Speaker
Description
The number of physics and astronomy bachelor’s and doctoral degrees earned in the US continues to increase. However, the degrees earned by underrepresented minority (URM) groups continues to be a small percentage and is on a downward trend for Black/African American students.
National societies such as the American Physical Society (APS) and the American Institute of Physics (AIP) have acknowledged there must be action taken to improve the situation. APS has started the National Mentoring Network, the APS Bridge Program, sponsored the CUWiP conferences, and published the LGBT climate in physics report. AIP has recently launched the TEAM-UP Task Force to investigate the reasons for the persistent underrepresentation of African American undergraduate students in physics and astronomy.
In this talk, I will recap levels of representation in physical sciences, discuss current national efforts and outline some initiatives at the University of Michigan aimed to improve diversity and inclusion in physics.
