Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics

This past weekend, over 30 UC Santa Cruz undergraduate physics and astronomy majors participated in the APS Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP, https://www.aps.org/programs/women/workshops/cuwip.cfm). Students traveled to the UC Davis, which was one of twelve sites in North America hosting the conference simultaneously this year. Students enjoyed talked about different physics and astronomy research topics, applying to graduate school, careers in industry, academia, and national labs, among many other topics.

One highlight was the plenary talk by Fabiola Gionotti, the first female Director-General of CERN (https://home.cern), during which we video chatted with her and the 11 other CUWiPs. In addition to learning about the particle physics research conducted at CERN, she told us about her journey to becoming Director-General and the challenges she's faced. She also told us about the demographics of CERN--while many of us imagined CERN as filled by old white men, she dispelled that myth and told us that CERN is about 20% women. She also told us that CERN physicists are from all over the world, and that the mode age of a CERN physicist is only 27, and the median is only 35!

Some UCSC undergrads also had the opportunity to present their research during the poster session, and some UCSC grad students got to serve as panelists. Plus a banquet presentation by UCSC alumna Risa Wechsler, who is now a cosmologist at Stanford/SLAC. So lots of representation by UCSC there, and an excellent way to get to know our fellow female physicists better! Overall, it was a refreshing long weekend to be around so many passionate female physicists. This year, we were fortunate to have financial support for many students to attend this conference from the American Physical Society (APS), the Physics Department, Society of Physics Students (SPS), and Women in Physics and Astronomy (WiPA). Hope everyone had fun, and that there is as much excitement for this conference next year!