The Physics Department hosted the 2025 American Physical Society Conference for
Undergraduate Women and Gender Minorities in Physics in January 24-26. This was
achieved with the support of the College of Liberal Arts and Science, the Provost’s Office, and the
Office of Sponsored Programs, the College of Engineering, the Institute of Material Sciences, the
APS and generous donors (the Ed Eyler and Karen Greer fund, the Mark Miller Fund Sponsorship
provided in memory of City College of New York Physicists William Miller and Myriam Sarachik,
Mirion Technologies, the Del Boca family gift, AAS, the New England Section of the APS and
the Startorialist Science and Fashion Shop).

The conference’s goal was to help undergraduate women and gender minorities pursue their
goals in physics by providing them the opportunity to learn about different physics research areas,
career tracks, graduate studies and various professions in physics. The conference brought
undergraduate students and scientists together to share experiences and concerns and receive
feedback and advice. It has been established that students’ experience at a professional conference
enables them to build community through peer networks and interacting closely with speakers and
panelists. The conference provided the students with feedback about their current work and were
mentored about career paths. UConn, which has a strong Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policy
made every effort to create a welcoming and supportive environment for all. The conference
program had speakers and panelists from several institutions around the country, faculty, staff and
students from UConn as well as former UConn students who graduated with Bachelors, Masters
or PhDs. The link to the CU*iP conference program is https://physics.uconn.edu/cuwip/program/

The local organizing committee consisted of faculty, postdocs, graduate and undergraduate
students (Sarah Trallero, Lea Ferreira dos Santos, Shohini Bhattacharya, Luchang Jin, Matt
Guthrie, Peter Schweitzer, Alan Wuosmaa, Simone Columbo, Cara Battersby, Tom Blum, Erin
Scanlon, Elena Dormidontova, Asli Tandogan Kunkel, Cameron Brady, Meg Davis, Dani Lipman,
Jessica Mitlehner, Juliette Stecenko, Kaley Wilcox, Andrea Mejia, Liam McDermott, and George
Gibson) led by Nora Berrah. In addition, volunteers ─ faculty (Sylvanie Wallington), staff (Adam
Kolano, Carrie Chichocki, Dave Perry, Ray Celmer), students and postdocs (Noah Frese, Bill
Wortley, Willson London, Jack Conley, Christian McCoy, Tobi Saule, Christian McCoy, Yutong
Geng, Brenna Petrelli) and donors (Karen Greer) ─ provided great support in running a very
successful meeting.

Every year, the American Physical Society (APS) sponsors CU*IP – Conference for Undergraduate Women and Gender Minorities in Physics – at several locations around the country. This year, led by Prof. Nora Berrah, UConn Physics applied to host this national conference in Storrs and our proposal was accepted for January 24-26, 2025! The purpose of the conference is to bring together over 120 undergraduates from around the country to learn about many research areas in physics and also to lean many skills for pursuing a career in Physics or Science, such as networking, applying to graduate school, finding role models in academia or industry, learning how to succeed as an underrepresented minority, etc.

While the conference is partially funded by the APS, the host institution needs to raise a substantial amount of funds. So far, we have commitments from UConn, some generous donors, such as the Ed Eyler and Karen Greer foundation, alumnus Mark Miller, and the Del Boca family, as well as the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Mirion Technologies.

The current members of the local organizing committee, composed of faculty, staff and students, are Cara Battersby, Tom Blum, Cameron Brady, Carrie Cichocki, Simone Colombo, Meg Davis, Elena Dormidontova, George Gibson, Matt Guthrie, Adam Kolano, Luchang Jin, Dani Lipman, Jessica Mitlehne, Michael Rozman, Dave Perry, Erin Scanlon, Peter Schweitzer, Juliette Stecenko, Sarah Trallero, Kaley Wilcox, Alan Wuosmaa and Nora Berrah.

The planned events demonstrate the Physics Department’s and UConn’s commitment to helping undergraduate women and gender minorities pursue physics following their undergraduate degree by providing them the opportunity to learn about different career tracks in STEM fields, graduate studies, and various professions in physics.

We will be very grateful to receive any donations to assist the Department in hosting the conference, which will be used to cover students’ meals, accommodation and travel, as well as the invited speakers’ and panelists’ travel and accommodation. Please visit our website at: https://physics.uconn.edu/cuwip/