards (14%) and as science academy members (28%).
• Third in social status and fourth in science, technology and innovation participation after the US, EU and Brazil. This impressive ranking is likely a result of a strong educational system with high levels of primary and secondary enrollments, a policy focus on STI, and quotas in various sectors to promote diversity of participation by race and gender.
• South Africa’s alarming rate of HIV in the female population puts it last in health, however.
• Fifth in women’s access to resources due to low levels of internet access for females (11%) and low levels of access to basic infrastructure such as energy and transportation in rural areas.
• Overall participation in the STI sector workforce remains low.
• Women remain severely under-represented in degree programs for engineering, physics and computer science.
• Even in countries where the numbers of women studying science and technology have increased, it has not translated into more women in the workplace. While South Africa sees 45% representation of females in Science and Engineering enrollments, the numbers of women actually working in these fields  is 16%, with 36% representation in the technician workforce.

“Despite an enabling policy environment and increased uptake of STI study except in engineering, this has not resulted in an increase in the science, technology and innovation workforce and especially leadership in South Africa. Mentoring activities will be critical in changing the status quo,” said Professor Roseanne Diab, Executive Officer, Academy of Science of South Africa. 

Despite efforts by many of these countries to give women greater access to science and technology education, research shows negative results, particularly in  the areas of engineering, physics and computer science – less than 30% in most countries. Although no data is available for enrollment in these fields separately in the country, but the rate of graduates In engineering sciences, materials and technologies is extremely low (only 15% in 2007).

“These economies are operating under the existing paradigm that if we give girls and women greater access to education they will eventually gain parity with men in these fields,” states Sophia Huyer, the lead researcher and founding executive director of Women in Global Science & Technology. “This has dictated our approach to the problem for over a decade and we are still only seeing incremental changes. The report indicates that access to education is not a solution in and of itself. It’s only one part of what should be a multi-dimensional policymaking approach. There is no simple solution.”

The data show that women’s parity in the science, technology and innovation fields is tied to multiple empowerment factors, with the most influential being representation in the labor force, larger roles in government and politics,  access to economic, productive and technological resources, quality healthcare and financial resources. Findings also show that women have greater parity in countries with government policies that support childcare, equal pay, and gender mainstreaming. One of the main findings is that few countries collect consistent and reliable sex-disaggregated data in all of these areas, which inhibits their ability to implement effective supporting policies and programs.

“We found that the absence of any one of these elements creates a situation of vulnerability for economies that want to be competitively positioned in the knowledge economy,” Huyer says. “No one country or region is ticking off all the boxes, and some are falling dismally short. This is a tremendous waste of resources. We are wasting resources educating women without following through, and we are missing out on the enormous potential that women represent.”

“This broad and ambitious assessment is a critical starting point for measuring the participation of women and girls in science, technology and innovation in emerging and developing worlds,” said David Ruth, Executive Director of the Elsevier Foundation, “This study identifies key areas of national strength and weakness, and we hope it will help form the basis of evidence-based policy making and aid going forward.” 

The report, funded by The Elsevier Foundation, which provides grant programs targeting women scientists in the early stages of their careers, was also supported by futureInnovate.net, a non-profit that supports initiatives that strengthen innovation systems in Canada and around the world.

# # #

Notes to Editors

The project summary and Key Findings, the Gender Equality and the Knowledge Society Scorecard, as well as graphical scorecards for each participating country, can be found at www.wisat.org. Please contact Ylann Schemm (y.schemm@elsevier.com) for more information or to arrange an interview with researchers Sophia Huyer and Nancy Hafkin.

About the Researchers

As founding executive director of Women in Global Science & Technology, Sophia Huyer has published and spoken widely on international gender, science and technology policy, including Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and social development. She is also research director of the Gender Advisory Board of the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development and Senior Advisor to the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World. She was a major contributor to the UNCTAD report Applying a Gender Lens to Science, Technology and Innovation (2011) and the UNESCO International Report on Science, Technology and Gender (2007).

Recently inducted into the Internet Society’s Internet Hall of Fame, Nancy Hafkin played a key role in developing Africa’s ICT infrastructure through her work with the UN Economic Commission for Africa.  She also worked with the Association for Progressive Communications to provide email connectivity to more than 10 countries there. In 2006 she co-edited “Cinderella or Cyberella: Empowering Women in the Knowledge Society,” with Sophia Huyer and in 2012 she authored a chapter on gender issues for “Accelerating Development Using the Web: Empowering Poor and Marginalized Populations,” edited by George Sadowsky. 

