Advocacy

Gladney and Speller publish essays on burnout for #BlackInPhysics week in “Physics Today”

two headshots side-by-side. Yale Physics professor Larry Gladney (who is also the Phyllis Wallace Dean of Diversity and Faculty Development in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences) and former Yale Physics and Wright Lab postdoc Danielle Speller (now an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins) have contributed to a series of essays on burnout that are written by Black physicists and co-published with Physics Today as part of #BlackInPhysics week 2021. Read more.

Heising-Simons Foundation features Yale Physics professors Fleming, Fischer, and Maruyama in 1400 Degrees Website

screenshot of website.

On June 1, the Heising-Simons Foundation announced the launch of the 1400 Degrees website, a robust directory highlighting the extraordinary achievements and contributions of women and marginalized gender identities to the fields of physics and astronomy. The new directory includes Yale Physics professors Debra Fischer, Bonnie Fleming, and Reina Maruyama. Read more.

Yale Physics hosts Kuheli Dutt Seminar on “Addressing Systemic Racism in STEM”

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The Yale Department of Physics and Wright Lab both co-sponsored a lecture given by Dr. Kuheli Dutt of Columbia University on “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Addressing Systemic Racism in STEM”.   Dutt’s lecture is intended to be the first of a series of talks that are part of the Belonging at Yale campus-wide initiative, and was co-hosted by Yale’s Center for Biodiversity and Global Change, the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences Committee on Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Anti-racism, the Department of Physics, Wright Lab, and the Department of Astronomy. Read more.

Maruyama and Gladney give Yale STEM and Social Inclusion lectures

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Reina Maruyama, associate professor in physics, who is also a member of Yale’s Wright Lab, and Larry Gladney, the Phyllis A. Wallace Dean of Diversity and Faculty Development in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and professor of physics, each gave a talk this Spring at Yale’s new STEM and Social Inclusion lecture series, discussing their lives and careers as scientists. According to an article in the Yale Daily News, “the series aims to expose students from underrepresented backgrounds to faculty mentors in STEM with similar backgrounds. Students involved in STEM research are invited to host each event, and are also able to ask the professor questions after their presentation.”  Read more here and here.

Pettee gives advice to women in STEM

drawing of women in stem at Yale Yale Physics and Wright Lab graduate student Mariel Pettee was featured in an article, “Advice to Women in STEM: Mariel Pettee,” in the November 2020 issue of Yale Scientific Magazine. Read more.

Urry advocates for women in science

Yale Physics professor Meg Urry is devoted to increasing the number of women in science and she regularly writes and speaks about this issue in both professional and public venues.  She has chaired the American Astronomical Society’s Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy, and re-invented its newsletters AASWOMEN and STATUS .  She organized the first conference on Women in Astronomy in 1992, which issued the Baltimore Charter, and a decade-later conference at Caltech in 2003, for which she is currently editing the Proceedings. She helped organize the American Physical Society’s 2007 Gender Equity Conference, and was elected a Fellow of the Association of Women in Science in 2006. Read more and see also this Yale Scientific Magazine feature.

Demers’ OpEd on gender bias in TED Blog

Yale Physics and Wright Lab assistant professor Sarah Demers wrote the OpEd The still-tolerated gender bias in science, which was published on the TED Blog through The OpEd Project’s Public Voices Fellowship Program.  An excerpt is below; you can read the full article here

“I just might have the best job in the world. As a particle physicist and professor at Yale, I am a happy cog on the wheel of humanity, trying to understand the universe. I collaborate with brilliant people, young and old, from all over the globe. But while I love my job, the truth is I am part of a system that is rigged.” Read more.

Maruyama chosen by Ingenium to be featured on Women in STEM initiative poster

Yale Physics and Wright Lab professor Reina Maruyama has been chosen by Ingenium to be featured on a poster for their Women in STEM initiative.  According to the Ingenium website, “The Women in STEM initiative by Ingenium is driven to engage, advance and retain the interest of young women in the STEM fields.” The initiative “is a collaborative effort between the three Ingenium museums: Canada Agriculture and Food, Canada Aviation and Space, and Canada Science and Technology and our partners to support the engagement, advancement and furtherance of women in STEM.”

Ingenium’s “stories of Women in STEM” posters are available for download on their website for classrooms, community centers, or workplaces. 

See archived Advocacy postings here.