About CUWIP
The American Physical Society (APS) Conferences for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP) are three-day regional conferences held simultaneously throughout the United States and Canada for undergraduate physics and astronomy majors. Click here for more information about other CUWiP 2024 site locations.
The goal of APS CUWiP is to help undergraduate women continue in physics by providing them with the opportunity to experience a professional conference, information about graduate school and professions in physics, and access to other women in physics of all ages with whom they can share experiences, advice, and ideas. The national and local organizing committees of APS CUWiP strive to create a welcoming environment for all, including undergraduate women and gender minorities.
About the hosts
The Physics Departments at Boston College and Wellesley College are proud to host the 2024 Northeast site of the CUWiP. The conference will take place on the main campus of Boston College at Chestnut Hill, MA. Chestnut Hill, a Boston suburb, is a twenty-minute drive from the Boston Logan Airport, and it is easily accessible via public transportation from downtown Boston.
Boston College is an R1 research university with a strong focus on both research and undergraduate education. Our department has shown a strong commitment to supporting female-identifying students, accounting for 30% of students majoring in physics. We have recently founded the Society of Women in Physics, whose primary goal is for female-identifying undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, and faculty members to gather together and create a sense of community. We organize monthly dinners, supported by departmental funds, in which students get to know their peers, gain advice from their seniors, and learn about research groups they are potentially interested in joining.
Wellesley has a rich physics history dating back to the founding of the college. Wellesley established just the second undergraduate physics laboratory in the country in 1878. There, Sarah Frances Whiting obtained one of the first X-ray images just weeks after Rontgen first discovered X-rays. Wellesley physics alumni are leaders in industry and academia. Today, the physics department is home to ~25-30 majors per year, with 30-40% continuing to graduate school in physics or a related field. The Wellesley physics department embodies the college’s strong commitment to inclusive excellence.
COVID DISCLAIMER: All Boston College campus visitors are strongly encouraged to get vaccinated. All visitors who are not vaccinated should wear a mask and follow social distancing guidelines.
Application and Registration
Applications will open on Monday, August 28, 2023 and will close promptly at 5:00 pm ET on Monday, October 23, 2023. (Application is now closed)
You should have received an email from APS on Wednesday, November 15, 2023. If you are accepted to a CUWiP site, the email will contain instructions on how to register for that site by 5:00 pm ET on Wednesday, December 13, 2023. You must register by the deadline or your acceptance will be void.
CUWiP has become incredibly popular. In order to maximize the number of CUWiP participants we can accommodate, we will allocate participants to sites based on travel logistics and site capacity. We will aim to follow the distributions outlined below, but may have to make adjustments. Please do not purchase travel or plan to be at a specific site until you receive an email confirming you have been accepted to a specific CUWiP site.
2024 CUWiP host sites:
- Boston College & Wellesley College
- City University of New York, Graduate Center
- Clemson University
- Georgia Institute of Technology
- Missouri University of Science & Technology
- Montana State University
- Stanford University & SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
- Tulane University
- United State Military Academy, West Point
- University of Arizona
- University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
- University of Pennsylvania
- University of San Diego
- West Virginia University
- Canada site: TBD
Sponsors
These conferences are supported in part by the National Science Foundation (PHY-1346627 and PHY-1622510) and by the Department of Energy (DE-SC0011076). Further details are available on the APS conference website. This conference is also supported in part by Boston College, Wellesley College, and the American Physical Society.
We sincerely thank our sponsors and partners.
