Purpose

Prof. Asta Pellinen-Wannberg organized the first workshop for Women in Radio Science at the Second URSI Atlantic Radio Science Conference (AT-RASC 2018) held in Gran Canaria, Spain. The workshop and seminar presentation by Dr. Anthea Coster on the life of Lise Meitner were a great success. Dr. Meitner was a co-discoverer of the nuclear fusion of uranium in 1939, but was denied a portion of the Nobel Prize which went to her male co-worker. Dr. Meitner was not the only woman to be denied recognition of her scientific discoveries in a male-dominated environment; as another example, Dr. Jocelyn Burnell discovered the first radio pulsar while a graduate student in 1967, but the Nobel Prize for that discovery was awarded solely to her academic advisor.

Prof. P.L.E. (George) Uslenghi and Prof. Sembian Regarajan invited Dr. Anthea Coster to repeat her seminar lecture at the 2019 National Radio Science Meeting in Boulder, Colorado and that resulted in the creation of the first national chapter of WIRS in the USA, the first among all URSI member countries. The URSI Board later decided to provide organizational and financial incentives for the creation and operation of such WIRS chapters.

Prof. Pat Doherty, the second female URSI Vice-President, played a vital role in the expansion of science education in developing countries, and worked tirelessly to increase the participation of women in global navigation satellite systems and space science research.

Prof. Sana Salous is the current Chair of the URSI Women in Radio Science committee. During the URSI GASS in Sapporo in August 2023 she organized four technical sessions and a meeting to discuss how WIRS can be further promoted in URSI activities and leading technical conferences. The technical sessions included a session organized with Commission G ‘Tribute to Pat Doherty’. Another session of invited speakers was organized with commissions G, D, J, E and H, and two other technical sessions were organized with Commissions A, C and F. During the GASS there were 91 Young Scientists awardees with 28 women who attended the GASS and 3 who were unable to attend.
During AT-RASC 2024 2 from the 5 General Lecturers were female scientists and Prof. Salous organized a WIRS committee session and a WIRS reception.

A lot of work needs to be done before women can achieve full equality with men, especially in many parts of the world. URSI invites all female radio scientists to actively participate in this evolutionary process. True sustainable development can only be achieved if women unite to advance a common cause. Radio Science leads to many exciting careers for young women.

WIRS Chapters

USNC-URSI considers the WIRS Chapter much the same as any of the ten USNC-URSI Commissions, in that the Chapter has Officers and members.

Currently the following URSI Member Committees have set up a WIRS Chapter:

• CHINA (CIE)
• Portugal
• Italy

Activities