This award provides funding for the Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics, a two-day conference for undergraduate women in physics taking place on January 16-17, 2010 simultaneously at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), the Ohio State University (OSU), the North Carolina Research Triangle (NCRT), and Yale University. The conference has two overarching goals. One goal is to give young women the confidence, motivation, and resources to apply to graduate school and successfully complete a Ph.D. in physics or a related discipline. The other goal is to make undergraduate women in physics more aware of the wide range of career opportunities available to them. The conferences will be modeled on previous conferences at the University of Illinois, Urbana (UIUC), University of Michigan, the University of Southern California (USC), and Yale over the past four years. This conference is intended to reach as diverse a group of women in physics as possible, and the organizers are committed to providing access to the conference at minimal cost to the participants to assure that a lack of funds does not discourage participation. This award is supported by the Division of Physics, the Division of Materials Research, and the Division of Astronomical Sciences.
The Yale Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics was held on January 17th and 18th, 2010. The conference, targeted toward undergraduates in the Northeast, was a huge success. It was well attended by both a slate of impressive speakers including Young-Kee Kim, Meg Urry and many interested attendees. Talks were on current research, about issues for women in physics, and on the application process for graduate school. There was also a career panel, student talks, and a student poster session. The conference ran concurrently with conferences in the midwest, southeast, and west coast. Our purpose in creating this conference was to provide a supportive atmosphere for young physicists to connect with peers and with successful women in the field. We hope that from this conference, attendees have become confident and knowledgeable about applying to graduate school and be further inspired to pursue a career in physics. The following describes the conference program, participation and impact, logistics of running the conference and plans for the future. The conference was attended by undergraduate women and men from many regional universities and colleges. A substantial number of the particpants were from four-year undergraduate institutions. The participants attended talks and panels and presented talks and posters. The participants also interacted with the conference speakers and each other during coffee breaks, meals and at the conference hotel. Conference attendees were housed at a local hotel and travel stipends were provided as requested for travel to the conference and for lodging. Meals were provided during the conference. The Conference program covered a broad range of research talks delivered by prominent scientists in the field. As well, there were several talks on women in physics, a career panel, and a graduate student panel. Participants noted that they learned a lot about a broad range of physics research from the research talks. The discussion of women in physics by several speakers was both illuminating and inspiring. Many participants noted that the Career panel and graduate student panel were particularly informative in both opening their eyes to the different options in and outside of academia in physics, as well as the different paths that can be taken to graduate school. The lunches and dinners were well attended by the speakers and Yale faculty where there was ample opportunity for further discussion. Participants were asked to fill out a pre- and post-conference survey. Results of these surveys are being compiled by the Organizing Committee. The Organizing Committee that planned the conference was comprised of Yale undergraduates, graduate students, and two faculty advisors, listed in the Participants list. The range in class of the undergraduates was intentional so as to allow for institutional history in the organization of next year's conference. Substantial support from Yale Conference Services as well as from the Physics department were invaluable in planning the conference. The facilities, video conferencing services, and food catering services available through Yale were also extremely helpful in the running of the conference. In addition to the support recieved through this grant, we recieved support from the following sponsors: The Yale provost, the Yale physics department, the Yale Engineering School, the American Physical Society, and the Yale Women's Faculty Forum. The 2011 Conference rotated to MIT and was re-named the "Northeast Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics". One goal of this and future conferences in general was to make the conference available to anyone who wants to participate. As a result, for the 2011 conference, Yale and MIT cast a broader net and try to accommodate more students; other schools will make a similar effort, depending on their facilities. In order to provide some Institutional History, a committee comprised of the faculty advisors from institutions that have or will host the conference has formed. This committee is chaired by the PI and by Daniela Bortoletto from Purdue University. This committee helps to coordinate the grant process and to choose institutions to hold the conference in each region.
