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Edward A. Bouchet Endowment Campaign

Fundraising Goal Surpassed. Thank you!

For the past 18 years, the Edward A. Bouchet Award has connected exceptional minority physicists with students from the US and abroad. The award lost its annual funding this year, so APS established a fundraising campaign to endow the award for the next generation of scientists.

The fundraising committee not only reached the goal of raising $140,000, but surpassed it — raising a total of $151,000.

Award Impact

Recipients

The award has a large impact on the recipients’ careers both inside, and surprisingly, outside of the physics community. For many recipients, the award raises the visibility of their research and leads to exciting career opportunities. Many of the winners have been recruited to participate in documentaries, lecture at prestigious institutions, and are recognized as experts in their field by organizations outside of the physics community.

Students

As much as the Bouchet Award has done for its recipients' careers, perhaps the most significant impact of the Award has been on physics students. One Bouchet Award winner was astounded by the number of students both at his institution and outside of his institution who were aware that he had won the Award. These students wanted to talk with him about his research as well as pursuing careers in physics.

The award has clearly been successful in identifying and highlighting underrepresented minority role models for the next generation of scientists.

More about the award

About Edward A. Bouchet

In 1876, Edward Alexander Bouchet made history by becoming the first African American Ph.D. physicist, and the sixth person of any race to receive a Ph.D. in physics from an American university. Bouchet went on to educate and inspire others as a science teacher at a school for black students.

Learn More About Edward A. Bouchet

Edward Bouchet

Thank You to Our Key Donors

Sponsors ($10,000 and Above)

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation*, Fisk-Vanderbilt Masters-to-PhD Bridge Program, Harvard Physics & Applied Physics, In Honor of Robert Karplus (Beverly Karplus Hartline and Fred Hartline, Jason Hartline, Margaret Hellweg and Horst Rademacher, Barbara Karplus and Rodney Womer, Elizabeth Karplus, Catherine and David Karplus, Paul and Karen Karplus, Peter Karplus, Richard Karplus), Kathlee A. Maloy & Heather L. Burns, LIGO Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Research Corporation (previous sponsor), Yale University

Key Contributors

Diola Bagayoko, B. Alex Brown, R. Sekhar Chivukula, Sylvester James Gates, Larry Gladney, Gabriela Gonzalez, Laura H. Greene, Gaston Gutierrez, Wendell Talbot Hill III, Theodore Hodapp, Jefferson Science Associates, Daniel Larson, Eric Lin, Donald N. Langenberg, Ramon Lopez, Juan Maldacena, Stephen Craig McGuire, Cherry Ann Murray, Jorge Pullin, Helen & Dan Quinn, Susan Joyce Seestrom, Elizabeth Simmons, Stephen Steadman, Donna Stokes, Sergio Ulloa, University of Pennsylvania, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Herman White

Thank You Letter from the Campaign Chairs

Dear Bouchet Campaign Committee, APS Committee on Minorities (COM) and Generous Donors
to the Bouchet Endowment,

As Campaign co-chairs, we are pleased to announce that the Bouchet Campaign has achieved and even surpassed its goal of $140k needed to endow the Bouchet Award. Altogether, thanks to your help, we have raised $151k as of May 31, 2013. This success is due to the hard work and personal support of the Campaign committee members over the past three years. Also, we thank the COM which manages the Bouchet Award selection process on an annual basis for their commitment to the Award. And, most importantly to our most generous donors whose gifts have made possible this success.

We should all be proud of this achievement and the knowledge that now this prestigious APS Award can continue in perpetuity to recognize the research of distinguished minority physicists who are then role models and advisors to other physics students through their subsequent lectureships.

Our sincere thanks to all who have lent their support to this Campaign. Congratulations to all of us and to the future Bouchet Awardees. A special celebration of the endowment success will be held concurrent with the 2014 award ceremony. We hope many of you will be able to attend, so we can express our appreciation in person.

Sincerely,

Bev Hartline & Jim Gates (Co-chairs, Bouchet Endowment Campaign)