This award provides funding for the Seventh Annual Conferences for Undergraduate Women in Physics and the collection and analysis of data on the impact of these meetings on undergraduate women in physics. Six regional conferences will take place January 13-15, 2012, simultaneously at Stanford University, the University of Washington, Texas A&M University, Yale University, the University of Tennessee, and Case Western Reserve University. Data analysis will be centered at Indiana University.
The conferences have two overarching goals: 1) To give undergraduate women the resources, motivation, and confidence to apply to graduate school and to successfully complete a Ph.D. in physics or a related discipline; and 2) To increase awareness by undergraduate women in physics of the wide range of career opportunities available to them. Regional conferences are held simultaneously to maximize student attendance by minimizing travel, to increase the excitement of the participants in a joint national venture, and to allow the interactive simulcast of a keynote address. The conference goals are achieved by providing a series of inspiring talks by female physicists, panel discussions on graduate school and physics careers, student presentation sessions, and ample opportunity for networking and informal mentoring. The success of these goals will be measured by surveys given to students before and after the conferences, as well as by longitudinal studies following the student's post-graduation paths and comparing them with female student cohorts who did not attend the conferences.
The Fifth Annual Midwest Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics was held January 13-15, 2012, at Case Western Reserve University, one of six conferences held simultaneously across the country for undergraduate women in physics. 120 participants from 43 institutions of higher education throughout the Midwest attended the conference. Activities included talks by prominent female physicists, a poster session at which undergraduate attendees presented the results of their research, panel and breakout sessions to provide information and address issues about applying to and being successful in graduate school, career opportunities in physics, and other issues connected with career choices, and opportunities to network with peers and role models. The first day of the two-day conference included, for the first time in the seven-year history of the conferences, a program designed for high school students to combine some of the conference activities with activities designed especially for the high school students. The attendees contributed pre- and post-conference surveys to the longitudinal study of the efficacy of the conferences in reaching their goals to foster a culture in which undergrduate women are encouraged and supported to pursue and to succeed in higher education in physics and to make informed decisions about pursuing careers in physics and related fields.
