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(BLACK
PR WIRE) (BOSTON) – (February 21, 2007) The 2007 Joint Annual
Conference of the National Society of Black Physicists and the National
Society of Hispanic Physicists begins on Wednesday, February 21, 2007
at the Boston Sheraton Hotel and John B. Hynes Convention Center.
This
year’s conference, themed Global Competitiveness Through Diversity,
celebrates the 30th anniversary of the National Society of Black
Physicists.
The Joint Annual Conferences of the National Society
of Black Physicists and National Society of Hispanic Physicists brings
together over 500 African American and Hispanic American physics
students and professionals. This conference has a cutting-edge
scientific program as well as a student professional development
program that includes mentor-protégé match-making and a recruiting fair.
The
scientific program includes over 120 oral and poster presentations. The
presenters include students and faculty from Harvard, MIT, Florida
A&M, Fisk University, CUNY, Hampton, Jackson State, University of
Texas –Brownsville/Texas Southernmost College and many others.
The
“Science Ambassadors” of the both the National Society of Black
Physicists and the National Society of Hispanic Physicists will be
appearing at two Boston area Boys and Girls Clubs as part of the
conference’s K-12 science education and outreach program.
“We
are very excited about our 30th anniversary”, says Dr. Quinton
Williams, President of the National Society of Black Physicists and
chair of the physics department at Jackson State University.
“NSBP
has evolved from a few dozen people, to now hundreds of members. There
are new Ph.D. programs at Florida A&M University, Hampton
University, a joint Ph.D. program between Fisk and Vanderbilt, as well
as the long established programs at Howard and Alabama A&M.”
Together these programs are poised to increase the production of
African American Ph.D. physicists from less than 10 per year to greater
than 25. With the current growth in the number African Americans
earning a baccalaureate degree in physics, the number of Ph.D.’s may go
even higher still.”
The very first African American to earn the
Ph.D. degree in the United States was Edward Allen Bouchet in 1877 at
Yale University. He went on to teach at the secondary level at Quaker
school for African American youth. His graduate education was funded by
one of the school’s trustees in what we would call today ‘scholarship
for service.’
Founded in 1977 at Morgan State University, the
mission of the National Society of Black Physicists is to promote the
professional well-being of African American physicists within the
international scientific community and within society at large.
The
organization seeks to develop and support efforts to increase
opportunities for African Americans in physics and to increase their
numbers and visibility of their scientific work. It also seeks to
develop activities and programs that highlight and enhance the benefits
of the scientific contributions that African American physicists
provide for the international community. The society seeks to raise the
general knowledge and appreciation of physics in the African American
community.
The Joint Annual Conference of the National Society
of Black Physicists and the National Society of Hispanic Physicists is
supported by the National Science Foundation, Brookhaven National
Laboratory, Thomas Jefferson National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory, and Corning.
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