Physicists for Inclusion in Science ("PhIS", pronounced "fizz") grew out the "Women in Physics" group. We support members of underrepresented groups as they pursue their careers. The group meets several times a term for discussion and to organize events and activities. The group consists of students, faculty and staff in the physics department, alumni and other physicists on campus or in the community. The student members formally constitute the OSU student club, "Physicists for Inclusion in Science".
CUWiP
The Women in Physics group hosted the 2016 Conference on Undergraduate Women in Physics, sponsored by APS/NSF/DoE.
Applications are now open through October 23, 2023, at 5:00 p.m. ET. The OSU physics department will organize and pay for travel to and from the conference and CUWiP will provide lodging and meals while you are away.
If you are interested in attending, please reach out to the CUWiP liaison, Rebecka Tumblin, so that she can assist with the application process and support your travel to and from the conference.
CUWiP will bring together successful physicists who identify as women or gender minorities and over 2000 undergraduate women in physics to highlight career opportunities for and contributions of women in physics. The meeting will provide ample opportunities for interacting with fellow physicists. The conference will include the following activities:
- Presentations by professional physicists on their cutting-edge research and personal career paths;
- Panels featuring career opportunities outside academia;
- Workshops and panels offering guidance on how to get involved in summer research, the graduate school application process, applying to transfer to a four-year college from a community college, and preparing for and applying for jobs in industry;
- An opportunity for undergraduate attendees to present their research;
The keynote presentation will be given by Dr. Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford. She was responsible for the discovery of pulsars while a radio astronomy graduate student at Cambridge and has subsequently worked in gamma ray, X-ray, infrared and millimeter wavelength astronomy.
Current officers
The 2024/25 officers are
- President: Natalie Rodgers
- Vice-President: Madalyn Gragg
- Treasurer: Kyle Gourlie
- Secretary: Morgan Sylvia
- Graduate Liaison: Roshell Lamug
Email them at phis-officers@physics.oregonstate.edu.
Faculty
Oregon State University's Physics Department currently has eight women faculty members, Liz Gire, Kathy Hadley, Patti Hamerski, Doris Li, Oksana Ostroverkhova, Danielle Skinner, Heidi Schellman (former Head of the Department) and Rebecka Tumblin. Many of our faculty were born and raised outside of the U.S., so reflect several cultures from Asia, America and Europe, but we acknowledge that we have no black, hispanic or other minority faculty members. We have cutting-edge research and state-of the-art equipment in the department, and we foster students' professional development in every way we can. The department has a novel upper-division physics curriculum, the Paradigms in Physics program, directed by Corinne Manogue. This program emphasizes the unity of physics and implements active engagement and group problem-solving. Our introductory courses also use active engagement methods and we have a Studio Physics version of the introductory course. Our department encourages and fosters the ambition of women and minorities in physics, and offers exciting forefront research opportunities that can lead to varied and interesting careers. The College of Science and the Department of Physics have been proactive in recruiting women faculty, and dual hires are common.
Graduate Students
We have about 45 graduate students, who pursue research towards Ph.D. or M.S. degrees in experimental or theoretical solid state physics, atomic, molecular and optical physics, biophysics, astrophysics, computational physics, or physics education. Classes from other departments such as Mathematics, Engineering, Chemistry, Oceanography, Science Education, may be incorporated into the graduate physics program. About 20% of the graduate students are women.
Undergraduate Students
We award about 30 B.S. degrees in Physics each year. Our Paradigms in Physics curriculum is innovative and fun. Students learn to think about physics the way professionals do. We use many different pedagogies such as group activities, integrated laboratories, computer visualization. There is a strong cohort and the atmosphere is very supportive. There are opportunities for research - all students complete a senior thesis. Recent OSU graduates are enrolled in graduate schools all over the country: Arizona State University, Princeton, UCLA, U. C. Santa Cruz, University of New Mexico, Washington State University, University of Washington, and Cornell. Others have jobs in high tech industry: Hewlett Packard, FEI, Cascade Microtech, to name a few in Oregon. Undergraduates have an opportunity to be learning assistants or teaching assistants in our introductory and some upper-division courses.
