TEAM-UP Together is a collective action initiative led by the American Institute of Physics, American Association of Physics Teachers, American Astronomical Society, American Physical Society and the Society of Physics Students to stand with the scientific community in taking the next bold step to double the number of African American students earning physics and astronomy bachelor’s degrees annually by 2030.
For many decades, African Americans have been disproportionately underrepresented among bachelor’s degree recipients in physics and astronomy.
In 2020 the AIP TEAM-UP Task Force uncovered why this underrepresentation persists and what we, as a scientific community can do to begin reversing this alarming trend.
The AIP TEAM-UP Report identified five factors: Belonging, Physics Identity, Academic Support, Personal Support, and Leadership and Structures, that affect the persistence of African Americans in physics and astronomy and concludes that their underrepresentation in these fields is due to unsupportive environments in some physics departments, and the enormous financial challenges faced by many of them and the programs that best support them.
This new TEAM-UP Together initiative builds on the TEAM-UP work and takes a multi-layered approach to addressing these barriers by engaging a variety of stakeholders within the scientific ecosystem, including faculty, departments, institutions, professional societies, funding organizations, policy leaders, and others to create systemic change.
There are two main components of TEAM-UP Together:
- Student Program: Began in June 2022 with the TEAMUP Together Scholarship Program which provides direct funding and professional development to African American physics and astronomy undergraduate students; administered through the Society of Physics Students.
- Departmental program: To begin in 2023 and will provide funding for physics and astronomy departmental efforts and programs that prioritize and support successful outcomes for African American undergraduates in these fields.
As TEAM-UP Together evolves, we will update this site with more information. Please check back frequently.
TEAM-UP Together (TU-T) is supported by the Simons Foundation and Simons Foundation International.