On November 27, Francesca Ferlaino was invited to present the atom*innen project at the University of Vienna. The event, organised by Brigitte Bischof, Diversity Coordinator at the Faculty of Physics, focused on women in quantum science and offered an engaging forum for discussion.
In her presentation, Francesca Ferlaino highlighted recent activities on the atom*innen platform: A current focus of the project is the systematic analysis and visualisation of data on women in physics: How many women study physics, and at which academic levels? How do these figures compare internationally? What trends can be observed over time? She also introduced the Women4Quantum initiative, demonstrating how such efforts help translate ideas into concrete measures that promote gender equity in quantum physics.
The programme also included two keynote contributions:
Andrea Reichenberger (Technische Universität München) offered new insights into the history of quantum physics, emphasising the contributions of women whose work has often been overlooked. She pointed to the lack of comprehensive historical studies in this area and discussed how established narratives shape today’s perception of research and scientific culture.
Simone Rademacher (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) presented a data-driven analysis of women’s participation in mathematical physics. Drawing on registration data from the International Congresses of Mathematical Physics (2016–2021), evaluated together with Serena Cenatiempo, she identified an encouraging upward trend, though the proportion of women remains below the overall average for mathematics. Their findings also indicate that female students and doctoral candidates continue to face structural barriers.
We look forward to further collaborations with the spekaers. Meanwhile, you can have a look at our visualizations here: https://lnkd.in/dzZJY9-Y
