According to an American Physical Society study, only 13 percent of all physics undergraduates in 2018 identified as being from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have partnered to build a new fellowship program that aims to encourage a more diverse student population to join the field.
The program, Nuclear Physics in Eastern TN (NPET), launches this summer and will engage undergraduate students from Minority Serving Institutions and promote participation in nuclear physics research. The program is funded by the US Department of Energy, which encourages a diverse group of young scientists to pursue nuclear physics developments that support the agency’s mission.