Session M45: Breaking Barriers in Physics

(Re)writing Authority and Intelligence in ScienceMarilu Chiofalo

OCSE-PISA data provide a story-telling about the different school performances of adolescents girls and boys in STEM disciplines. From the latest She Figures data, progresses are measured on gender equality in research and innovation, though there is still a long way to go. Stories about women in science and technology, as published in magazines and social networks, are yet often soaked in bold and subtle stereotypes. 

A number of complex questions are induced from these observations: Are they generated by society-driven stereotypes and discriminations. How this can happen in science too, that proceeds with quantitative measurements and fact checking? What do such stereotypes imply and why is their removal important?

However, a look at facts with a magnifying glass unveils otherwise hidden details, so that we are led to ask: are we looking at the useful observations and asking the useful questions? Is there a women-way in science? Why are we urgently asking all these (important) questions now?

I will elaborate on this while taking inspiration from female scientists stories, and after combining the transformative powers of scientific thinking and of the Labodif School on symbolic male-female difference. While reformulating optimal queries and crumbling the complex questions into simpler pieces, a shift of paradigm will emerge from what-to-do to foster a society transformation, to how-to-do it. In so doing, the way we look at reality will never be like before.    

Organizing communities in a crowd: from protein folding in vitro to hierarchical assembly in vivo

Inside a cell, heterotypic proteins organize in inhomogeneous, crowded systems where the abundance of these proteins varies with cell types.  While some protein complexes form putative structures that can be visualized with imaging, far more protein complexes with subunits are yet to be solved because of their dynamic associations. I will share my journey in the interdisciplinary field of biological physics. On the research track, I propose to model protein assemblies through the constraints of interactions among the subunits and the chemical potential of each subunit, continuing my lifelong passion to understand what matters to proteins making them the building blocks of living matter. On the career track, I will share my stories about what matters to me when I build a fulfilling work and life.

    

Invited Talk: Kelli Hendrickson: "Women in Fluids: Stories of How We Persevere, Survive, and Thrive"

I will showcase The Stories of the Women in Fluids Initiative's effort to recruit and retain women into the field of fluid dynamics through the power of storytelling. At the heart of our book lies the powerful theme of 'Persevere, Survive, and Thrive,' which captures the remarkable career trajectories of the women featured in its pages. The book illuminates the complex social, economic, and cultural factors shaping women's engineering experiences. It also inspires other minorities to learn from the successes and failures of these women. The stories celebrate women's strength and resilience while acknowledging their challenges. The book emphasizes the importance of mentorship and support and encourages readers to build a strong network of female mentors and role models. Authored by female scientists and engineers who cover a wide spectrum of career stages and experiences, the stories in this book share how they are navigating their scientific careers. In this talk, I will share select biographies and excerpts of stories of contributing authors to give an overview of the breadth of the stories of women in fluids.   

Navigating and Celebrating Strongly Correlated, Disordered Landscapes

In condensed matter physics, interactions between individuals and disorder give rise to fascinating phenomena such as collective behavior, localization, and emergence. Here, I will trace two parallel journeys in my explorations in this branch of physics. On the research path, I will share the story of a decades-long hunt for emergent fractional particles and its recent culmination. On the career path, I will share the joys and challenges of navigating the academic landscape. Throughout, I will reflect on the inspiration drawn from incredible women in Physics, including those featuring in two special events in this meeting related to a staged reading of the play 'Delicate Particle Logic' and to 2023 Nobel Science.'   

Flat Bands in Flatlands: Correlated Phenomena in 2D Materials

In a flat band, the electronic interactions dominate, leading to emergent correlated phases such as superconductivity and charge density waves. The advent of flatlands, i.e. two-dimensional (2D) materials provide us with unprecedented opportunities to design and engineer flat bands via stacking, magnetic fields, and twisting. Here I will discuss our works in this area, such as superconductivity, magnetism, and quantum parity Hall effect in few-layer and twisted bilayer graphene.