Prof. Jordan A. Goodman, Chair, Physics Department

By Jordan A. Goodman,
Physics Chair

Dear Readers,

A few weeks ago, I attended a meeting of the chairpersons from the top 25 physics departments in the nation. This is an excellent opportunity for all of us to get together, compare notes and talk about issues that we are all facing. This year, one of the topics we discussed was the significant lack of women and minorities studying and working in physics.

The American Institute of Physics (AIP) provided us with some truly alarming numbers. As of 2001, women earned only 23 percent of all bachelor degrees in physics awarded. In 2000, African Americans earned only 4.4 percent of all bachelor degrees and Hispanic Americans earned only 3.8 percent. The AIP's numbers for Ph.D. students are even worse. In the last 27 years, of the 33,100 doctorate degrees awarded in the US, only 236 of them were awarded to African Americans and only 413 to Hispanic Americans.

One of the problems that we face with minority recruitment is that so few women and minorities prepare for a physics education from the time they are young. For example, for just five percent of our incoming class of graduate students to be African American, we would have to enroll every African Americans that took the GRE for Physics in the United States this year.

So, we need to attack this problem in two ways. First, we have to make sure that the nation's top prospective minority students hear from us and that we show them the great opportunities that UM Physics has to offer. Second, to grow the pool of women and minority applicants, we need to introduce these prospective students to the exciting field of physics from the time they are young.

I am very proud of the outreach programs that we already have in place and thankful to the many people that make them happen. Physics is Phun, successfully run by Dr. Berg for more than 20 years, travels to high schools throughout the region and uses our world-class lecture demonstration tools to introduce teens to the exciting world of physics. The Materials Research Science & Engineering Center coordinates numerous successful programs that introduce children and teens to physics, including the Summer Girls Program, the GK-12 Program and the Home School Program. Also, several of our faculty use relationships with professional organizations such as the National Society of Black Physicists to recruit top minority students. Faculty also serve on national committees such as the American Physical Society's Committee on the Status of Women in Physics, working toward solutions to these recruitment issues.

However, as the numbers clearly indicate, we still need to do more. First, we must change the way we recruit. We need to give each prospective student, including our women and minority applicants, a level of personal attention that separates us from other quality research universities. This type of attention includes guidance through the application, scholarship and financial aid processes, mentorship from faculty that specialize in the student's area of interest, peer advice on everything from housing to courses to local hangouts from current students and, most of all, a warmhearted welcome to the Maryland Physics family from every one of us. Making a student feel at home even before his/her first day is key to attracting a diverse group of top students, both at the graduate and the undergraduate level. Further, we must make sure that once students come that they have a great experience in our department (and at the University of Maryland).

Also, as we identify recruitment opportunities, we need to make sure that we do not forget prospects such as meetings of the National Society of Hispanic Physicists, workshops for women in physics and visits to historically black colleges and universities (HBCU). (Most of the African American physics students in this country from HBCUs).

While I believe that our outreach to children and teenagers is better than most, we can always do more. During the last few years, I have traveled to public high schools of Maryland, DC, Virginia and New York to tell these students about the many places they can go with a degree in physics and what a great program the University of Maryland has to offer. However, if we expand this effort by enlisting the help of many other faculty members, I believe that we could significantly increase the impact on our area teenagers, including women and minorities, and the number of quality prospective physics undergraduates at the University of Maryland in the years to come.

If you would like to volunteer to help with one of the existing programs like Physics is Phun or the Physics Olympics, please contact Dr. Richard Berg at reberg@physics.umd.edu. If you would like to volunteer to help with outreach to area high schools or if you have thoughts or ideas about additional programs and activities that we can implement to show kids and teens the many exciting opportunities physics has to offer, please stop by my office or contact me at goodman@umdgrb.umd.edu.

The AIP's statistics are alarming, but with the help of faculty, students and staff, we can do something to make a change.

Sincerely,

Jordan A. Goodman
Chair, Physics Department