An Open Letter to Planetary Science Conference Organizers
(If you wish to sign this letter, please use this form. Signatures will be updated periodically.)
Update (July 7, 2021): Following up on plans announced here on June 7, LPI announced today an update to the USRA meeting portal to include unrestricted fields for names and personal pronouns, with usage notes. Registered users can log in and update their information here. We wholeheartedly welcome this initiative, and urge all of our institutions and colleagues to continue to work towards dismantling barriers to full participation by all members of our community.
To: The Universities Space Research Association (USRA), the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), and all other institutions and colleagues who serve as conference organizers.
We sign this letter as members of the planetary science community who are deeply concerned by the database management failures that resulted in the use of incorrect names for some colleagues presenting at the recent Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC21), and prevented other colleagues from being able to register for the meeting.
We understand that technical problems of varying magnitude and impact may occur during any virtual conference; hence, this letter is addressed to all of our institutions and colleagues. We acknowledge and appreciate the responsiveness of colleagues at LPI in addressing the issues that were brought to their attention at LPSC21. However, we remain troubled by the irreversible harm done, and seek assurance and action to make sure that these circumstances do not reoccur.
Situations such as that which occurred at LPSC21 disproportionately harm members of our community who are already marginalized. The misnaming or deadnaming of transgender and non-binary community members is singularly harmful, and places some of the most vulnerable members of our community (particularly colleagues who may not be able to safely disclose their gender identity in all spaces) at a risk of workplace retaliation and/or physical violence. This is unacceptable.
Additionally, those of us with names that are “different” are often repeatedly and multiply-marginalized (by virtue of racial, ethnic, gender and/or national identity, and intersections thereof); this cumulative discrimination can be overwhelming. The use of outdated names in a conference setting can also be a professional barrier for members of our community who may have changed their names due to domestic violence, a change in marital status, or other circumstances.
Respect for one’s colleagues is perhaps the most integral part of “doing science”. It is vital that our professional conferences create and maintain an environment in which our whole selves are welcome and respected. We call on all members of our community to affirm these principles. In particular:
We call on USRA and LPI to:
Identify and correct the technical issues that led to the use of incorrect names for colleagues at LPSC21 and in some cases prevented colleagues from being able to register for the meeting.
Provide clarification to the community regarding the causes of the issues above, affirm that these issues will not recur at future LPI or USRA-hosted meetings, and recognize the barriers that these issues created for members of our planetary science community.
We call on all institutions and colleagues who may serve as conference organizers to:
Regularly test and ensure that registration systems accept and respect all registrants’ names, including names that may use spaces, mixed cases, diacritical marks, or international character sets, and without restriction as to length.
Provide participants with the option to specify personal pronouns, and respect those specified pronouns in the conference setting.
Seek out and incorporate best practices for organizing inclusive professional meetings (whether virtual or in-person), including those discussed in the resources listed below.
Expand conference Codes of Conduct to include not only expectations of conference attendees, but also responsibilities of conference organizers.
We call on all members of the planetary science community to:
Seek out, reflect on, and implement measures (such as those discussed in the resources listed below) to build and sustain a diverse professional community and an inclusive professional environment.
Resources:
The LGBT+ Inclusivity in Physics and Astronomy Guide (in particular, Section 5.3 discusses inclusive conferences).
Relevant white papers submitted to the ongoing Planetary Science & Astrobiology Decadal Survey, including but not limited to those by:
Strauss et al., Nonbinary Systems: Looking towards the future of gender equity in planetary science.
Vander Kaaden et al., Creating Inclusive, Supportive, and Safe Environments in Planetary Science for Members of the LGBTQ+ Community.
Watkins et al., Professional development in the next decade: Supporting opportunities in all career paths and life events.
Recommendations from the 2015 Inclusive Astronomy conference (the Nashville Recommendations).
Sincerely,
(If you wish to sign this letter, please use this form. Signatures will be updated periodically.)
