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The
outreach program of Advanced Atomic Design Group led by Professor Demkov
The program is supported by the National
Science Foundation (DMR-0606464).
Its goal is to attract women to physics by getting high-school students
involved
in research
over the summer before they make decisions about colleges. The
internship can cover the entire summer, but at the minimum should be at
least one full month. It offers a fixed stipend of $1000 for the entire
term. Participants work in real research labs in the departments of physics or chemical engineering. In
addition a short course is offered at the start of the program in June.
This informal course (no credit is given), given by UT graduate
students, covers subjects from computer modeling and quantum mechanics
to scanning tunneling microscopy and thin film growth.
Women in physical sciences or rather the gender imbalance in our field
is a pressing concern. Most people agree that there are a
disproportionately low number of women, particularly at the senior
faculty level. The importance of successful women scientist as role
models for graduate students has been pointed out. However, it is
possible that the remedies we implement at the college level may be too
little too late. The so-called pipeline starts well before college! In Texas in the
first year of high-school the students take a general science course
and at this point are akin to stem cells. The differentiation takes
place the second year when students may elect chemistry or physics as a
separate course of study. This observation led to creation of the Alice in
Wonderland Summer Program for Girls. This summer program is an
important part in the entire research project.
This outreach program started from 2005. There have been many high
school students, graduate students and professors involved in it. All
of them have enjoyed the program, which will hopefully encourage more
students to join and take a tour in the world of science.
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