Anna Llobet Megias Presents at American Physical Society Meeting

Anna Llobet Megias Presents at American Physical Society Meeting

Anna Llobet Megias, a Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist and New Mexico Consortium affiliate, presents at the APS April Meeting, held Saturday–Tuesday, April 17–20, 2021.

The American Physical Society (APS) is a nonprofit membership organization that has the goal of  advancing the knowledge of physics. APS works on behalf of the physics community to improve physics education, inform the public and policy leaders about physics, increase diversity in the field, and reach out to physicists around the world. APS meetings are a way for scientists to stay connected with the most recent developments in the physics world.

The 2021 APS April Meeting “Quarks to Cosmos” encompasses a broad range of physics including astrophysics, particle physics, nuclear physics, and gravitation, and brings together researchers from around the world. The theme for the 2021 meeting is “Advancing Science in a Global and Inclusive Community.”

Anna Llobet Megias’ invited talk in the session “The Pipeline for Physics Careers: Recruiting and Developing Precollege Students in the Era of COVID and Afterward” is titled, “Empowering young women through role models and STEM education, and the unforeseen opportunities (and challenges) of virtual education”, and is held Sunday April 18, 021, 2:06 PM–2:42 PM (Central time).

Societal stereotypes and bias have traditionally impacted the lack of diversity in STEM fields in national laboratories, academia and industry. For the future success of STEM fields, it is critical to empower women and minorities to consider a career in STEM and to support them through purposeful pipeline venues.

Dr. Llobet Megias speaks about strategies that target the specific needs of the communities which call for the most support and encouragement. She will share her process in how she has developed the Summer Physics Camp for Young Women in Northern New Mexico and how that effort is evolving into a pipeline venue.

The goal of this two-week summer program is to increase the interest of high school women in pursuing STEM careers. This camp exposes the students to STEM role models, engages them in participating in experiments and demonstrations, gives tours and exposure to local college opportunities, and teaches about resources and information on local colleges, National Laboratories and internships. The students also learn about how to successfully write a CV, pursue jobs/internships and interviewing.

This summer camp also impacts local public schools by partnering with educators who participate and engage with local STEM professionals. This networking between teachers and STEM professionals gives the teachers ideas for classroom activities and enables them to network with scientists they can invite to their classroom.

This program has been possible thanks to funding from APS minigrant program, Los Alamos National Laboratory and TRIAD, LANL Foundation, New Mexico Consortium, IEEE, Pojoaque Valley and Los Alamos Public schools as well as Athena Engineering scholars program.

To learn more see: https://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR21/Session/K04.2

Article by Carrie Talus, NMC.