# # #

About OWSD
The Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) is an international sister organization of TWAS, the academy of sciences for the developing world.  OWSD is headed by eminent women scientists from the south, consisting of more than 4,000 members. Created in 1989, OWSD’s overall goal is to work towards bridging the gender gap in science and technology. The central role is to promote women’s access to science and technology, enhancing their greater involvement in decision-making for the development of their countries and in the international scientific community. OWSD promotes leadership, exchanges and networking for women scientists to assist in the development of national capabilities to evolve, explore and improve strategies for increasing female participation in science.  www.owsdw.org.

About WISAT
Women in Global Science and Technology is an international nonprofit which promotes innovation, science and technology strategies that enable women, especially those living in developing countries, to actively participate in technology and innovation for development. Women should be able to benefit from access to technologies and full participation in innovation systems. www.wisat.org

About The Elsevier Foundation

The Elsevier Foundation is a corporate charity funded by Elsevier, a global provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The Elsevier Foundation provides grants to knowledge centered institutions around the world, with a focus on developing world libraries, nurse faculty and scholars in the early stages of their careers.  Since its inception, the Foundation has awarded more than 60 grants worth millions of dollars to non-profit organizations working in these fields. Through gift-matching, the Foundation also supports the efforts of Elsevier employees to play a positive role in their local and global communities. www.elsevierfoundation.org  

Media contact
Ylann Schemm

Senior Corporate Responsibility Manager, Elsevier
+31 20 485 2025

y.schemm@elsevier.com

Delhi, March 7, 2013 – In the first gender benchmarking study of its kind, researchers have found that numbers of women in the science, technology and innovation fields are alarmingly low in the world’s leading economies, and are actually on the decline in many, including the United States. India’s low overall ranking in the study shows slow progress despite women friendly policies which have been in place for a number of years.

The full gender benchmarking study maps the opportunities and obstacles faced by women in science in Brazil, South Africa, India, the Republic of Korea, Indonesia, the US, the EU. It was conducted by experts in international gender, science and technology issues from Women in Global Science & Technology (WISAT) and the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD), and funded by the Elsevier Foundation. The lead research was conducted by Dr. Sophia Huyer, founding Executive Director of WISAT and Dr. Nancy Hafkin, Senior Associate of WISAT.

India ranks the lowest overall of the countries in this study ­– Brazil, South Africa, India, the Republic of Korea, Indonesia, the US, and the EU – including low rankings in economic status, access to resources, knowledge economy, and health. Less than 15% of women have access to their own bank account, and females hold less than a third of available administrative and managerial positions. While India’s enabling policy environment, which has been in place for many years, is very positive, implementation and funding needs to increase substantially before women can equally benefit from the innovation advantage. At the same time there are definite signs of progress, India has achieved universal primary education enrollment for example. Ensuring that women in the Indian population are enabled and supported to improve their health, access to resources and opportunities, and develop capacity to contribute to India’s knowledge society is one obvious and immediate strategy to make up some of the gap.

Despite efforts made by the countries studied to give women greater access to science and technology education, research shows negative results, particularly in the areas of engineering, physics and computer science. Women remain severely under-represented in degree programs for these fields – less than 30% in most countries. Female enrollments in the bio and health sciences in India are very high, at 80%, but the numbers drop drastically in engineering and physics enrollments to 35%. In addition, the numbers of women actually working in these fields are declining across the board - only 12% of the S&E workforce in India was female in 2010. Even in countries where the numbers of women studying science and technology have increased, it has not translated into more women in the workplace. India does see a high representation of females in management in all sectors at 42%, but less than 5% representation of females on corporate boards. 

“These economies are operating under the existing paradigm that if we give girls and women greater access to education they will eventually gain parity with men in these fields,” states Sophia Huyer, the lead researcher and founding executive director of Women in Global Science & Technology. “This has dictated our approach to the problem for over a decade and we are still only seeing incremental changes. The report indicates that access to education is not a solution in and of itself. It’s only one part of what should be a multi-dimensional policymaking approach. There is no simple solution.”

The data show that women’s parity in the science, technology and innovation fields is tied to multiple empowerment factors, with the most influential being higher economic status, larger roles in government and politics, access to economic, productive and technological resources, quality healthcare and financial resources. Findings also show that women have greater parity in countries with government policies that support childcare, equal pay, and gender mainstreaming.  One of the main findings is that few countries collect consistent and reliable sex-disaggregated data in all of these areas, which inhibits their ability to implement effective supporting policies and programs.

