Students, faculty, and alumni at the 40th anniversary reunion of Women in Physics at Cornell .
Students, faculty, and alumni at the 40th anniversary reunion of Women in Physics at Cornell .
Students, faculty, and alumni at the 40th anniversary reunion of Women in Physics at Cornell.

Women in Physics and Related Fields

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Women in Physics and Related Fields (WiP+) is an informal group supporting women and gender minorities in the fields of Physics, Astronomy, Applied and Engineering Physics, Biophysics, and other related fields.  Everyone, of any gender, ranging from prospective majors through faculty and staff, is invited to participate.  This is the current incarnation of the first women in physics group that was started here at Cornell in the fall of 1976.

Gallery     WiP+ in the News     Student Spotlights     Resources     Articles & More     History

 

Events

WiP+ Coffee Hour: 

Every other Friday from 3:00-4:00pm in PSB 403.

2/7, 2/21, 3/7, 3/21, 4/4 (tentative, Spring Break), 4/18, 5/2, 5/16

 

Women Speakers

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What do scientists look like?

WIP+ members

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Students, faculty, and staff gathered at a WiP+ lunch.

Berit Goodge standing in front of an electron microscope.

Berit Goodge

With the electron microscope while a member of the Kourkoutis Electron Microscopy Group.

Natasha Holmes standing in front of a graphic that asks "What should students be learning? What instructional approaches improve student learning? What are students learning? What variables are you going to change? How are you going to measure it?"

Natasha Holmes

Associate Professor of Physics

Natasha Holmes is a physicist who studies how people learn physics.

Robin Bjorkquist surrounded by equipment in a lab at SLAC.

Robin Bjorquist

 

Working at SLAC while a graduate student in the Cornell Physics Department. She is now an Assistant Teaching Professor at Seattle University.

Naomi Gendler working at Wilson Lab with a lot of computer screens in the background.

Naomi Gendler

Naomi Gendler working at her station in the Wilson Synchrotron Laboratory while a visiting continuing education student in physics and participant in the CLASSE Research Experience for Undergraduates program. She is now a postdoctoral fellow in the Physics Department at Harvard University.

Jenny Wurster operating a Van de Graaff generator with levitating aluminum pie plates.

Jenny Wurster

Staff Member in the Department of Physics demonstrates static electricity with a Van de Graaff generator at a outreach event at IC3 summer camp.

WiP+ in the news

Beyond Cornell

  • "New postage stamp honors trailblazing 'First Lady of Physics.'" NBC News. 2/11/2021

  • "She made the discovery, but a man got the Nobel. A half-century later, she’s won a $3 million prize." The Washington Post. 9/8/2018.

  • "Three major physics discoveries and counting." Quanta Magazine. 7/18/18.

  • "Dark Matter Pioneer, Rubin ’51, Dies at 88."  The Cornell Daily Sun. 12/28/16.

  • "The Bright Face Behind the Dark Side of Galaxies." Science. 2.8.02.

Meet Our Students

Devisree Tallapanenei smiling with glasses

Devisree Tallapeneni: "I learned to build expertise in new sub-fields from scratch" Read more about her here.

Ariel Baksh on balcony at sunset.

Ariel Baksh: "Be persistent, be passionate, and be true" Read her story here.

Meagan Sundstrom image

Meagan Sundstrom is a doctoral candidate in physics from Walpole, Massachusetts. She earned her B.S. in mathematics-physics from the University of Connecticut and now studies the role of gender in physics education under the guidance of Natasha Holmes at Cornell. Read more about her here.

Eleanor Richard in a lab.

Eleanor Richard: "Through my research and participation in the Cornell triathlon team – including two Olympic-distance triathlon competitions – I have learned that it’s important to persevere even when things get difficult. We are all capable of so much more than we believe.” Read more about Eleanor here.

Zui Tao

Zui Tao: "Before I went to college I imagined I would finish my four years, get my degree, and go to work for a company. I didn’t think about going on to get a Ph.D. But then, as I learned more about physics, it became clear to me that I wanted to go deeper and learn more and do research." Read more here.

Resources

Department contacts: 

WiP+ Organizers

Cornell University Resources:    

Women in Physics Statistics

Good Practices

Funding sources (grant/scholarship info)

Conferences/workshop opportunities

Other

Articles & More

Articles

Videos

History

Did you know?

  • In 1884, Kate Gleason was the first woman admitted to study engineering at
    Kate Gleason
    Cornell in the Mechanical Arts program.
  • In 1895, Carolyn Baldwin Morrison, was awarded the first Doctor of Science degree in the United States by Cornell University for her work in Physics.
  • ~1910, Frances G. Wick was the first woman to earn a PhD in physics from Cornell.  She went on to teach physics at Vassar and several of her female students went on to do graduate work at Cornell.  During the 1918-1919 year she took a leave of absence for war time emergency during which time she was an “Acting Assistant Professor” at Cornell.
  • In 1944 Jane Faggen, was the first woman hired as a teaching assistant for the physics department.  She became part of a group of physics graduate students that “successfully persuaded the University to remove questions of race and religion from our application – the first Ivy League institution to do so."
  • Susan Phelps was the first woman in the world to receive laboratory instruction in physics (here at Cornell). She later went on to biology. The Gage fund for “unspecified costs in advancing knowledge in physics” was created in her memory by her husband Simon Henry Gage and son Henry Phelps.
  • Martha Stahr Carpenter
    The first woman faculty member to be hired in the College of Arts and Sciences was Martha Stahr Carpenter in 1947. She was a radio astronomer in the Astronomy department. She later shifted into a research associate position when starting her family.
  • Vera Rubin
    In 1951 Vera Rubin earned her Master's degree in Astronomy from Cornell. Famous for her work confirming the existence of dark matter, Vera was also the first woman to legally use the Palomar Observatory in 1965.
  • Millie (Spiewack) Dresselhous
    Millie (Spiewack) Dresselhous spent time as a postdoc at Cornell (1958-1960) before going on to become the first female tenured professor at MIT (1968) and the first president of the American Physical Society (1984). She was also the winner of many awards including National Medal of Science, the Oersted Medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Enrico Fermi Award, and the Kavli Prize. In 2015, she became the first female to receive the IEEE Medal of Honor. In 2017 she was featured in this GE add promoting women in STEM.
  • Barbara Hope Cooper
    In 1983, Barbara Cooper, a former Cornell physics undergrad, was hired as the first woman in a tenure track position in the physics department.
  • Ritchie Patterson
    Ritchie Patterson was the first woman to serve as chair of the Physics Department from 2009-2011.
  • Lois Pollack
    In, 2014 Lois Pollack began her term as the first female director of Applied and Engineering Physics.
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