Other local diversity in science programs
- OSU Engineering
- OSU Chemistry
- University of Oregon Women in Graduate Sciences group
- University of Oregon Women in Physics group
Information for and about minorities & women in science and technology
- National Society of Black Physicists
- National Society of Hispanic Physicists
- Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science
- APS Minorities in Physics
- APS Committee on the Status of Minorities in Physics
- APS Women in Physics
- APS Committee on the Status of Women in Physics (CSWP)
- The IUPAP Working group on Women in Physics has sponsored several international conferences on Women in Physics
- IoP report Institute of Physics (UK) 2006 report on Women in University Physics Departments
- AIP statistics on minorities
- AIP statistics on women
- AWIS Association for Women in Science
- AAUW American Association of University Women
- Physicists of the African Diaspora
- 4000 years of women in science
Fellowships and scholarships
- OSU's Graduate School, has information about fellowships.
- AAUW Educational Foundation, Fellowships and Grants. Several fellowships and grants are available for women in doctoral and post-doctoral studies for advanced study nationally and internationally. Deadlines vary.
- Zonta International Amelia Earhart & Women in Technology Fellowships
- NSF Graduate Fellowships
- Graduate Fellowships for STEM Diversity
Employment
Physicists are extraordinarily versatile and have found careers from the traditional ones in industry and academia to those in finance, medicine, law, policy and many other fields. Talk to faculty members, graduate students who are currently seeking jobs, and search the internet. Personal contact is important, and resume posting services can be very helpful. More detailed information for undergraduates is here.
Job postings
The Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a great place to live. Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA have a large density of high-tech employers, and Corvallis has Hewlett-Packard Company's largest research center outside of California, along with many smaller technical companies.
National labs
National labs are required to post open jobs - sometimes these postings are hidden in subdivision pages.
Bits and pieces
The 2021 president of the American Physical Society, Sylvester James Gates, Jr, became the second African American, after Homer Neal (2016), to lead the professional organization.
APS has had 6 women presidents since its founding in 1899
- Frances Hellman (2022)
Laura Greene (2017) - Cherry A. Murray (2009)
- Helen Quinn (2004)
- Myriam Sarachik (2003)
- Mildred Dresselhaus (1984)
- and Chien-Shiung Wu (1975).
The Chief Executive Officer of APS from 2015–2020 was Kate Kirby.
Ginger Kerrick, a physicist and NASA's first Hispanic female flight director, gave the address at the 2016 CUWiP conference.
Here's an interview with laser physicist Margaret Murnane, MacArthur "Genius" Award winner in 2000. Murnane is one of several women physicists to have won a MacArthur award.
Others are
- Helen T. Edwards (1988)
- Margaret Geller (1990)
- Eva Silverstein (1999)
- Lene Hau (2001)
- Deborah Jin (2003)
- Xiaowei Zhuang (2003)
- Andrea Ghez (2008)
- Michal Lipson (2010)
- Nergis Mavalvala (2010)
- Ana Maria Rey (2013)
- Sara Seager (2013)
- Danielle Bassett (2014)
- Monika Schleier-Smith (2020)
Four women are Nobel laureates in physics
- Marie Sklodowska Curie (1903, also Chemistry 1911)
- Maria Goeppert-Meyer (1963)
- Donna Strickland (2018)
- and Andrea Ghez (2020)
Previous PhIS Officers
2023-2024
- Connor Haley Miles (President)
- Phoebe Andromeda (Vice President)
- Diego Menendez (Treasurer)
- Claire Swartz (Secretary)
2021–2023
- Georgia Carroll (President)
- Abbie Glickman (Vice President)
- Christian Solorio (Treasurer)
- Cameron Clonch (Secretary)
- Advisor: Janet Tate
2020–2021
- Kasey Yoke (President)
- Noah Vaughan (Vice President)
- Christian Solorio (Treasurer)
- Georgia Carroll (Secretary)
- Advisor: Davide Lazzati
2019–2020
- Acacia Patteson (President)
- Gina Mayonardo (Vice President)
- Abbie Glickman (Treasurer)
- Mattia Carbonara (Secretary)
- Advisor: Davide Lazzati
2018–2019
- MacKenzie Lenz (President)
- Kelby Hahn (Vice President)
- Mike Vignal (Treasurer)
- Mattia Carbonara (Secretary)
- Advisor: Liz Gire
2017–2018
- MacKenzie Lenz (President)
- Kelby Hahn (Vice President)
- Jess Armstrong (Treasurer)
- Maggie Lewis (Secretary)
- Advisor: Janet Tate
2016–2017
- Allison Gicking (President)
- Nicole Quist (Vice President)
- Jess Armstrong (Treasurer)
- Heather Hill (Secretary)
- Advisor: Janet Tate
