Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • COMMENT

Making physics more inclusive

Theodore Hodapp and Erika Brown explain how the American Physical Society is helping to recruit and retain PhD students from under-represented minorities.
  1. Theodore Hodapp

    1. Theodore Hodapp is director of project development and senior adviser to the Education and Diversity Department at the American Physical Society, College Park, Maryland, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  2. Erika Brown

    1. Erika Brown is Bridge Program manager at the American Physical Society.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

African Americans, Hispanic Americans and Native Americans make up about one-third of university-age citizens in the United States. Yet less than 11% of bachelor’s degrees in physics are awarded to people from these groups. At the doctoral level it is even worse, with only about 7% of physics PhDs granted to US citizens from racial and ethnic minority groups — just 60–70 students each year. This is one of the lowest rates in the sciences. Chemistry, by comparison, awards 17% of bachelor’s and 11% of doctoral degrees to these groups (see ‘Doctoral dearth’). The proportion in physics has barely risen over the past 15 years, while the percentage of US university-age students from minorities has grown by 18%.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 557, 629-632 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05260-4

References

  1. Hodapp, T. & Woodle, K. Phys. Today 70, 2, 50 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Potvin, G., Chari, D. & Hodapp, T. Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 13, 020142 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Educational Testing Scores. GRE Guide to the Use of Scores (ETS, 2017).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Miller, C., Zwickl, B., Posselt, J., Silvestrini, R. & Hodapp, T. Sci. Adv. (in the press).

  5. Steele, C. M. Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues To How Stereotypes Affect Us (Norton, 2010).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Scherr, R. E., Plisch, M., Gray, K. E., Potvin, G. & Hodapp, T. Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 13, 020133 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D. & Kelly, D. R. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 92, 1087–1101 (2007).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Sowell, R., Zhang, B. & Redd, K. Ph.D. Completion and Attrition: Analysis of Baseline Demographic Data from the Ph.D. Completion Project (Council of Graduate Schools, 2008).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Posselt, J. R. Inside Graduate Admissions: Merit, Diversity, and Faculty Gatekeeping (Harvard Univ. Press, 2016).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links