Session C01: Breaking Barriers in Physics

Breaking Barriers in the 2023 Long Range Plan for Nuclear Science

Since 1979, DOE and NSF support for Nuclear Science in the USA has been guided by a national long-range planning exercise led by the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee, producing a Long Range Plan approximately every seven years. For the first time in over four decades of such planning, the major recommendations laid out in "A New Era of Discovery: the 2023 Long Range Plan for Nuclear Science" included measures to further equity and inclusion and remove barriers to full participation in Nuclear Science. The community had emphasized the need for such measures in Town Halls organized by the APS DNP, and in white papers. To further hone the recommendations, surveys of faculty and the graduate student community were performed. The input gathered, and proposals related to increasing the nuclear science workforce and reducing barriers to participation by all members of society will be presented.   

Women who help shape the future of US particle and nuclear physics

In recent years, there have been major community physics planning events in both particle and nuclear physics, where many women played significant roles; they were “Snowmass 2021”^1 and Nuclear Physics Long Range Plan (LRP)^2. Snowmass 2021, the US Community Study on the Future of Particle Physics, was a grassroots study to plan for US particle physics in the upcoming decade 2025-2035, organized by the APS Division of Particles and Fields. It began with a kick-off meeting at the 2020 APS April Meeting and a Community-Wide Planning Meeting in October of 2020, paused between January and September 2021 due to the COVID pandemic and finally concluded at the Community Summer Study meeting at the University of Washington in July 2022. The US nuclear-physics community also conducted a community-wide workshop and study that led to the 8th long-range plan published by NSAC since 1979: “A New Era of Discovery: The 2023 Long-Range Plan for Nuclear Science”. This new document provides a roadmap for advancing the nation's nuclear-science research programs over the next decade. The plan highlights scientific opportunities in nuclear physics today to maintain world leadership in the context of four different budget scenarios and details progress since the last long-range plan. The document also features the impact of nuclear science on other fields and applications of the research that benefit society.

In this talk, we will be presenting interviews^3 with a few women in both particle and nuclear physics who were conveners for the “Snowmass 2021” study and town-hall meeting organizers for the 2023 Long-Range Plan, whose contributions led to the final products for the community. In these interviews, they share their passion for their research, their interests and hobbies outside of research, what got them interested in physics, obstacles they overcame, and provide tips and suggestions for students who may be interested in studying physics and becoming physicists.

[1] Snowmass, the US particle physics planning community https://snowmass21.org/

[2] Nuclear-Science Advisory Committee Long Range Plan (LRP) “A New Era of Discovery: The 2023 Long Range Plan for Nuclear Scienc https://science.osti.gov/np/nsac/Reports

[3] “My Journey as a Physicist” Podcast https:/sites.google.com/msu.edu/phy480905/   

Mid-Act: A report from the workshop on mid career women in large physics collaborations

The challenges facing mid-career women are strikingly similar across different collaborations and subfields in particle physics, nuclear physics and astronomy. Many mid-level leadership positions come with large workloads with significant travel requirements, but final decision making is deferred to senior leaders, who are disproportionately male. In the US, women academics in mid career are promoted later than their male counterparts and are more likely to leave academia. Earlier this year, the first workshop on the specific concerns of mid-career women in large physics collaborations was held in Knoxville Tennessee. In this talk I will summarize the findings of this workshop and offer profiles of some of the attendees.   

Building community through centering ethics, society, policy, and activism in physics spaces

Although physicists have responsibility and play key roles in societal change, these opportunities and connections are often minimized. In classroom and department spaces, the omission of these conversations perpetuates the myth that physics is purely objective and removed from societal impact and influence to incoming generations of scientists. This messaging misrepresents the messy social aspects of science and can discourage those who are looking to use their careers for social good from pursuing physics (most often women and students of color). As a physics education researcher, I focus on developing and understanding the impacts of curricula around ethics, society, and policy conversations in science classrooms. I will share some of this research, as well as my own experiences feeling seen and finding community among activists in physics spaces.