Our mission:
Solis aims to foster a community that supports and promotes women and gender minorities in plasma physics, both here on campus and in the plasma physics field as a whole. We also aim to share our passion for plasma physics with younger women and gender minorities in STEM through educational outreach.
According to a set of statistics compiled by the APS Division of Plasma Physics (APS-DPP), plasma physics is the division of APS with the lowest percentage of female participation. While APS as a whole has experienced an increase in female membership in recent years and is presently at ~15%, DPP has been stagnant at ~10% female participation for the past seven years, with the current level being 11%. The data also shows a clear leaky pipeline issue. Over the last eleven years, DPP lost roughly two-thirds of its female members as they progressed in seniority from undergraduate student members to regular members (with graduate student and early career scientist members being the categories in between). Information about nonbinary and transgender members has not even been historically gathered.
As a society for women and gender minorities in plasma physics, Solis is aiming to fix this leaky pipeline within UW-Madison and the broader plasma physics community. We hope to provide a place for female, nonbinary, and transgender students in plasma physics to access mentorship, professional development, and community.
