I’ve already mentioned that I’m looking forward to seeing Jim Gates speak at the festival this October. Dr. Gates is the first African-American to hold an endowed chair in physics at a major research university in the US. He is also the former President of the National Society of Black Physicists.

While googling around, I found an interview from 2005 with Dr. Gates in the journal Science, where he likened African Americans in physics to jazz musicians, contributing a different, yet “new and valuable” aesthetic in their work. Later that same year, Jim Austin of Science Magazine called Dr. Gates a “rare bird” for being an African American theoretical physicist.  I wondered, how exactly rare is it to be an African American theoretical physicist?

I did a bit of research on the issue and it seems that African Americans are still considerably under-represented in physics. In September, 2008, the American Institute of Physics released a report titled, “Untapped Talent: The African American Presence in Physics and the Geosciences.” The study revealed a few interesting findings. For example:

• In 2004, 4.7% of PhDs in all disciplines were earned by African Americans.
• During the same year, 1% of all PhDs in physics were granted to African Americans.
• In 2004, there were 64 African American faculty members out of 185 physics departments in the United States.
• Between 1973 and 2004, more than 37,600 physics degrees were granted in America. Of this number, 291 degrees were earned by African American students.

To put these stats in context, it’s important to know that African Americans occupy 13% of the population.

I haven’t found any stats for Canada yet. It would be interesting to see the difference. As it stands, 28 of the physics faculty in US universities – or 44% of the total – come from HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) of which Canada has none, at least none that I’m aware of.

You can read more reports on minorities in physics at the American Institute of Physics. Or, see what Jim Gates said when he weighed in on the issue here.

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