“We found that the absence of any one of these elements creates a situation of vulnerability for economies that want to be competitively positioned in the knowledge economy,” Huyer says. “No one country or region is ticking off all the boxes, and some are falling dismally short. This is a tremendous waste of resources. We are wasting resources educating women without following through, and we are missing out on the enormous potential that women represent.”

“This broad and ambitious assessment is a critical starting point for measuring the participation of women and girls in science, technology and innovation in emerging and developing worlds,” said David Ruth, Executive Director of the Elsevier Foundation, “This study identifies key areas of national strength and weakness, and we hope it will help form the basis of evidence-based policy making and aid going forward.”

The report, funded by The Elsevier Foundation, which provides grant programs targeting women scientists in the early stages of their careers, was also supported by futureInnovate.net, a non-profit that supports initiatives that strengthen innovation systems in Canada and around the world. 

# # # 

Notes to Editors

The project summary and Key Findings the Gender Equality and the Knowledge Society Scorecard, as well as graphical scorecards for each participating country, can be found at www.wisat.org. Please contact Ylann Schemm (y.schemm@elsevier.com ) for more information or to arrange an interview with researchers Sophia Huyer and Nancy Hafkin.

About the Researchers

As founding executive director of Women in Global Science & Technology, Sophia Huyer has published and spoken widely on international gender, science and technology policy, including Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and social development. She is also research director of the Gender Advisory Board of the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development and Senior Advisor to the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World. She was a major contributor to the UNCTAD report Applying a Gender Lens to Science, Technology and Innovation (2011) and the UNESCO International Report on Science, Technology and Gender (2007).

Recently inducted into the Internet Society’s Internet Hall of Fame, Nancy Hafkin played a key role in developing Africa’s ICT infrastructure through her work with the UN Economic Commission for Africa.  She also worked with the Association for Progressive Communications to provide email connectivity to more than 10 countries there. In 2006 she co-edited “Cinderella or Cyberella: Empowering Women in the Knowledge Society,” with Sophia Huyer and in 2012 she authored a chapter on gender issues for “Accelerating Development Using the Web: Empowering Poor and Marginalized Populations,” edited by George Sadowsky.

# # #

About OWSD
The Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) is an international sister organization of TWAS, the academy of sciences for the developing world.  OWSD is headed by eminent women scientists from the south, consisting of more than 4,000 members. Created in 1989, OWSD’s overall goal is to work towards bridging the gender gap in science and technology. The central role is to promote women’s access to science and technology, enhancing their greater involvement in decision-making for the development of their countries and in the international scientific community. OWSD promotes leadership, exchanges and networking for women scientists to assist in the development of national capabilities to evolve, explore and improve strategies for increasing female participation in science.  www.owsdw.org.

About WISAT
Women in Global Science and Technology is an international non-profit which promotes innovation, science and technology strategies that enable women, especially those living in developing countries, to actively participate in technology and innovation for development. Women should be able to benefit from access to technologies and full participation in innovation systems. www.wisat.org

About The Elsevier Foundation

The Elsevier Foundation is a corporate charity funded by Elsevier, a global provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The Elsevier Foundation provides grants to knowledge centered institutions around the world, with a focus on developing world libraries, nurse faculty and scholars in the early stages of their careers.  Since its inception, the Foundation has awarded more than 60 grants worth millions of dollars to non-profit organizations working in these fields. Through gift-matching, the Foundation also supports the efforts of Elsevier employees to play a positive role in their local and global communities. www.elsevierfoundation.org   

Media contact
Ylann Schemm

Senior Corporate Responsibility Manager, Elsevier
+31 20 485 2025

y.schemm@elsevier.com

ASSAf annually invites a distinguished visiting scholar, who is an internationally recognised scholar, an inspirational speaker and who can bridge the divides between disciplines, to visit South Africa for the purpose of giving public lectures and interacting with local scholars, in various centres. 

You are hereby requested to submit a nomination(s) of an outstanding scholar(s) who meets the above description. The nomination should include a motivation for the nomination and a full curriculum vitae of the candidate. The annual process of nominating  persons for the ASSAf Visiting Scholar in 2013 will be carried out in accordance with Regulation 6 of the Academy 

No honorarium shall be paid to the ASSAf Distinguished Visiting Scholar, but all personal expenses arising from the visit will be covered or reimbursed. Expenses incurred by the national and local hosts will also be covered or reimbursed. 

Please send your nomination(s), brief motivation and full curriculum vitae of the candidate to Mrs Renate Venier, by email to renate@assaf.org.za. The deadline for the submission is Friday, 29 March 2013.