DFG Research Unit (Forschungsgruppe) FOR 5195 – Relativistic Jets in Active Galaxies

Equality, Diversity and Family Friendliness

Gender equality and a workforce as diverse as human society are not reached yet in astronomy. Treating people with equity fosters a supportive and safe professional environment in which a diverse workforce can bring their ideas and knowledge together to further research. For this reason, we strive to implement equality, diversity and family friendliness into our members’ everyday work routine and hope that this can echo back into society.

In particular, we are working on the following:

  • To achieve higher inclusion in academia, we aim to attract a more diverse workforce and especially scientists from under-represented groups.
  • For recruitment, we want to achieve a female/male ratio as close to 50 % as possible.
  • We reinforce the qualifications of young female researchers.
  • We aim to increase the number of female researchers at the project-lead level.
  • The working conditions within the research unit are to be family friendly and reconcilable with a healthy work-life balance.
  • We conduct workshops to educate the majorities demographic so that they become aware of the challenges faced by the minority and to educate the minorities demographic so that they feel empowered, inspired, connected. During this, it is indispensable to provide a safe, compassionate, understanding space for minorities/women to speak up and share their experiences and ideas.
  • Another goal is to provide appropriate vocabulary, concepts, thought-provoking questions for reflection, for facing challenges and to engage in discussions on the topic.

As part of the research unit 5195 an equality committee was formed to organise equality measures, to plan workshops and to monitor the accomplishment of the above mentioned action items and equality in general within the research unit.
Members of the equality committee are Anne-Kathrin Baczko, Christoph Wendel and Léna Jlassi.
Any member of our research unit who has experienced systematic inequality, discrimination or disadvantage is encouraged to express her or his problem to one or several members of the equality committee. Together, it might be possible to alleviate or solve the raised problem.

Further information, in particular a general overview and assessment about measures for equal opportunities and family friendliness and a form to submit ideas, problems or suggestions can be found on this material page.

Radio maps of PKS 1510-089
The radio jet of PKS 1510-089 in different scales. The left-hand side panel (VLA, 5.0 GHz, cf. O’Dea et al., 1988) shows the jet on arcsecond scales, while the zoomed-in panels (VLBA & VLA Y1, 1.7 GHz & 5.0 GHz) show the jet on milliarcsecond scales. The jet of this flat-spectrum radio quasar is well aligned with our line of sight. Consequently, an intrinsic bend in the jet of few 10° appear as a nearly 180° rotating of the position angle (marked by the arrow). A recent dramatic decrease of the optical polarisation of this object is topic of ongoing research, also by research unit members. Credit: Daniel C. Homan et al. “PKS 1510-089: A Head-on View of a Relativistic Jet” 2002 ApJ 580 742, © AAS. Reproduced with permission.
Star field sector of the constellation Libra with PKS 1510-089 marked
PKS 1510-089, marked by the green arrow in this star field (side length is about 10 arcminutes) of the Digitized Sky Survey, is located in the constellation Libra (weighing scales). The balance was already known in Babylonian astronomy and since antiquity it is a symbol for equality, fairness, law or civility.