Dr. Parvathy Prem, Staff Scientist, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
Jacob Richardson, Assistant Research Scientist, University of Maryland
Moses Milazzo, Senior Research Scientist, Other Orb LLC
Serina Diniega, Research scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
James H. Roberts, Staff Scientist, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab
Dr. Alyssa Rhoden, Principal Scientist
Evan Sneed, Post-bacc Reseacher, Penn State
Jeffrey Gillis-Davis, Research Professor of Physics, Washington University
Zoe Learner Ponterio, Research Support, SPIF Manager, Cornell University
Jamie L. Molaro, Research Scientist, Planetary Science Institute
Rachel Maxwell, Graduate Student, University of California - Santa Cruz
Barbara Cohen, staff scientist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Simon Kattenhorn, Associate Dean of Math & Natural Sciences and Social Sciences, University of Alaska Anchorage
Emily Lakdawalla, freelance writer and consultant, The Lakdawalla Group, LLC
Daniella DellaGiustina, Research Scientist, University of Arizona
Szilárd Gyalay, graduate student
C. Adeene Denton, Graduate Student, Purdue University
Ali Bramson, Assistant Professor, Purdue University
Rhiannon Mayne, Curator, TCU Monnig Meteorite Collection
Daniella Scalice, Education and Communications Lead, NASA Astrobiology Program, NASA Ames Research Center
James T Haber, Graduate Student, Purdue University
Divya M. Persaud, Postdoc, JPL
Moshammat Mijjum, Graduate Student, Purdue University
Zahra Khan, Aerospace Engineer
Catheryn Ryan, PhD student, University of Western Ontario
Jennifer Scully, Scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
Charity Phillips-Lander, Senior Research Scientist, Southwest Research Institute
Corrie Roe, Project Coordinator, American Museum of Natural History
Michael J Poston, Sr Research Scientist
C. Marshall, Associate Professor, University of Kansas, Department of Geology
Melissa Cashion, Graduate student, Purdue University
Jennifer Piatek, Professor, Central Connecticut State University
Michaela Leung, Graduate Student, University of California, Riverside
Ingrid J. Daubar, Assistant Professor of Research, Brown University
Julie Rathbun, Senior Scientist, Planetary Science Institute
Alicia Rutledge, Assistant Research Professor, Northern Arizona University
James Tuttle Keane, Research Scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Christian Schaller, Software Engineer, Spacecraft Operations, University of Arizona
Steven A. Hauck, II, Professor, Case Western Reserve University
Chris Herd, Professor, University of Alberta
Katelyn Frizzell, Graduate Student, Rutgers University
Nicolle Zellner, Professor of Physics, Albion College
Dr Eleanor Armstrong, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Delaware
Audrie Fennema, Science Payload Operations Engineer, University of Arizona
Cynthia Phillips, Staff Scientist, JPL
Sarah Horst, Associate Professor, Johns Hopkins University
Kristin M. Block, R&D Engineer, The University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory
Rachel Klima, Planetary Scientist
Beck E. Strauss, Research Scientist, NIST & NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Timothy Glotch, Professor, Stony Brook University
Melinda Rucks, Post doc, Princeton University
Amanda Stadermann, Graduate Student, University of Arizona
Maria Steinrueck, Graduate Student, University of Arizona
John Noonan, Graduate Student, University of Arizona
Caela Barry, Outreach and Logistics Coordinator, NASA GSFC / ADNET
Amanda Rudolph, Graduate Student, Purdue University
Maya D. Yanez, Graduate Student, University of Southern California
David A. Williams, Research Professor, School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University
Alejandro Soto, Senior Research Scientist, Southwest Research Institute
Dr. Rajani Dhingra, Postdoctoral Planetary Scientist, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
Mohamed Ramy El-Maarry, Associate Professor
Tina Seeger, Graduate Student, Caltech
Melissa Brucker, Research Scientist, University of Arizona
Ellen Czaplinski, Graduate Student, University of Arkansas
Andrew Rivkin, Staff Scientist, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
Kerri Donaldson Hanna, Assistant Professor, University of Central Florida
Corbin Kling, Postdoc, Smithsonian Institution
Carl Schmidt, Research Scientist, Boston University
Shoshanna Cole, Affiliate Research Scientist, Space Science Institute
Erwin Dehouck, Maître de conférences, LGL-TPE, Université Lyon 1
Nancy Chabot, Staff Scientist, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Alan Whittington, Professor, The University of Texas at San Antonio
David T. Blewett, Staff Scientist
Jessica L. Noviello, NASA Postdoctoral Management Program Fellow, Goddard Space Flight Center
Christian J. Tai Udovicic, Graduate Student, Northern Arizona University
Romy Hanna, Research Associate, University of Texas at Austin
Matija Ćuk, Research Scientist, SETI Institute
Lori Feaga, Associate Research Scientist, University of Maryland
Sarah Lamm, Graduate Student, Kansas State University
Beth Johnson, Communication Specialist, Planetary Science Institute
Justin Cowart, Ph.D. Candidate, Stony Brook University
Eloïse Brown, Graduate student (DPhil), University of Oxford
Vicki Hansen, Professor, University of Minnesota
Devanshu Jha, Researcher/Student
Matthew Fillingim, Associate Research Physicist, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley
Elliot Sefton-Nash, Project Scientist, ESA ESTEC
JA Grier, Senior Scientist, Planetary Science Institute
Melissa Kirven-Brooks, Exobiology Branch, NASA Ames Research Center
Richard Leis, Operations Specialist & Downlink Lead, University of Arizona
Boncho Bonev, Research Associate Professor, American University
David M. Blair, Scientific computing support, Brown University
+1 anonymous signatory