Dr. Erin MacDonald opens the conference as the first plenary speaker, sharing her journey from astronomy to science advising for various "Star Trek" shows, resulting in the producers creating an animated character called "Dr. Erin," based on MacDonald. 

As the snow fell the last weekend in January, 180 undergraduate students gathered in the Duane Physics building at the University of Colorado Boulder for the Conference for Undergraduate Women and Gender Minorities in Physics (��������Ƶ*iP).

This annual three-day event, sponsored by the  (APS), aimed to support and inspire undergraduate women and gender minorities to continue their degrees and explore the various places they can take their education. ��������Ƶ Boulder previously hosted the conference in 2017. The local organizing committee (LOC), composed primarily of graduate and undergraduate students from ��������Ƶ Boulder—with guidance from two University of Colorado Boulder Physics professors, including Bethany Wilcox—volunteered to help organize the event over the past year.

The LOC worked hard to ensure that programming reflected the needs of attendees—especially given the diverse backgrounds of students arriving from different institutions. As many of the organizers had attended ��������Ƶ*iP conferences as undergraduates, they hoped to pass on the crucial lessons they learned to the inspiring scientists.

“��������Ƶ*iPs are meant to bolster the next generation of physicists, and we tried very hard to reflect the range of attendee backgrounds and needs our attendees represented,” said one ��������Ƶ Boulder graduate student on the organizing team. “All of our parallel workshop and panel sessions included options for a variety of student interests, and we hope, as a result, everyone felt seen and supported.”

Students inspiring students

Despite their demanding research and class schedules, the LOC met regularly to organize the minute details of the conference.

"This conference has really been a monument to the skill, dedication, and hard work of the incredible graduate and undergraduate women on the LOC,” explained Wilcox. “They have donated so much of their time and energy over the past year to building an incredible program and creating a truly transformational experience for all the student attendees."

As this year’s conference had a higher-than-usual number of incoming participants, the team worked to adapt the conference's events to include more panels on Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) and LGBTQIA+ experiences in physics, along with topics like social identities.

“With a very short timeline, we had to figure out if we could accommodate the new students and how much we would need to increase our budget to make it possible,” added one graduate student conference organizer. “Our whole team was excited about the possibility of bringing even more students to Boulder, so we quickly sprang into action to make it possible.”

The conference efforts were also supported by ��������Ƶ Boulder staff members, including those from JILA and the physics department.

While the APS helped fund part of the conference, the team of students also collaborated with local quantum companies and others to sponsor certain parts of the conference.

“The success of our conference was made possible thanks to the huge outpouring of support from our community,” said one graduate student team organizer. “The donations from ��������Ƶ departments, institutes, and offices, local universities, national labs and our industry partners ensured that we were able to provide an outstanding experience for all of our attendees. Many of our sponsors also attended our networking dinner and fair, giving students a valuable opportunity to connect with physics professionals and gain insights into career pathways.”

The LOC also collaborated with individuals and organizations, such as the Science Writers Association of the Rocky Mountains (SWARM), to teach workshops on science journalism. ��������Ƶ Boulder’s Center for Inclusion and Social Change (CISC) offered seminars on social identities and interrupting racism.

A conference to remember

JILA researchers explain their laboratory set up, headed by JILA Fellow and ��������Ƶ Boulder Physics professor Heather Lewandowski, as part of a laboratory tour during the ��������Ƶ*IP Boulder 2025 conference. (credit: Christine Jackson/JILA)

The conference commenced with optional activities to introduce undergraduates to Boulder, including a downtown walk and lab tours at JILA, the Southwest Research Institute (SWRI) and National Solar Observatory. They also toured labs in the ��������Ƶ Boulder Department of Physics, College of Engineering and Applied Science, New Physics Laboratory (NPL) and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP). Following these tours, attendees gathered in the University Memorial Center for the official welcome address given by APS representative Kathryne Sparks Woodle and ��������Ƶ Boulder Physics Professor Bethany Wilcox.

