Erika E. A. Brown, The American Physical Society

Over the last six years, the American Physical Society Bridge Program (APS-BP) has had a previously unimagined impact on the physics community. What began as an effort to increase diversity in the physics workforce through erasing the gap in physics BAs and PhDs awarded to groups traditionally underrepresented in physics, has also helped elucidate a number of useful practices for supporting and retaining all graduate students. In the following article, we share resources describing these practices, as well as program successes, and unexpected lessons learned over the life of the project. The success of the program has also encouraged important departmental discussions about diversity and inclusion within physics graduate education. To support these discussions, APS-BP has facilitated several studies which may be helpful for faculty who are thinking about how to admit and retain students of color in their graduate programs. We share two of these studies here: the first on how physics faculty beliefs about their program and their discipline play into admissions decisions, and the second on how admitted bridge students are successfully brought into their graduate department culture.

Disclaimer – The articles and opinion pieces found in this issue of the APS Forum on Education Newsletter are not peer refereed and represent solely the views of the authors and not necessarily the views of the APS.