The Observer, October 21, 2005
Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8
Heather Morrison speaks on being a woman in science
Heather Morrison, an astronomy professor at Case since 1994, was born and raised in southeastern Australia and has lived in the United States since 1989, after she received her Ph.D. in astronomy. As one of the faculty advisers in WISER, a community for women in science and engineering, she knows firsthand what it's like being outside of the ordinary.
What do you teach?
Until this year, mostly astronomy classes plus the WISER class. Now I teach first seminar as well. You can see the sort of classes I teach on my web page, http://astroweb.case.edu/heather.
What brought you to Case?
A job offer. It's hard to get a permanent job in astronomy. I didn't realize until I started teaching at Case how much I would enjoy it. The students here are really good, and definitely one of the things that keep me here.
What got you interested in astronomy?
It took me a while. My first undergraduate degree was in math and statistics, then I worked in business for a few years and got really bored. I took a couple of years off and did things like a women's theater group, traveling, etc.
Then suddenly it occurred to me one day that I have always loved looking at the stars and I had the math background to do astronomy professionally. So, I'm a bit of a romantic: I like the fact that I'm working on something really really beautiful that also uses my skills in math and statistics and physics.
What is WISER?
It's a community at Case for women in science and engineering. We do lots of different things: one-on-one peer mentoring for first-years; workshops on things as diverse as junior year abroad, using your voice effectively, sleep (and what happens if you don't get enough of it), internships and co-ops; social and study nights; a room for WISER students to hang out and work in; and a one credit-hour seminar class called "On Being a Scientist."
Why are you involved in it?
About five years ago I started talking to as many Case women students in science and engineering as I could, about what it was like to be a woman in these areas at Case.
I got lots of different stories, from really positive ones to some pretty bad ones, but the thing that really got to me was that, on average, the stories were not all that different from the way it was for me 30 years ago studying physics in Australia. Australia is not particularly good at encouraging women in male-dominated fields.
One of the themes that came through a lot was a feeling of isolation. So I thought that having a community where there were lots of links, between faculty and students, between upper- and lower-level students, would help fix that.
Why is it important for women in astronomy?
Let me quote Cassie [Grillot] and Steph [Bush], both former astronomy and WISER students: WISER is a place where we can be ourselves.
What is your role in this organization?
There are three women faculty who run WISER: myself, Beverly Saylor from geology, Kath Bogie from orthopedics, who is a biomedical engineer. We do everything from the administering of keeping track of who is on our mailing list, who has who for a mentor, fund-raising, running workshops, working with the students in our leadership core, and talking to WISER women one on one.
How do you feel about being a woman in a male-dominated field?
Sometimes it's weird because I do feel different from some of my male peers. I don't think I buy into the competitive atmosphere, which is such a big thing in US science, as much as others do. I think that relationships and interactions with my co-workers are more important to me than to some other scientists...butthen I have male colleagues who feel that way too, so it's not just gender.
But other times it's just really good to be working in astronomy at the current time…there is so much good stuff being discovered, and I like being part of that, and doing a bit of the discovering myself.