The evening featured a plenary talk by Dr. Erin Macdonald, an astrophysicist renowned for her work in science communication and consulting for the "Star Trek" franchise. Her talk emphasized the importance of diverse perspectives in physics and inspired attendees to explore interdisciplinary applications of their skills.

“The way I can tell a great plenary ��������Ƶ*iP talk is if I think to myself in the middle, 'Are they talking directly to me?' And then I look around the room to find so many other faces seeming to experience the same feeling,” said one student on the organizing team. “Erin's talk did exactly that, from her confident sharing of her early female science inspirations and crushes to her candid telling of challenges along her journey. It was an incredibly relatable and inspiring talk.”

The day concluded with a networking dinner, fostering connections among participants.

Workshops, panels, posters and a special visit

Saturday began with a BIPOC networking breakfast and continued with a keynote panel discussing diverse careers available to those with a physics degree. Parallel workshop sessions followed, covering topics such as finding one's place in physics, public engagement, funding opportunities, and science communication's significance.

For one ��������Ƶ Boulder physics undergraduate student, attending the Finding One’s Place in Physics workshop was especially memorable. She sat next to a student from a border town in Texas who had been discouraged by many of her teachers from going to college. They told the student she would “amount to nothing.”

“Hearing this was heartbreaking, but she channeled that stigma into motivation, becoming the first in her family to earn an undergraduate degree, with plans to pursue a PhD in physics,” said the undergraduate participant. “Her story, and others like it, were deeply inspiring, highlighting the resilience of women overcoming barriers in STEM.”

After lunch, students packed in tightly on the UMC’s central staircase to take their group photo. That was followed by lunch with a virtual nationwide keynote address by Dr. Meghan Anzelc who shared her journey and insights into leveraging a physics background in various career paths.

The afternoon featured a networking fair and breakout panel sessions, including graduate school admissions, gender minorities and being out in physics, Boulder’s technological hub, BIPOC experiences in physics and discussions on imposter phenomena.

A student poster session showcased ongoing research, providing a platform for undergraduates to present their work and receive feedback. 

“It was rewarding to share my work with a diverse audience, including undergraduates, graduate students, professors and industry professionals,” the undergraduate student said. “My poster generated a lot of interest and even received an Honorable Mention award, which was a validating moment for all my hard work.”

LOC team members and volunteers judged the posters, and six students received awards for their poster design and presentation skills at the end of the conference.

The second evening of the conference, Dr. Desiré Whitmore, the Senior Physics Educator at the Exploratorium in California, shares her interests in lasers and atomic physics in her plenary talk. 

The day concluded with a banquet dinner and a plenary talk by Dr. Desiré Whitmore, an atomic physicist and educator, who shared her experiences and emphasized the importance of resilience and curiosity.

“Desiré's talk was a prime example of ‘show not tell,’” said one graduate student team organizer. “By wowing us with her simple yet powerful demos, she was introducing us to her world, where she designs accessible, hands-on educational experiences in science at Exploratorium and in classrooms around the world. ‘Show not tell’ is also exactly the philosophy of the plenary talks throughout the conference. We would like to bring in inspiring minority figures in physics and show the students how fulfilling careers with a physics degree look like even for a woman or gender minority, and that they can do it, too.”

One of the organizers added: “What I got (and I think a few others, too) from Desiré's talk was a big emphasis on seizing opportunities, bringing your true self into your career, and most importantly, staying curious.”

Connecting beyond ��������Ƶ*iP

The final day offered more activities, including parallel workshop and panel sessions that addressed topics such as CV building, science journalism, interrupting racism and making physics more accessible.

Dr. Christina Willis of quantum computing company Infleqtion gave the final plenary talk before lunch, highlighting the importance of sustainable networking and making your career your own.

The conference concluded with closing remarks and awards and encouraged participants to apply the insights gained to their academic and professional journeys.

“The boundless dedication and creativity of the volunteers made this conference a true triumph for the physics community at ��������Ƶ,” said a student organizer. “It was so amazing to see young students envisioning careers and identities for themselves in physics.” 

