Long Beach Ranked Among Nation's Best for Awarding Physics Degrees to Diverse Students

Published March 18, 2019

California State University Long Beach (CSULB) has been recognized as ​being among the nation's highest awarders of physics degrees by the American Physical Society (APS), especially to women and underrepresented minorities. Galen Pickett, Ph.D., a professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department at CSULB, says the recognition from APS is linked to years of dedication by the CSU to encourage underserved students to pursue careers in STEM fields.

"The CSU is making good on its promise to extend opportunities in STEM education to underserved students, who are traditionally underrepresented in STEM fields," Dr. Pickett says. "At CSU Long Beach, we make a great effort to show students from these groups potential STEM career paths they may not even be aware are open to them and holistically support their aspirations."

Rankings from the American Physical Society

The rankings separate schools by highest degree in physics awarded: bachelor's degrees, master's degrees and doctoral degrees. CSULB is a physics master's degree granting institution.

For CSULB:

  • awarding the highest number of undergraduate physics degrees overall: rank 1
  • awarding the highest number of undergraduate physics degrees to underrepresented minorities: rank 2
  • awarding the highest number of undergraduate physics degrees to women: rank 1
  • awarding the highest number of master's degrees in physics overall: rank 2
  • awarding the highest number of master's degrees in physics to underrepresented minorities: rank 1
  • awarding the highest number of master's degrees in physics to women: rank 5
  • among all institutions granting the highest number of undergraduate physics degrees to Hispanics: rank 3

Read Full Article

Physics Teacher Education Program

CSULB is also part of the APS's Physics Teacher Education Program (PhysTEC). The CSULB PhysTEC project works to address the dramatic shortage of qualified teachers of physics and physical science in the United States. It does this by experimenting with and refining models of teacher education programs, by disseminating information about innovative programs to the physics community, and by working directly with physics departments to engage them in a full spectrum of activities necessary to educate and encourage these teachers.