SPS and the National Society of Hispanic Physicists (NSHP) are offer free joint student memberships. If you an SPS student and wish to join NSHP, please email sps [at] aip.org or indicate on your membership application your desire to join. We aim to support each other through all of our activities.
Mission
The purpose of NSHP is to promote the professional well-being and recognize the accomplishments of Hispanic physicists within the scientific community of the United States and within society at large.
The Society seeks to develop and support efforts to increase opportunities for Hispanics in physics and to increase the number of practicing Hispanic physicists, particularly by encouraging Hispanic students to enter a career in physics.
Background
The American physics community at the beginning of the 21st is still under-represented in terms of the number of practicing Hispanic physicists. While the causes as to why are multi-faceted, the Society has undertaken addressing this issue through four broad activities:
- By promoting the study of physics among Hispanic students. This includes encouraging and mentoring students where appropriate, developing resources for undergraduate study, research, and participation in the scientific community. And also to serve as role models for the students and a resource for their families when needed.
- By identifying and heralding the accomplishments of Hispanic faculty and students. There are so few of us in physics that significant and noteworthy accomplishments are too often lost among the crowd. And so valuable and important accomplishments frequently go unnoticed and un-remarked. Our society intends to recognize and celebrate these accomplishments of faculty and students in research, teaching, study, mentoring and outreach. Particularly since so many institutions do not yet have a way of recognizing these significant activities.
- By providing a forum through which Hispanic faculty and students can come together and celebrate not just the pursuit, and passion, of science but also sharing a rich and vibrant culture.
- By working with the larger physics community as teachers, faculty, administrators, and societies work to transform the physics community into a more inclusive and diversified one. This work includes joining with other societies, developing resources, and highlighting effective practices and programs.