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March 24, 2020

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Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics UK 2020

The Quantum Communications Hub was delighted to support the Conference for Undergraduate Women UK 2020 (CUWiP UK) between 12 and 15 March 2020, at the University of York. The conference was attended by over 100 undergraduate students, who identify as women, and had a schedule packed with interesting and inspiring activities.

The conference included trips to the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre at the University of Sheffield and the York Plasma Institute, along with various workshops such as ‘Unconscious Bias’, ‘Meet a Medical Physicist’ and ‘Engaging with the media’.

Delegates also had the opportunity to attend academic and industry panel discussions. The academic panel featured Prof Marialuisa Aliotta, Dr Kate Lancaster, Prof Petra Rudolf and Prof
 
Sarah Thompson, chaired by Dr Marina Petri. The industry panel included Dr Heather Barton (EDF Energy), Sarah Dempsey (Peratech Holdco Limited), Leah Morgan (UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), Xanthe Jackson (BAE Systems) & Suzy Beanland (Darktrace), chaired by Beth Medley of the White Rose Industrial Academy.

Keynote talks were given by:

  • Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who inadvertently discovered pulsars as a graduate student in radio astronomy in Cambridge, opening up a new branch of astrophysics;
  • Prof Daniela Bortoletto,  a co-discoverer of the Higgs boson and the top quark;
  • Sue Nelson, an award-winning science journalist, the co-director of Boffin Media and a sought after media trainer and speaker;
  • and Prof Petra Rudolf, President of the European Physical Society and who has published >230 peer-reviewed articles and 26 book chapters.