Statement on Diversity

The National Society of Hispanic Physicists (NSHP) believes that all individuals, regardless of gender, age, race, ethnic background, disability, sexual preference, or national origin, must be provided with equality of opportunity to pursue and advance in physics careers. In order to meet that goal the physics community within the United States must better engage the knowledge and talents of our diverse population, increase the viability of physics as a career option for all individuals, and promote the pursuit of physics careers by historically under-represented groups.

NSHP believes that diversity enriches the educational experience and improves the practice of physics. A richly diverse intellectual and social environment gives us the opportunity to learn from those whose experiences, beliefs, and perspectives are different from our own.

NSHP recognizes that steady gains have been made in the number of women, African-Americans, Hispanic/Latino-Americans, and Native Americans in physics over the past decade. However, these gains have been small. Facing a future in which no group will be a majority in the US, the continued under-representation of any group will have an increasingly harmful effect on the physics profession, on under-represented groups, on society as a whole, and on the economy of the United States.

NSHP believes that increasing diversity in the physics profession can best be achieved by promoting greater participation of people from varying backgrounds while supporting the education, recruitment, retention, and advancement of these groups in physics education and the physics profession.

adopted by the Board of the National Society of Hispanic Physicists, 15 February 2009

Last updated 02/20/2009