Newswise — Which universities have awarded the most degrees in physics to African American and Hispanic American students? The American Institute of Physics' Statistical Research Center, which for 20 years has compiled data on physics degrees in the US, has named the institutions that have given the most bachelors' and PhD degrees to those historically underrepresented groups.
The institute has set out criteria for recognizing the universities. If, over 10 years, 15 or more physics bachelor's degrees or 3 physics PhD's are minorities, the university makes the list. There are separate lists for African American and Hispanic American graduation rates.
"We set up these criteria so that all universities can achieve the recognition," said Roman Czujko, director of the Statistical Research Center, located in College Park, MD. "Historically, both of these groups tended to be underrepresented in physics and astronomy, and we mark and celebrate the change with these lists."
The institute has long worked with the National Society of Black Physicists and the National Society of Hispanic Physicists.
"NSBP sends its appreciation to those [physics] departments that have demonstrated their commitment to diversity through actual minority degree production," said Quinton L. Williams, a professor of physics at Jackson State University in Mississippi and past president of NSBP.
NSHP also sends its congratulations to the universities on the list, said NSHP's secretary David J Ernst, a professor of physics at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology made three of the four lists: African American and Hispanic American PhD awards, and Hispanic Americans bachelor's degrees.
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