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Among the recipients is ��������Ƶ Boulder Physics Professor Meredith Betterton, who, alongside collaborator Jeffrey Moore from ��������Ƶ Anschutz, received funding for their project on tubulinopathies, genetic diseases that disrupt brain and nervous system development due to mutated tubulin proteins.

“You can think of tubulin as being like a brick that is stacked next to other bricks to build a road (the microtubule),” Betterton explained. “One of the puzzles about tublinopathies is that the mutation usually occurs in one tubulin gene out of many, so it affects only a minority (usually 25% or less) of the subunits. We aim to understand how a mutation in one small part of a tubulin gene can cause catastrophic defects at the cell and tissue level, ultimately impacting patients.”

Betterton's and Moore’s research proposes that tubulin mutations influence structural changes in neighboring tubulins, amplifying the mutation's effects and creating serious health issues for individuals.

“This award is very exciting for my lab and me because it will provide seed funding for a new direction for our work,” Betterton added. “It’s a fantastic opportunity to potentially help people affected by these diseases.”

Highlighting the collaborative nature of the project, Betterton emphasized the importance of interdisciplinary research: “We will work with the Moore lab at ��������Ƶ Anschutz to conduct a combined experimental and theoretical study. This award is meaningful because it supports a new idea predicted by our theoretical work, now finding support in experiments. As a theoretical physicist, being able to predict an important new effect is something we all hope to do in our work.”

The AB Nexus program continues cultivating a culture of collaboration and innovation at the University of Colorado. Its vision is to tackle the toughest challenges in human health through teamwork across diverse fields.

As Vice Chancellor Thomas Flaig noted in the award announcement: “Solving the toughest challenges in human health requires teamwork across a wide range of fields, and we’re very proud of how this program has helped to inspire so many new interdisciplinary research projects across our campuses.”

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On April 12, a cohort of Quantum Scholars toured KMLabs, an industry leader in ultrafast laser and X-ray science and an Affiliate of the Quantum Scholars program. KMLabs was founded by Physics Professors and JILA Fellows Henry Kapteyn and Margaret Murnane and began with technologies that were developed at their labs in JILA.

“KMLabs is one of many companies in Boulder and Colorado that is developing unique new quantum metrologies for next-generation nano-devices,” Kapteyn said. “KMLabs was happy to host the Quantum Scholars tour so that students can see how quantum technologies enable real-world applications.”

The students visited with Professors Kapteyn and Murnane—along with other leaders at KMLabs—to learn more about the company and to get a tour of the facilities and labs.

“Understanding the many career pathways that physics training enables is very valuable information," Murnane said. “The Quantum Scholars program is a wonderful resource that ��������Ƶ undergraduates can avail of to broaden their career choices.”

When entering the optics tables and research area, every student had to get dolled-up in cleanroom gear: booties, hair nets, and lab coats.

“Most students had never been inside of a cleanroom, so this was special,” Physics Graduate Student and Quantum Scholars Coordinator Sasha Novack said. “Viewing the optics tables and asking questions was also a high point, as students’ curiosities really went wild, and their questions were almost unending.”

Not only did the students tour the labs where technologies were developed, they learned more about the business and administrative aspects of running a company like KMLabs. Preparing for a career in industry means employing lots of different problem-solving skills, and a degree in physics or engineering means these students are uniquely positioned to solve many kinds of problems.

“We greatly appreciate that the leadership and researchers at KM Labs suspended their work to welcome the quantum scholars into their workspace,” Professor Michael Ritzwoller said. “This is the first time the program brought the scholars into a working quantum company. The ability to witness quantum research in an industrial setting is a mind-expanding experience for the quantum scholars, which will help guide their future professional development.”

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Congratulations to Dr. Zach Ulibarri, who was named a 2024 51 Pegasi b Fellow by the Heising-Simons Foundation. The 51 Pegasi b Fellowship provides postdoctoral scientists with the opportunity to conduct theoretical, observational, and experimental research in planetary astronomy.

