Providing Opportunity for Women in Summer Physics Research

Wesleyan University, Middletown CT

Investigators

Abstract

Wesleyan University is a small liberal arts institution with modest graduate programs in the sciences. The primary purpose of this is to expose our undergraduates to a faculty and research environment engaged in competitive scholarly research. The eight site stipends provided by this award will help us maintain a tradition of undergraduate participation within this research environment in a unique way: four of the stipends will be offered to women selected from outside of Wesleyan, and four will be offered to our own students, women or men. This accomplishes three things. First, it will open up at least four physics research positions in the northeast area targeted exclusively for women. Second, the internal stipends will provide a stabilizing resource for our own summer research undergraduates, and finally, the emphasis on women will insure a continued visibility to our efforts to recruit women into the physics major.