08.2 Diversity Statement

To ensure a productive future for science and technology in the United States, we must make physics more inclusive. The health of physics requires talent from the broadest demographic pool. Underrepresented groups constitute a largely untapped intellectual resource and a growing segment of the U.S. population.

Therefore, APS members should work to increase the numbers of members from underrepresented groups in physics in the pipeline and in all professional ranks, with becoming aware of barriers to implementing this change, and with taking an active role in organizational and institutional efforts to bring about such change. Such barriers include: a lack of effective mentoring, all forms of bias (implicit/unconscious, explicit and systemic), a lack of institutional support mechanisms, and an employment search process with a limited candidate pool.

We call upon policymakers, administrators, and managers at all levels to enact policies and promote budgets that will foster greater diversity in physics. We call upon employers to pursue recruitment, retention, and promotion of underrepresented minority groups at all ranks and to create a work environment that encourages inclusion. We call upon the physics community as a whole to work collectively to bring greater diversity wherever physicists are educated or employed. The APS will continue to support these efforts through programs, policies and directed activities.

Related Statements:

• Statement on the Status of Women in Physics
• National Society of Hispanic Physicists
• American Association for Physics Teachers