Author: Filomena Nunes, Professor of Physics, Michigan State University

As soon as President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, 2025, he signed an executive order titled “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.” This order called for the termination of all diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility – DEIA – mandates, policies and programs in the federal government. These included “equity-related” grants or contracts, such as programs supporting underrepresented people in STEM, and all DEI or DEIA performance requirements for grant recipients – for example, requiring that grant recipients have a plan to address underrepresentation in their area of study. Agencies were given 60 days to implement…

Out of 225 people awarded the Nobel Prize in physics, only five have been women. This is a very small number, and certainly smaller than 50% – the percent of women in the human population. Despite several studies exposing the barriers for women in science and the many efforts to increase their representation, physics continues to be a male-dominated field. Only 1 in 5 physicists are women, a number that has not moved since 2010. Three of the five Nobel Prizes in physics awarded to women have been in the past decade. As a woman physicist, seeing three women join…