Women in Science Day: AstroSciku contest

The X-IFU Consortium is joining the celebrations for the International Day of Girls and Women in Science on 11 February to show the contributions of women to science and, in particular, to the field of astronomy and astrophysics.

This year, we present a joint international initiative of the X-IFU Consortium, the Athena Community Office, the XMM2Athena project, the WFI Consortium, and the AHEAD2020 project: a call for AstroSciku. An AstroSciku is an adaptation of the Japanese haiku poem form, seeking the same simplicity and capture of the moment, but focused on astronomy and, for this contest, with a gender perspective. Although there are several variants of the Scikus we will follow the traditional three-line long, written in English with 5-7-5 syllabic structure and no-rhyming lines (look at The Sciku project website and Twitter for help and ideas!). Participants should draw inspiration from discoveries or research made by women astronomers and astrophysicists (from all times) to create their AstroSciku.

Each AstroSciku must be original and contain, in addition to the 3 verses, a title related either to the scientist to whom it refers to or to the context. Themes about high-energy astrophysics will be especially valued.

This contest is open to anyone who wants to participate. Up to two different AstroSciku may be submitted by posting them on the participant’s personal Twitter account. To be valid, the tweets must include #2022AstroSciku #WomenInScience in their posts before 7 February 2022.

Competition Rules:

• The submission of AstroSciku starts with this publication and ends on 7 February 2022.
• Participants: everyone can submit their AstroSciku.
• How to participate: there are two options to participate. The preferred option is to post your AstroSciku on your personal Twitter including the hashtags #2022AstroSciku #WomenInScience. If you don’t have a Twitter account, you can send us your AstroScikus to xifu@irap.omp.eu and we will take care of disseminating it on our Twitter account. If this is the case, please include in the email a name or alias for its publication on Twitter.
• Limits: each participant can send a maximum of two AstroSciku.
• Selection: three AstroSciku will be selected considering originality, relevance to the topic, and accessibility by the general public. The selection will be done by members of the different teams, will be final, and cannot be reconsidered. The result will be published on 11 February through the project/consortia communication channels. The project will have the right to use the submitted AstroSciku for its communication activities.
• Prize: the first AstroSciku in the list of the three classified will receive a merchandising pack of the projects and public recognition of the author’s ingenuity with the publication of the winner on social networks and the websites of the different projects involved in this activity.

Your participation in this contest implies that you accept all the competition rules.

More information about the International Day of Women and Girls in Science:

• UN Women: www.unwomen.org
• UNESCO: https://en.unesco.org