Committee for Participant Diversity
MISSION:
The Committee on Participant Diversity is a standing committee
of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Aspen
Center for Physics. It serves as a resource for the Center's officers,
general members and workshop organizers in order to help the Center fulfill
its goal of increasing participation by physicists belonging to traditionally
under-represented groups.
CURRENT MEMBERSHIP:
Please feel free to contact the committee with questions related
to participant diversity at the Aspen Center for Physics.
SUGGESTIONS FOR WORKSHOP ORGANIZERS
(from past organizers)
Past workshop organizers have tried a variety of approaches. Here
are those reported to have been most effective.
-
advertise the workshop as widely as possible
-
send a workshop announcement to the WIPHYS mailing list wiphys@aps.org.
-
use direct e-mail and phone calls to contact physicists from
under-represented groups (less-established researchers, women, minorities)
-
send follow-up reminder e-mails (or phone calls) as the application
deadline approached
-
consider diversity in constructing the admissions recommendation
list from among the qualified applicants
-
explicitly mention the ACP diversity policy in announcements advertising
the workshop
-
obtain names of active researchers from under-represented groups
by looking at mailing lists from previous conferences in the field and
by asking colleagues for names
-
considering researchers in sub-fields closely related to, but not
100% overlapping with the workshop topic
MORE SUGGESTIONS FOR WORKSHOP ORGANIZERS
(from the diversity committee)
Our overarching suggestion is that you think about recruiting a diverse
applicant pool from the time you begin to identify the participants you
hope to attract to your workshop. Here are some specific tips:
-
Advertise your workshop on the moderated e-mail list called WIPHYS (women-in-physics)
run by the American Physical Society. It reaches about 750 subscribers.
You can send an announcement to the list by simply e-mailing wiphys@aps.org
.
-
If you are contacting your most sought-after potential applicants individually,
consider contacting some of the physicists from under-represented groups
individually; this can be an opportunity to let them know a little about
the Center if they've not attended in the past; some organizers have found
this helps.
- Look at the best practices for recruitment at the APS Minorities in Physics website:
-
In your initial message to potential workshop applicants, include a sentence
mentioning Aspen's daycare.
Otherwise, physicists with young children may assume that attending the
Center just isn't possible for them
Finally, please let the Committee on Participant Diversity know what you
tried and what appeared to help.
SOURCES OF NAMES OF QUALIFIED PHYSICISTS
FROM UNDER-REPRESENTED GROUPS
-
the American Physical Society's lists of Women
and
Minority
(African-American, Hispanic, or Native American) physicists. These are
sorted by field and include some information about specific research interests.
- the APS also maintains a Women Physicist Speakers Bureau; this searchable database includes information on geographic location and research interests. The APS also maintains a mailing list called the Roster of Minorities and Women in Physics that you can pay to use; the APS will send your letter either to the whole list or to a subset you specify (e.g. by field).
-
lists of participants in recent conferences in your field
-
citations of recent winners of grants and awards for
-
faculty at smaller colleges
-
minorities
-
women
-
young investigators
If you have trouble finding appropriate names, contact our committee; we
will either suggest names or put you in contact with a physicist who can
do so.
OTHER RESOURCES:
For more information about Aspen, call (970) 925-2585.