Members of the AAPG Women’s Network are delighted to offer a variety of programs for the 2021 International Meeting for Applied Geoscience and Energy. Whether you plan to attend in-person or virtually, we invite you to join us at IMAGE in September!
Our programming will kick off on Saturday, Sept. 25 and Sunday, Sept. 26 with the annual AAPG Women’s Network short course. This year our in-person course focuses on geochemical applications and will be led by Janell Edman, Faye Liu, Kristie McLin and Nicole Wagoner. It is open to anyone interested in gaining an introduction to rock, oil, gas and water geochemistry. The goal is to provide participants with a basic knowledge of geochemistry and its key applications in the exploration, appraisal and development of oil fields such as prospect generation, production allocation, economic evaluation, and field development planning.
Resilience
On Monday, Sept. 27 at 1:20 p.m., the AAPG and the Society of Exploration Geophysicists’ respective women’s networks will co-host the virtual special session, “Resilience, Tapping into our Passions in Order to Persevere,” chaired by Terra George. This will be a conversation-style session and audience participation is encouraged. It is designed around the word “resilience,” which is defined as “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.” Through our unique experiences, we develop our own interpretation of what resilience means to us, as women, individuals, and as a community. The speakers and our moderator will approach the topic of “resilience” and illustrate their unique stories of resilience.The audience will learn how internal passions and a network of support can lead us to new horizons during times of change both personally and professionally.
The Annual AAPG Women’s Network Reception will directly follow the Monday afternoon special session at 5:30 p.m. This year, the event will be hosted virtually and chaired by Andrea López Vega, Chris Piela Cox and Chioma Onwumelu. We will showcase AAPGWN’s accomplishments over the last year and discuss volunteer opportunities for anyone interested in becoming more involved with the network. Attendees will be able to mingle and participate in a virtual icebreaker activity. There will also be a keynote speaker who will present, “The State of Women in the Energy Industry,” based on the most recent data from McKinsey. The session will conclude with facilitated networking and dialogue in small groups. Join us to connect with others from our community, get more information about the AAPGWN, share your feedback, and discover our upcoming activities!
Highlighting Inequality
The AAPG and SEG women’s networks will co-host a luncheon on Tuesday, Sept. 28 at 11 a.m. This event will be a hybrid event with options to attend for in-person and virtual attendees. We will begin with a screening of the documentary, “Picture a Scientist,” followed by a panel discussion moderated by Stephanie Nwoko with panelists Marsha Bourque and Jane Willenbring, who is featured in the documentary.
“Picture a Scientist” is a feature-length documentary film that highlights gender inequality in STEM fields through the stories of a biologist, a chemist and a geologist. Their experiences convey some of the challenges facing women scientists and they discuss how we can work to make STEM fields more inclusive. This is an important discussion since women are still underrepresented in STEM occupations across the world. The American Geosciences Institute and the National Science Foundation report that from 2010 to 2017, the percentage of women with geoscience degrees working as geoscientists decreased from 17 to 11 percent, which is approximately half the percentage of men with geoscience degrees working as geoscientists. Within AAPG, women make up about 20 percent of total membership, which is significantly lower than women membership in other associations, such as the Geological Society of America at 35 percent and the American Geophysical Union at 32 percent.
On Wednesday, Sept. 29 at 9 a.m., the AAPG Women’s Network will co-host the virtual special session “Achieving Gender, Ethnic and Racial Equality in Professional Geoscience Organizations,” in collaboration with AAPG’s STEMulating Diversity Special Interest Group, SEG’s Women’s Network, the Association for Women Geoscientists, GeoLatinas, and the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion in Geoscience Project and chaired by Rachelle Kernen.This special session will offer talks that are data-driven and vetted through pioneering, classic and rigorous sociological approaches from a diverse range of perspectives of women and men who work in the energy sector and academia.Each speaker and co-author will bring their unique expert perspective to this special session with the intent to educate AAPG and SEG’s audience about new standards and protocols within the diversity, equity and inclusion subject.
We look forward to seeing you either in-person or virtually at IMAGE! If you have any questions or are interested in volunteering for AAPGWN, please contact us at [email protected]. For more information about AAPGWN and our events follow us on social media, find us on the AAPG App, or visit us at AAPG.org/womens-network, where you can become a member today.