March 28, 2019

Session I: Evidence-Based Actions for Today to Diversify the Physical Sciences

Questions persist about how to make the study and practice of the physical sciences accessible to everyone. While our societies continue to study the issue and to strategize optimal approaches, there are certain programs that have shown not only promise, but actual progress in moving the needle. In this session, we will learn about the state of the field, interventions, and actions that we can collectively take today to be fully engaged partners in addressing this challenge.

Session Chair: Willie Rockward, Chair and Professor of Physics, Morgan State University; President of NSBP

Keynote: Makola M. Abdullah, President, Virginia State University
“Overcoming the Challenges of Diversity and Inclusion in STEM”

Panel

Daryl Chubin, Principal Investigator and Co-Directors, Understanding Interventions

Claudia Rankins, Program Officer, Directorate for Education and Human Resources, National Science Foundation

Monica Plisch, Director of Education and Diversity, APS

Megan Donahue , Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, and President of AAS

Tabbetha Dobbins, Associate Professor, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Rowan University

Poster Session: Venture Partnership Program: Learn more about innovative Member Society projects that have received funding through AIP’s Venture Partnership Fund (VPF). VPF collaborations are strategy driven, promote growth, address community challenges and broaden impacts; they are also quite distinct. Speak with various project leads and consider possibilities for your society’s future proposals.

• The International Day of Light at ARTECHOUSE, OSA
• The Career Pathways Project Collaboration, APS
• Teacher Leaders In Physics Education Policy, AAPT
• ComSciCon-AIP: a new partnership in graduate student-led science communication, AAS
• Panta Rei – The Development of Rheology-Focused K12 Outreach Events, SOR
• Physics is the Engine That Grows Technology in the US Economy, APS

A sneak-peak at a selection of AIP’s new Wenner Collection: This fascinating collection includes nearly 4,000 rare books and publications that document the important discoveries in physics and physical sciences, stretching back 400 years, including works by Ptolemy, Galileo, Huygens, Halley, Newton, and Curie, among many others.

Session II: Cutting through the Noise: Mind, Perception, and Effective Communication

Every public education effort, awareness-raising campaign, and policy development initiative interplays with human perception and opinion. Understanding how the human brain is susceptible to psychological, social, and cultural influences that drive behavior can help us approach issues that we care about--and maybe even advance good science policy, fact-based decision making, and public regard for science. This session will examine lessons from cognitive psychology and science communication, so that we might more effectively open minds.

Session Chair: David Helfand, Chair, AIP Board of Directors; Professor of Astronomy at Columbia University; Past President of AAS

Panel

Ellen Peters, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, The Ohio State University

Baruch Fischhoff, Howard Heinz University Professor, Institute for Politics and Strategy, and Engineering & Public Policy (PhD Psychologist), Carnegie Mellon University