APS CUWiP: Supporting the Success of All Undergraduate Women in Physics

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This award to the American Physical Society supports the continued growth and improvement of the Conferences for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP), held annually since 2006. The goals of the CUWiP effort are to increase retention and improve career outcomes of undergraduate women in physics by (i) communicating the breadth of education and career paths open to physics majors; (ii) disseminating information and advice on applying for summer research, graduate school and professional employment; and (iii) providing opportunities to share experiences, advice and ideas with women at different stages of their education or career paths. The CUWiP goals will be achieved by providing (i) inspiring talks by female physicists, (ii) workshops and panel discussions on summer research, graduate school, physics careers, professional development, and issues facing minority women in physics, (iii) student presentations or poster sessions, and (iv) opportunities for networking and informal mentoring.CUWiP aims to broaden the participation of women in physics by providing information, resources, networks and motivation to pursue advanced degrees and/or careers in physics. The broad geographic distribution of the conferences maximizes access to the conferences and facilitates recruitment of students from underrepresented minority groups and from local community colleges. Local conference organization provides opportunities for students and postdocs to engage directly in broadening participation in science. The proposed activities will enable the organizers to probe how these conferences facilitate networking and improve participants’ attitudes concerning self-efficacy and identity as physicists. The results of the proposed annual assessments will be used to improve the effectiveness of the conferences.This project is supported jointly by two divisions of NSF's Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate: the Division of Physics and the Division of Materials ResearchThis award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.