Session B06: Pursuing Diversity and Inclusion as an Early Career Scientist

Searching for Equilibrium: Integrating EDI in All Phases of a Career

Many graduate students and early career physicists want to succeed in their career and make the physics community more just and equitable.  Often, they are advised to establish themselves in the field before taking on the added responsibilities and time commitments that work in equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) require.  This advice is sound during some periods in a career trajectory, but it is too frequently the only advise given.  For those who want to contribute to EDI efforts, this advice misses the mark and following this advice can lead to dissatisfaction in a physics career.  But there are ways in which folks, no matter their career stage, can navigate the choppy waters of combining their physics with EDI work in rewarding ways.  In this talk, I will present some lessons learned on how this can be done.  First, I will stress the importance of the groundwork each individual has to do in order to work EDI.  This self-education and self-reflection are critical to meaningfully contribute to EDI efforts.  Then I will offer several pathways to EDI work that can be joined when both preparation and time permit. The multiple pathways will point out ways in which one can do EDI work given other boundary conditions that may be present.  Lastly, I will offer some reflections what it means to find equilibrium while working in EDI, as an educator, and as physicist.   

Highlights From Navigating the Industry - as a Immigrant Scientist Mom

In this talk, I will share my career journey across physics, financial services, and tech companies and how my visa status, parenthood (esp. motherhood), and my belonging to the scientific community have shaped my career choices. In the past 7+ years, I have realized the impact of my identity and learnt of resources that are often not well communicated or codified. I would also like to share my thoughts on how we can pursue diversity and inclusion in our fields and organisations as an early career scientist.       

Equity as an Early Career Academic

Like many physical systems, the challenge to make physics more equitable is multiscale. The way in which one perceives and is able to change inequities changes over the early phase of an academic career. These changes reflect the scope of one's academic community, the evolving set of career incentives, and a growing ability to directly influence institutional norms. In this talk we provide a framework for how we engage with equity as early career academics. From this framework, we highlight the ways in which early career academics are uniquely qualified to affect change, and the ways institutions can ensure that these academics continue to be agents for positive change as mid-career scientists.