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www.cost.eu/mpns
COST Action no. MP1210
20132017
“The String Theory Universe”:
A EU project in Physics with a
gender component
Materials,
Physics &
Nanosciences
(MPNS)
Participating countries: 20
A, BE, BG, CH, DE, DK, EL, ES, FR,
HU, IE, IL, IS, IT, NL, PT, SI, SE, TR,
UK
Internat. Collaboration:
ZA, CERN (CH), CL, AR, US, AU
Contact details
Chair of the Action
Silvia Penati
[email protected]
Main objectives of the Action
 Action in String Theory aimed at coordinating
fundamental forefront research exploring the role played by String
Theory in Particle Physics, Cosmology and Condensed Matter
 Strong commitment in gender with the ultimate goal of promoting
specific actions for redressing gender imbalance in the field
Why the gender aspect
 String Theory is likely to be the research field inside the so-called
“hard sciences” with fewer women scientists, around 10%
 As a consequence, professional interactions with women are scarce,
women are often left out of decision making processes, and have
more difficulties in accessing top positions
 This makes the field less attractive to younger women, who perceive
that String Theory is not a girl-thing, making the situation hard to
improve
Vice-Chair of the Action
Yolanda Lozano
[email protected]
Science Officer (COST Office)
Fatima Bouchama
[email protected]
Action Website
www.
cost.eu/domains_actions/mpns/Actions
/MP1210
The Action
 Project not gender biased and strictly based on scientific excellence.
All world-leading European scientists (male and female) doing
research in String Theory are involved
 Action organized in working groups. Four are scientific and one,
WG5, is devoted to gender and outreach
 The first objective of WG5 has been to raise the awareness of the
community about the gender problem
 Discussion sessions led by women scientists and gender experts
have been organized in all main scientific events held by the Action.
 Next step has been to organize the “First Workshop on String Theory
and Gender” (Valencia, July 2015) (follow up in preparation (Paris,
June 2016)) and to attend the European Gender Summits. The aim is
to learn from gender experts which specific measures can be
reasonably applied to our field
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