To recruit and retain talented diverse students and faculty in physics, we must build a community that embraces everyone, regardless of background or identity. We have been working on that through several initiatives, including sending our students to Physics conferences focused on research and identity and with our celebration of diverse physicists from Syracuse.

National Meetings for Students

Students from historically excluded groups including Black, Latino, Indigenous groups and women often have trouble finding community in physics. Although Syracuse Physics has higher than national averages of these groups, it is important for them to be given opportunities to meet even more peers and near peers that share their identity and background. To that end, several national societies and conferences are devoted to helping students from these groups come together and find community among physicists. In 2022-2023, Syracuse Physics supported the travel and registration of groups of students to attend these meetings.

Syracuse Physics Students at the National Society of Black Physicists Conference, November 2022.

National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP) Meeting. The 2022 National Society of Black Physicists met in Charlottesville, VA November 6-9. The Syracuse Physics Department supported the membership, registration and per diem expenses for a contingent of four students to the NSBP meeting: Ariana Martin and Charles Drew (undergraduate Physics majors) and Matthew Adefisoye and Wally Borden (first year PhD students).

Syracuse Physics Students at the Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics Meeting, January 2023.

Conference for Women In Physics (CUWIP) Meeting. The Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics is a national meeting with a distributed regional model. All the meetings are held around the country at the same time with a remote keynote that is broadcast to all the meetings. The New York region was held in Ithaca, NY – jointly hosted by Cornell University and Ithaca College. Syracuse physics supported the travel and registration for 6 undergraduates (Xinning Li, India Aikens, Emerson Long, Corinne Motl, Louise Fancher, Jenna Cammerino) and 2 graduate student chaperones (Lauren Mackey and Bridget Mack) to attend the conference.

I am a physicist

In summer 2022, prior to the SURPh summer high school program starting, Professor Jen Schwarz designed new “I Am A Physicist” posters to celebrate the black physicists who have graduated from Syracuse University Physics. These posters were hung in the stairwells and in the hallway in front of Stolkin Auditorium. When our alumni come back to visit, I try to get a picture of them with their posters! We are consistently adding more and updating them.

I am a Physicist posters for Dr. Vincent Rodgers and Dr. Tav Hawkins.