Did you
know about this conference?
Conference of Black Physicists Celebrates 30th
year of
the National Society of Black Physicists
Conference.info@nsbp.org
(BLACK PR WIRE) BOSTON – February 21, 2007 The 2007 Joint Annual
Conference of the National Society of Black Physicists and the
National Society of Hispanic Physicists began on Wednesday, February
21, 2007 at the Boston Sheraton Hotel and John B. Hynes Convention
Center.
This year’s conference, themed Global Competitiveness Through
Diversity, celebrates the 30th anniversary of the National Society of
Black Physicists.
The Joint Annual Conferences of the National Society of Black
Physicists and National Society of Hispanic Physicists brings together
over 500 African American and Hispanic American physics students and
professionals. This conference has a cutting-edge scientific program
as well as a student professional development program that includes
mentor-protégé match-making and a recruiting fair. The scientific
program includes over 120 oral and poster presentations. The
presenters include students and faculty from Harvard, MIT, Florida
A&M, Fisk University, CUNY, Hampton, Jackson State, University of
Texas –Brownsville/Texas Southernmost College and many others.
The “Science Ambassadors” of the both the National Society of Black
Physicists and the National Society of Hispanic Physicists will be
appearing at two Boston area Boys and Girls Clubs as part of the
conference’s K-12 science education and outreach program.
“We are very excited about our 30th anniversary”, says Dr. Quinton
Williams, President of the National Society of Black Physicists and
chair of the physics department at Jackson State University.
“NSBP has evolved from a few dozen people, to now hundreds of
members. There are new Ph.D. programs at Florida A&M University,
Hampton University, a joint Ph.D. program between Fisk and Vanderbilt,
as well as the long established programs at Howard and Alabama A&M.”
Together these programs are poised to increase the production of
African American Ph.D. physicists from less than 10 per year to
greater than 25. With the current growth in the number African
Americans earning a baccalaureate degree in physics, the number of
Ph.D.’s may go even higher still.”
The very first African American to earn the Ph.D. degree in the
United States was Edward Allen Bouchet in 1877 at Yale University. He
went on to teach at the secondary level at Quaker school for African
American youth. His graduate education was funded by one of the
school’s trustees in what we would call today ‘scholarship for
service.’
Founded in 1977 at Morgan State University, the mission of the
National Society of Black Physicists is and mission of the National
Society of Black Physicists is to promote the professional well-being
of African American physicists within the international scientific
community and within society at large. The organization seeks to
develop and support efforts to increase opportunities for African
Americans in physics and to increase their numbers and visibility of
their scientific work. It also seeks to develop activities and
programs that highlight and enhance the benefits of the scientific
contributions that African American physicists provide for the
international community. The society seeks to raise the general
knowledge and appreciation of physics in the African American
community.
The Joint Annual Conference
of the National Society of Black Physicists and the National Society
of Hispanic Physicists is supported by the National Science
Foundation, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Thomas Jefferson National
Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Dow Corning.
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