My experiences at the Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics

Now in its 12th year, the Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP) is a set of three-day conferences held simultaneously at 10 locations across the US and Canada. The CUWiP program brings together undergraduate women who are interested in physics to network, share experiences, and learn about graduate school and career opportunities. My university, UCLA, hosted the 2017 Western Regional CUWiP on 13–15 January.

The mission statement for CUWiP@UCLA was “Our differences are valuable.” The conference featured talks by exceptional women from a wide range of career and personal backgrounds. Other highlights included interactive workshops that explored topics from professional skills to mental health, student posters, lab tours, and a career fair.

The conference began on 13 January with the welcome address, after which we introduced ourselves as “physicists” to people sitting next to us. The word was a little unusual for me to say, as I am still an undergraduate working my way through my physics classes, but it felt great nonetheless.

Lab tours came next. Attendees could choose from 10 research facilities on the UCLA campus, including Dolores Bozovic ‘s biophysics lab, Pietro Musumeci ‘s particle beam lab, and Seth Putterman ‘s anechoic chamber and reverb room.

We moved on to a panel on diversity, implicit bias, and overcoming obstacles that featured UCLA biochemist Robin Garrell , Los Alamos plasma physicist Elizabeth Merritt , NASA astronomer Farisa Morales , and UCLA astronomer Smadar Naoz . It was a real mind opener. For the first time, I heard from successful professionals about the difficulties they faced when they chose to pursue careers in physics. Some of the panelists were the first in their families to attend college, while others were victims of implicit biases against women in science. Their experiences resonated with many of the undergraduate attendees in the room, including me.

The second day of the conference was packed with interactive breakout sessions, panels, and plenary talks. The breakout sessions gave attendees the chance to interact in smaller groups with professionals. The topics included funding and scholarship opportunities for undergraduate research, work–life balance, and careers available to physics majors outside of academia.

I chose a session on physics research topics, which featured professors and scientists who specialize in different physical science fields. I spent about 10 minutes with each researcher, which offered ample opportunity to learn about the field and ask questions. I received inspiring words of encouragement and advice.

Day two also included a plenary talk by condensed-matter physicist Nadya Mason of the University of Illinois and a keynote address by Nergis Mavalvala of MIT, who spoke via video link from Harvard about the first direct detection of gravitational waves. We also attended workshops on achieving career success, overcoming potential problems in the workplace, and writing resumés.

The conference’s final day began with a workshop devoted to impostor syndrome. The session helped me and the other attendees recognize our feelings of doubt and realize that our accomplishments are due to our abilities; in short, we belong in the physics community.

A student poster session followed, which offered the undergraduate attendees the opportunity to showcase their research in a professional setting. A career fair ran parallel to the poster session; it included representatives from national laboratories and graduate schools. Plenary talks by NASA astronomer Amy Mainzer and UCLA astronomer Andrea Ghez concluded the official program.

Although we were busy during the day, the conference was not only about work. Evenings were devoted to social activities such as planetarium shows, physics demos, and movie viewings. The activities gave us the chance to get to know each other in a fun setting.

Overall, I had a fantastic experience at CUWiP, and I encourage other undergraduate physics majors to attend one in the future. It encourages and inspires each attendee to keep pursuing her dream.

Attending the conference has motivated me to keep pursuing my passion for physics and to continue on to graduate school. Thanks to the various panels and my interactions with scientists, I now have a clearer view of the different areas of physics and the career paths available to me. I would like to work in a national laboratory as a research scientist.

Roshni Patil is a third-year undergraduate student majoring in physics at UCLA. The CUWiP program is run by the American Physical Society, a member society of the American Institute of Physics, which publishes Physics Today.