Over the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday (13-15 January), thirteen UNC physics majors attended the Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics at Virginia Tech. This conference was one of ten sponsored by the American Physical Society, held simultaneously all over the United States and Canada. These conferences feature plenary talks, professional development workshops and panels, tours of physics laboratories, and opportunities for networking and social interaction. The photo below shows all the students who attended from UNC, as well as Prof. Laurie McNeil, who gave a plenary talk and participated in professional development panels during the conference. From left to right: (top row) Emilee Armstrong, Emily Michael, Delaney O’Connell, Margie Bruff, Samantha Pagan, Maggie Hildebran, Yi Hu, Helen Hansel, (bottom row) Carolyn Liu, Carlynn Ferguson, Callie Hood, Kristy Sakano, Prof. McNeil, and Bailey Canter.
Two of the UNC students presented posters about their research. The photo below shows Callie Hood and Kristy Sakano in front of their posters.
“Listening to speakers and meeting other women made me even more excited about studying physics, and I liked getting to know students from other schools. It was also great to learn about all of the different paths open to me as a physics student” said Maggie Hildebran, a sophomore physics major.
Bailey Canter, another UNC sophomore, added “The conference really helped me understand what to expect moving forward in the field of physics beyond my undergraduate career and what it takes to be successful.”