Dr. Ulibarri earned his PhD in physics from ��������Ƶ Boulder in Spring 2022. As part of his graduate work, he performed experiments at the , which contributed to the development of the ,  set to launch on NASA’s Europa Clipper in October 2024.

“Most people don't really think about dust, but it’s incredibly important in space,” Ulibarri said. “You can use it to sample the chemistry of planetary objects without landing. You can fly by and scoop up those dust grains without the expense and difficulty of landing on the object.”

Dr. Ulibarri’s experiments determined the speed limit for the breakup of complex organic molecules undergoing hypervelocity impacts, which instruments such as SUDA rely on as they attempt to detect such molecules from orbit.

“Let’s say you’re trying to fly by a planetary object, and it has some sign of life on it,” he said. “If the spacecraft smacks into this thing at five kilometers a second, does it break up that organic biomolecule and destroy the information you’re trying to get? That’s what I studied, and the answer is around seven kilometers a second.”

Zach is now a Postdoctoral Researcher in mechanical and aerospace engineering at Cornell University, where he is working on adapting an instrument called the electrospray ionization mass spectrometer (ESI-MS) for use in space. This instrument currently studies biomolecules on Earth, but during his new fellowship, Dr. Ulibarri hopes to adapt its functionality to work outside of Earth’s parameters, so that delicate extraterrestrial biomolecules can be studied in orbit or on lander spacecraft.

“Electrospray ionization mass spectrometers are fantastically useful instruments and they’re very good at studying organic biomolecules,” he said. “The trouble is they’re massive cubes as tall as I am. They weigh a ton, maybe two. They cost a couple hundred thousand dollars and they’re incredibly complex. The challenge is to put one of these on a spacecraft and have it survive launch and get all the way to a planetary object without breaking.”

Established in 2017, the Heising-Simons Foundation 51 Pegasi b Fellowship is named for the first exoplanet discovered orbiting a Sun-like star. In the growing field of planetary astronomy, scientists study objects both within and beyond our solar system, bridging planetary science and astronomy. From improving our understanding of planetary system formation and evolution, to advancing new technologies for detecting other worlds, 51 Pegasi b Fellows make a unique contribution to the field.

In addition to monetary support of up to $430,000, 51 Pegasi b Fellows will receive networking and mentorship opportunities to help advance their work in this crucial field of astrophysical science.

The Heising-Simons Foundation is a family foundation based in Los Altos and San Francisco, California. The Foundation works with its many partners to advance sustainable solutions in climate and clean energy, enable groundbreaking research in science, enhance the education of our youngest learners, and support human rights for all people. Learn more at .

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Congratulations to the Fall 2023 winners of the Student and Postdoc Awards for Teaching and Service!

Teaching Awards

• Roman Marcarelli: For outstanding contributions to the Physics 2010 and 2020 teaching teams both in labs and in the helproom, over multiple semesters.
• Donna dePolo: For outstanding contributions to the Physics 1230 (Physics of light and color) teaching team, including designing and managing a new photography assignment. 
• Trevor Geerdts: For outstanding contributions to the 1110 teaching teams over the past year, including helping to establish the new academic support room in Will Vill East. 

Service awards

• Wes Johnson: For outstanding contributions to ��������Ƶ-Prime as an organizer and facilitator on the Talks Team.
• Trevor Wright: For sustained and valuable contributions to the Partnerships for Informal Science Education in the Community (PISEC) program over many years
• Jesse Kruse: For outstanding leadership within the Partnerships for Informal Science Education in the Community (PISEC) program
• Aaron Barrios: For outstanding leadership of the Community of Support for Marginalized Students (COSMOS) group within the Physics Department, including developing a ‘Dean’s Innovation Fund Proposal’ to support undergraduate research.
• John Wilson: For outstanding service work including founding and leading the Q-SEnSE student council for several years and also participating in the Physics Frontier Center student group at JILA.

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