Marie Curie - and further? Women in physics are rare. To enable them to exchange ideas and network, the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) and TU Darmstadt are hosting the 25th German Conference of Women Physicists from November 8 to 10. About 300 virtual participants of all career levels are expected, registrations are still possible. An interview about annoying questions, one-sided education and possible Nobel Prize winners with UDE organizer Dr. Katharina Ollefs.

Dr. Ollefs, why is there a conference specifically for female physicists?
There are simply still relatively few women in physics, despite the positive developments, and they are often less visible. We want to move that forward. Career choice is of course a personal matter, but there are also more global phenomena, for example that girls and women are often not encouraged in this direction. I myself have been asked a hundred times whether I really want to study physics, and what I want to do with it afterwards as a woman. The challenges and sometimes hurdles are similar for most of them.

Why do you think comparatively few women are physicists?
I don't know either, it's such a beautiful subject (laughs). Maybe it's because the career field is not clearly defined: you can work for an insurance company or as a development engineer, do research at a university, and so on. But planning for the future in research can be difficult when important career steps collide with family planning. It probably also has something to do with parenting: In research, you also have to be able to say sometimes 'You may not think it's going to work out this way, but I'm just going to do it now.' I'm sure many girls are still being brought up with too much restraint.

How do the people you talk to react when you tell them you're a physicist?
They usually react with astonishment, and after that often comes either "Oh, I already didn't like that in school" or "But that's a difficult subject, isn't it?"

In the history of the Nobel Prizes in Physics, the award has only gone to a woman four times. In your view, is there a promising female candidate for the coming years?
That's not an easy question, but there are many impressive female researchers. If you look to the fringes of physics toward chemistry, Roberta Sessoli comes to mind, or in my own field of research, Gisela Schütz, the pioneer of magnetic X-ray circular dichroism. But there are also promising younger women scientists, for example Naemi Leo, this year's Herta Sponer Prize winner, who is working on artificial metamaterials and multiferroics, or Claire Donnelly, who is investigating magnetic structures in 3D. The two will also be speakers at the Physicists' Conference.

The scientific focus of the meeting will be two Collaborative Research Centers* - is that common?
These two SFBs are firmly anchored at the UDE, which is why we have placed the focus of the conference in this way. This is an unusual focus for a physicists' conference, otherwise they are more broadly based. We are therefore looking forward to the feedback, because it is a challenge for the speakers to present their topics in a way that is also understandable for physicists who are not familiar with the subject. With two exceptions, we only have female speakers in the scientific program.

How is the purely digital conference structured?
There are scientific lectures, and in parallel we have various workshops that are already fully booked. But we don't have a limit on the number of participants in the scientific program, so you can still register for that.

Are non-female participants also invited?
Of course they are! Because it is important to us that our male colleagues also hear the excellent female speakers. However, the special coaching program is only for women.

Now, finally, tell us: What's in the goodie package that was sent out with early registrations?
Oh, quite a lot, I just unwrapped mine. The most interesting thing is probably a pair of 3D glasses that you can put together and put your smartphone in. We plan to offer virtual lab tours of this during the conference.

The questions were asked by Birte Vierjahn.

* The 25th German Conference of Women Physicists in cooperation with the German Physical Society (DPG) is organized by the UDE and the Technical University of Darmstadt. The scientific focus is set by the Collaborative Research Centers (SFB) "Non-equilibrium Dynamics of Condensed Matter in the Time Domain" (SFB 1242)" and "Hysteresis Design of Magnetic Materials for Efficient Energy Conversion" (SFB/TRR 270 HoMMage).

The big packing has started! Every participant of the "25. Dt. Physikerinnentagung 2021" will receive a package with conference T-shirt, mug, obligatory "conference bag" and lots of nerve food and physics toys in the next days. Prerequisite: Register and order package with or without shirt before stocks run out.

SFB 1242 - Non-equilibrium dynamics of condensed matter in the time domain

What happens in a billionth of a billionth of a second in the world of atoms and molecules? That's what Collaborative Research Center 1242 is investigating - and even making the unimaginably fast visible to the human eye.

21 ...22 ... If you want to estimate the duration of a second, you can use a convenient trick. At normal speaking speed, we reproduce four syllables in about one second. In everyday life, this may often be quite sufficient - but it's a different story in the world of research. Here, much more precise times are important, and fractions of a second can matter. But what is a second?

DUISBURG IS REAL

Since you unfortunately cannot be with us on site, the image film of Duisburg Kontor GmbH can certainly provide some nice insights. Click here for the film

The registration deadline and submission deadline are extended to the 15^th October 2021.

You will have more time to upload your abstract and apply for a contributed talk.

Registration & Submission

Have you already registered for our conference?

Our conference is completely free of charge. In addition to a free goodie bag, each participant will receive one of the popular physicists' shirts for free.

Don't forget to tick the goodie bag when you register.

During our conference you can decide whether you want to attend the scientific lectures or visit one of the online workshops. We have deliberately chosen short workshops so that you can remain flexible in your time.

Our Workshop overview can be found here.

To give everyone the opportunity to participate, one workshop can be attended per participant. If necessary, remaining places will be announced in time.

Further information are given under: Program/Online Workshops

Registration for the 25th German Female Physicists‘ Conference is in full swing. Be quick, book your desired workshop and receive our free goodie bag including our Physikerinnen shirt.

Please click here for your registration!

Stay tuned - the posting starts soon.

Curious? Have a look at the poster here.

We are pleased to celebrate with you the 25th anniversary of the German Female Physicists' Conference. Our meeting will take place from November 8 to 10, 2021 online. As in previous years, we invite you to a scientific conference.

The collaborative research centres SFB 1242 (University of Duisburg-Essen) and SFB/TRR 270 (TU Darmstadt), established by the German Research Foundation, will present their research topics "Non-Equilibrium Dynamics of Condensed Matter in the Time Domain" and "Hysteresis design of magnetic materials for efficient energy conversion (HoMMage)". For this purpose, we have invited national and international female scientists. They will introduce their research program in their talks and will be available to their audience for discussion and exchange. In addition to this scientific program, we also invite you to our supporting program.

Parallel to the stream of scientific talks, there will be a stream of workshops. Have a look through our program and decide for yourself which sessions, workshops or even poster sessions you would like to attend. We wish all of you an exciting and varied physicists' conference with plenty of opportunity to exchange ideas with your colleagues.

Katharina Ollefs, Nora Dörmann