This past weekend, twelve undergraduates from the Yale Women in Physics (WiP) group traveled to New York City to attend one of the fourteen American Physical Society Conferences for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP). They attended workshop sessions covering subjects like facing adversity during their academic or industry careers, and had the opportunity to ask the panelists about their experiences, applying their physics degrees to various career experiences.
The keynote speaker this year was Dr. Jocelyn Bell Burnell, a distinguished woman in physics that is credited with inadvertently discovering pulsars during her graduate study at Cambridge. Attendees heard firsthand what this verification process was like and how as one of just a few women in her physics program she faced discrimination throughout her academic career. Attendees also heard from Dr. Alice Bean, a distinguished professor from Kansas University, and Dr. Julianne Dalcanton, an astrophysicist specializing in the origins of galaxies and stars. Dr. Bean recounted her time in experimental particle physics working on the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), the necessary collaborative aspects of science, and her mission to make particle physics more accessible to younger audiences through online games and animations. Dr. Dalcanton also described her career journey, particularly explaining the extensive surveying she led on the Hubble Space Telescope and how her initial struggles with writing did not stop her from pursuing and receiving many grants.
Between talks and panels, all the group members took time to meet peers from other universities. Connecting with other attendees and hearing about their myriad, unique paths and passions in the field was an eye-opening experience.
Several of our department’s attendees commented on their favorite part of the conference: Rachel Merrill, ‘24 commented, “My favorite part was presenting my research poster and talking to so many undergrads who were interested in my project and had great questions!”.
Quite a few enjoyed Dr. Bell Burnell’s talk, Anavi Uppal, ‘24 commented, “My favorite part was Dr. Bell Burnell’s talk! Super cool to hear about her pulsar discovery process, the roadblocks she faced due to being a woman in science, and hearing how she battled through it.” This sentiment was echoed by Sofia Fausone, ‘24. Tally Vaneman, ‘27 added, “My favorite parts were Dr. Bell Burnell’s talk and the LGBTQ panel on Sunday! I also loved getting to see everyone’s research at the poster session!” Continuing with this theme, Silvia Wang, ‘27 stated, “I also really like Dr. Bell Burnell’s talk and the LGBTQ panel. The poster session was also really fun, if a bit of a squeeze!”.
Annie Giman, ‘24 stated, “My favorite part was bonding with everyone in yale WiP+!”; Amanda Huang, ‘27 who said, “My favorite parts were the panel talks and the Empire State Building!”; Hannah Adamski, ‘24 said, “My favorite part was learning about some of the incredibly unique experiences some of the guest panelists faced when they began pursuing a career in physics as well as Dr. Bell Burnell’s talk.”; and Nicole Liang, ‘27 added, “I really enjoyed the ‘Dealing with Being a Woman in Physics’ panel; they were all so honest about their experiences and it was inspiring how they navigated them.”
The group also mentioned how cool the opportunity was to visit the top of the Empire State Building as many of them were visiting New York City for the first time in addition to spending time while at an event that emphasizes how important it is to build your community of support!!
See below for links to the APS CUWiP at CUNY page as well as to an album of photos taken by attendees.