Collaborative Research: Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics, January 2012 at Case Westernn Reserve University

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This award provides funding for the Seventh Annual Conferences for Undergraduate Women in Physics and the collection and analysis of data on the impact of these meetings on undergraduate women in physics. Six regional conferences will take place January 13-15, 2012, simultaneously at Stanford University, the University of Washington, Texas A&M University, Yale University, the University of Tennessee, and Case Western Reserve University. Data analysis will be centered at Indiana University. The conferences have two overarching goals: 1) To give undergraduate women the resources, motivation, and confidence to apply to graduate school and to successfully complete a Ph.D. in physics or a related discipline; and 2) To increase awareness by undergraduate women in physics of the wide range of career opportunities available to them. Regional conferences are held simultaneously to maximize student attendance by minimizing travel, to increase the excitement of the participants in a joint national venture, and to allow the interactive simulcast of a keynote address. The conference goals are achieved by providing a series of inspiring talks by female physicists, panel discussions on graduate school and physics careers, student presentation sessions, and ample opportunity for networking and informal mentoring. The success of these goals will be measured by surveys given to students before and after the conferences, as well as by longitudinal studies following the student's post-graduation paths and comparing them with female student cohorts who did not attend the conferences.