WAVE
Overview
The Caltech LIGO SURF program aims to increase the participation of underrepresented students (such as African American, Hispanic, and Native American, females who are underrepresented in their discipline, and first-generation college students) in science and engineering Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D. programs and to make opportunities in gravitational wave science more visible to students not traditionally exposed to it. The program supports Caltech's commitment to training a diverse set of science, technology, engineering, and math leaders. Students from groups that are historically underrepresented in science are strongly encouraged to apply to the Caltech LIGO SURF program and identify their minority status in the application. Students that are elected for a Caltech LIGO SURF Fellowship may elect to be associated with the Caltech WAVE Program, and may also elect to be considered for a Carl Albert Rouse or a Victor M. Blanco Fellowship.
Professors Alan Weinstein and Rana Adhikari with Osase Omoruyi (2017 Rouse Fellow), graduate student Aaron Markowitz, Jordan Kemp (2017 Rouse Fellow), postdoc Dr Brittany Kamai, Amani Garvin (2017 Rouse Fellow) and postdoc Dr Andrew Wade. (Image credit: caltech.edu)
Postdoc Dr Tjonnie Li, Carl Fields (2015 Rouse Fellow), Albert Wandui (2015 Rouse Fellow) and Professor Alan Weinstein. (Image credit: caltech.edu)
Professor Joe Giaime (Head of LIGO Livingston), NSBP President Dr K. Renee Horton, Ogbonnaya Uduchu (2016 Rouse Fellow), Bria Storr (2016 Rouse Fellow) and past NSBP President Dr Stephen McGuire. (Image credit: caltech.edu)
NSBP and the Carl Albert Rouse Fellowship
The National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP) sponsors the Carl Albert Rouse Undergraduate Research Fellowship for research with LIGO Laboratory.
About Carl Albert Rouse
After earning a Ph.D. in Physics from the
California Institute of Technology
in 1956, Dr. Carl Albert Rouse became the first African American to successfully enter into
a career as a professional astrophysics researcher. Dr. Rouse's thesis research was in the
field of particle physics. After graduate school he took a position as a scientist at
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
where he studied screened Coulomb interactions utilizing quantum mechanics theory. Read
an article of the American Astronomical Society
published in the 2006 Spectrum Newsletter (H. Oluseyi, "Contributions from the
first half-century of African-American solar astronomers", pp 1-3 and 14-16) of the
Committee on the Status of Minorities in Astronomy.
(Image credit: caltech.edu)
About NSBP
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 and physics students 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.
NSHP and the Victor M. Blanco Fellowship
The National Society of Hispanic Physicists (NSHP) sponsors the Victor M. Blanco Undergraduate Research Fellowship for research with LIGO Laboratory.
About Victor M. Blanco
Read an autobiographical essay by Victor M. Blanco for the 2001 issue of
Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics
("Telescopes, Red Stars, and Chilean Skies",
Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, V39(2001):1:18).
(Image credit: HispanicPhysicists.org)
About NSHP
The National Society of Hispanic Physicists (NSHP) began in 1996 as little more than an idea but today represents (through its members and contacts) the single largest collective of Hispanic-American physicists. A society that can uniquely speak to why we chose physics, the challenges we confronted, the ways we entered the world of physics. Our members include students, faculty, and professional physicists. And though most of our members are Latinos/as ... all are welcome to join us.
NSHP meets annually at the SACNAS meeting and at other times with our partners in physics - the National Society of Black Physicists, the American Physical Society, and the American Association of Physics Teachers.