Women in Physics at UMD

As Pride Month comes to an end, we want to celebrate the incredible contributions of LGBTQ+ physicists who have *always* been a core part of the scientific community. Diversity and inclusivity only strengthen our shared pursuit of knowledge, and we honor the colorful tapestry that makes our community so special. We are proud of all our q***r peers who have helped shape the field and continue to inspire physicists, past, present, and future! Happy Pride!! 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

However you choose to celebrate, PUGS wishes you a Happy Juneteenth!! Check out our bio for more information about this special remembrance day.

Mark the date in your calendars!

Join our upcoming Professional Development Luncheon this Friday at 2pm, featuring our invited speaker:
Dr. Satya Gontcho A Gontcho is a lead observing scientist for DESI, a new instrument mapping the universe to study the effect of dark energy on the expansion of the universe. Dr. Gontcho A Gontcho earned her Ph.D. from the University of Barcelona and in 2019 was a Forbes 30 under 30 awardee.
Event details and Zoom link at: wip.umd.edu/events

History has overlooked these 8 women scientists — but not anymore These pioneering women were behind some of history’s greatest discoveries, from the greenhouse effect and nuclear fission to the structure of DNA and breakthrough leprosy treatment.

Meet Emma Huckestein, WiP’s new and spectacular Mentoring Coordinator. Emma is a first year graduate student in the Chemical Physics program. Her research involves precision magnetometry measurements using nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in diamonds. Besides playing with diamonds in the lab, Emma loves to hike (if you have any hiking spots you recommend, hit her up!) and loves to watch romantic comedies - the cheesier the humor, the bigger the love story, the better the movie (in Emma’s humble opinion).
Emma joined WiP to foster the supportive, kind, and passionate community of strong, powerful, and badass women that she was fortunate enough to have at her undergrad institution. As mentoring coordinator, Emma hopes to similarly connect younger female graduate students with older ones so that the younger students have the connections and opportunities to engage fully, honestly, and uniquely with their personal badass female mentors.

A happy International Women's Day to you from all of us at Women in Physics (WiP) at UMD!
On this day, we celebrate the who have made significant contributions in STEM and changed how we understand the world. Chien-Shiung Wu, Donna Strickland, Katie Bouman, and many many more.
Today we also recognize that the gender gap in STEM is very real. WiP works to create spaces for women and gender diverse folks at UMD Physics to support each other, and mentor and inspire others. Ultimately it's up to all of us, not just women, to step up to close this gap.
So take some time today to think about what you can do within your communities, and comment below your ideas or real-life examples you've seen.

Attention UMD grad students in STEM: get ready for our one-of-a-kind mixer tonight, Friday at 6pm. We're excited to see you there!
Joining details at: wip.umd.edu/events

Meet our amazing Outreach Coordinator, Kate Sturge. Kate is a third-year undergraduate physics and astronomy major. She currently works with the Compact Muon Solenoid group on campus, using machine learning techniques to mitigate impacts of radiation-damaged sensors in one of the CMS sub-detectors. She has been loving working on a detector that is being built and learning new computing tools, and plans to pursue high energy physics for postgraduate study.
Kate strongly believes physics should be a welcoming and inclusive place for people of all genders. She is looking forward to growing WiP’s outreach initiatives to include a virtual program for high school women and gender minorities in physics. On campus, Kate also serves as the Tutoring Chair for the Society of Physics Students (SPS) at UMD. When she’s not busy with particle detectors and SPS, she is probably reading or playing with her dogs, Ginny Weasley and Danny Dogvito. Ask her about her research or how she picked her dogs’ last names when you see her at our next social event.