Physics postdoctoral researcher Jyoti Katoch documents the specific ways Ohio State’s Department of Physics has been working to create a welcoming, supportive atmosphere to build the numbers of women in physics at all levels in an article recently published by the American Physical Society (APS) online. 

Katoch, who arrived at Ohio State in July 2014, chose Ohio State’s physics department in part because of the “friendly to women and under-represented minorities’ atmosphere” she experienced when she came to visit.

“My first year here has confirmed those initial impressions,” Katoch said. “Everyone has been welcoming, helpful, encouraging — staff and faculty — both in and outside my research group.”

Katoch, a postdoc in Professor Roland Kawakami’s laboratories, said, “Roland has been extremely supportive of me to the point where I now lead research efforts in one of his labs. “And, when I first came here it was great to see that I would not be the lone woman; there are three female graduate students in his lab.”

In the best of all possible worlds, this would not be unusual. However, in Katoch’s lab at the University of Central Florida, she was the only woman. “I was lucky, though,” she said. “My advisor and research mentor was wonderful. He never treated me differently from the male graduate students in his lab — he was always encouraging and supportive — even providing me with resources I needed to form the Physics Women Society in the department.”

It should not be surprising that for Katoch and for other women and underrepresented minorities strong mentorship is critical.    

“Having a great mentor is an asset to anyone, but particularly so for women and minorities typically not encouraged to go into STEM fields,” Katoch said. “It can be difficult to continue on your path if you find yourself different from others in your classroom, and in your lab unless your peers and mentors are sensitive, supportive and encouraging.”

The Department of Physics is bent on changing the landscape through very specific, targeted initiatives — many of which Katoch outlines in her APS article.

“The real key,” she said, “is to recognize the problem — and desire to do something. Nothing happens unless you look around and acknowledge that a handful of women, a sprinkling of minorities, is not where you should be in the 21st century. Not everyone recognizes the problem even now, but thankfully Ohio State does.”   

Katoch wants to be a part of the solution. APS has been attempting to address this issue through a variety of initiatives, one of which is their APS Conferences for Undergraduate Women in Physics, or APS CUWiP.

Katoch, who had attended an APS Conference that included a workshop on negotiation — a skill that most women are not taught at their father’s knee — benefited so much from it that she wanted to bring an APS Conference to Ohio State.

With the help of Physics Professor Nandini Trivedi; and graduate student Sara Mueller, who as an undergraduate, was inspired by attending an APS CUWiP; and support from many others in the department, she is doing just that. Ohio State is one of the only nine universities across the country selected to host this conference.

About 200 undergraduate women in physics are expected to take part in Ohio State’s APS CUWiP Conference to be held on campus Jan. 15-17, 2016.

—Sandi Rutkowski