Founded in 2014, Women in Physics (WiP) is a student-run organization committed to inspiring all students to actively participate in the academic community. One event the group has hosted recently is a three-part workshop about LaTeX, a software system for typesetting documents. It is most typically used to typeset academic documents, from reports to research publications, and it is widely required by academic journals. Even a basic understanding of LaTeX can make life easier when students start writing their own papers. Most of the skills the workshop covers are useful not just for physics students but for undergraduate and graduate students in every department. Therefore, WiP decided to keep the workshop open to everyone.
The last part of this workshop will be hosted on Tuesday, Oct. 6, from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. in Rekhi Hall. Additionally, the WiP has a similar workshop coming up on Linux, an open-source operating system.
The instructor of the LaTeX workshop, graduate student Krishna Teja Vedula, explained that “Women in Physics host technical workshops every semester and are made for students who are actively doing research in our department or hoping to in the future, but of course all students are welcome to participate.” She said that the LaTeX and Linux systems are required knowledge for physics but aren’t usually covered in the coursework of the program. “Historically, women have been less likely to receive the kind of mentoring that exposes these topics through informal education. So the goal of the WiP workshops is to shine a light on the fact that these skills are needed and to make them accessible early so that our students can focus on their research,” said Vedula.
The American Institute of Physics (AIP) has found that women are underrepresented in physics. In 2007, women earned 21 percent of physics bachelor’s degrees and 18 percent of physics doctoral degrees, according to AIP’s presentation on Challenges Facing Women in Physics. The institute has also found that physics, engineering, and computer science have the lowest percentage of women among doctorate recipients, based on a 2017 Survey of Earned Doctorates distributed by the National Science Foundation. Over time, there has been an increase in women hired in higher-level positions such as tenured, tenure-track, and other permanent positions. Based on a 2018 global survey of scientists, about half of women felt discriminated against in the evaluation of their achievements because of their gender, and 29 percent of women reported experiencing sexual harassment at school or work.
For Michigan Tech specifically, the percentage of bachelor’s degrees in physics awarded to women has remained relatively stagnant over the past two decades at around 22 percent, while doctorate degrees stayed fairly similar, hovering at around 20 percent for the past decade. WiP President Grace Nelson, a fourth-year Applied Physics major, stated, “I am one of three women in the class of 12 graduating physics seniors this year. In physics classes, I am typically one of four or five women out of roughly 15 students, with some classes having closer to 20 students. Frequently, there is a mix of student years in classes, which I would guess is the reason for there being more women in classes as opposed to years of students.”
In 2025, the American Physical Society (APS) held the Conference for Undergraduate Women and Gender Minorities in Physics (CU*iP). This conference hosted guest speakers talking about various fields of physics, as well as panels and roundtable discussions where students can hear what career life is like as a physicist. Lab tours also took place, where students could visit facilities around campus and see what it’s like to work in a lab setting; poster sessions where members could share their research and practice speaking about research with professors and colleagues; and career exhibitions where representatives from colleges spoke on their graduate programs.
The WiP’s next event is their Linux workshop, which is being held on Oct. 13, from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. in EERC 229.
