US minority faculty numbers still low

African Americans and Hispanics continue to be underrepresented in US physics department faculties, but their numbers are growing, according to a recent report based on a 2008 survey by the American Institute of Physics. (See also the Opinion piece on page 47 of this issue.)

In 2000, US physics departments had a total of 155 Hispanic and 141 African American faculty members among their ranks. Eight years later those numbers had grown to 262 and 183, respectively. The wider gap between the two groups is likely due to the growth in PhDs awarded to Hispanics: In 2000 African Americans earned about 2.6% and Hispanics were awarded 2.1% of all physics PhDs; in 2008 those percentages had reversed.

Nearly 70% of all physics departments had neither African Americans nor Hispanics on their faculties. Historically black colleges and universities accounted for more than half of African American faculty members, although one-fourth of HBCUs had none.

Astronomy departments lagged behind physics in the percentages of both minority students and faculty members.

This and related information is available in African American & Hispanics Among Physics & Astronomy Faculty. The report can be downloaded free of charge at http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/facultytrends.html .

Race and ethnicity of physics faculty