Hello, and welcome to the Physics World Stories podcast. I'm Andre Glesser. And in this episode, we're exploring QWIP plus, the conference for undergraduate women in physics. Picture a university lecture hall. It's 9AM. It's packed, and you're looking at a sea of future physicists. If you look closely at the demographics of that room, the statistics tell a disappointing story. While girls perform just as well as boys at GCSE physics, the numbers drop at
a level. And by the time we reach the graduate level in The UK, women make up only around 20 to 25 of the cohort. This is a persistent gap but once a year there's an event that completely flips that dynamic and it is QWIP plus. It's an initiative designed to stop that leaky pipeline, combat isolation, and show students that they belong in this field.
Following the success of the twenty twenty five conference, I wanted to find out exactly what happens at these events and why they're so vital for the retention instead. Step. So I caught up with doctor June Macombie from the University of Nottingham, a key figure in The UK organization of the events, and we're also joined by two brilliant undergraduate physicists who are right in the middle of the action.
We'll look ahead to the conference in Birmingham, UK in 2026, but we'll also look back at the successes of this year's Qwik plus. I'm June Macombie. I'm an honorary fellow at the University of Nottingham. And the reason I'm talking to you is that I chair the national organizing committee and the national steering group of QWIP plus, which is the conference for undergraduate women in physics plus non binary.
And the plus bit, indicates non binary. We didn't want to change the whole name, when we when we thought about it deeply. And my background in physics, I I actually worked a long time in chemistry department, but I've worked as a laser spectroscopist and then as an astrophysical chemist. Hi, everyone. My name is Tantra Pree Kaur. I'm a final year natural sciences student at the University of Birmingham. I study physics and biology. I'm interested in interdisciplinary science, and collaboration.
And I was very lucky to attend QIP plus at Warwick just this year, and I'm very happy to be in the committee, here at Birmingham for keyword plus twenty twenty six. And the way that I've contributed to the upcoming conference is that I contributed ideas to the kind of speakers that we can have, topics that can be included in the conference, suggesting ideas for sponsors. It's been really fun, to organize, a conference with academics and other students.
And I'm really looking forward to meeting a lot more people during cuba plus. So I'll see you there. My name is Harrick McCormick. I am a second year physics student at the University of Birmingham. I primarily am interested in nuclear physics and nuclear decommissioning. My role in QWIP is basically the same as Tun's Pre, so I'm not gonna go, like, pop out over it. But, yeah, I went to the Warwick Conference earlier this year, and I'm on the committee for the next Birmingham Conference.
So I'm just working towards that right now. So I think this is probably the first question is probably going to be for June, which is, you know, how did Cuwit Plus start, and why did it start? Well, it started in 2006 in California. That was the first grassroots conference with that name. It continued in The States as a sort of more or less a grassroots organization until 2012 when the, American Physical Society
took over an institutional role. Now I should say that Cuba within The States, slightly different model from Cuba within The UK because it's a big country, and there were a lot of students. And so it was run more or less on a state, basis. So California had an event. I'm gonna say Massachusetts had an event, etcetera. So and it is still running in states.
But in, 2013, Daniela Bortolotti, who was involved in, QWIP in The US, moved to Oxford where she's head of the particle physics group, And she decided that it was such a good thing. She'd she'd seen its effect on students and on departments in, in America. So when she moved from America to The UK, she decided to start running QWIP in The UK.
And for, five years, she ran it at Oxford, and had an amazing group of women at Oxford who sort of promoted it and did organize it and evaluated it, always important, evaluated its impact. And for five years, she that group she and that group of women really got a good momentum going for it. But, but one of the things about QIP, QIP plus is it now is is that it not only affects the students who attend, it affects the,
the department that hosts it. So the decision was made in conjunction with funders that it should start traveling around the country. And so for the last six years, it has traveled around the country. Marina Petri at York was the first brave person to take this on outside of Oxford. And it's been at York, Southampton, Glasgow, Liverpool, Limerick, and Warwick. And now it's in Birmingham next year, and the year after that in 2027,
it will be in Edinburgh. And it's evolved because it, as you can tell from it being QWIP plus now, it's not only, well, it's women and non binary participants. So that's why because we still have this stubborn 20% number in physics departments, among the undergraduate population. And, literally, in my in my sort of professional life, millions millions of pounds have been put into shifting that 20% participation
of women. And forgive me, I'll I'll refer to women, women participating in undergraduate physics degrees. And, it's not moved. So there are other reasons for that not to do with the delivery at the university level, but, but that number is still there. And it means that it's it's it's so important for, undergraduate women in physics to be able to network and to be mentored and to see possible career paths and to be able to network with each
other. You know? But small departments, that will be a small number of women that you will meet doing your subject, passionate about your subject. But what's wrong with the way that we are, talking about physics that's not attracting women to it? I feel that physics is the way it the way it's presented in schools, like, it presents as a masculine subject, especially opposed to, say, biology and chemistry.
I mean, that's the really big thing is that if you are a girl who is interested in science, you know, I think we've come a lot of way since, you know, the sixties where, you know, my nan wasn't taught science at school. So the fact that now women are allowed to, like, do science subjects and, obviously, requires to do science subjects. But now if a girl sort of expresses interest in science, they're sort of pushed into the
biology chemistry side of it. I think with physics because I I don't wanna say it as, like, an annoying physicist, but physics is obviously the that's the hardest one. You know what I mean? I don't wanna be like, my girlfriend's literally a chemistry student, but, like, but, you know, it's traditionally seen as, like, the the most the most intelligent one. You know?
So when a, like, when a, like, a young girl sort of expresses interest in more analytical scientific stuff, they're sort of pushed into these sort of again, there's nothing wrong with biology and chemistry, but they're sort of shoehorned into those sort of places.
And if you look at sort of like the first of accounts of people, say, I think if you're interested and talk to students who came from all girls' schools, like, specifically all school girls' grammars, is that they those like, they have loads of people going into physics in those pea in those sort of, like,
in those schools. Like, most of the girls you'll speak to in the undergraduate physics courses will have gone to all girls schools because I you feel very ostracized in sort of I think the the three biggest ones that girls feel ostracizing at school are maths, physics, and computer science. Yeah. I mean, it's seen as an unfeminine thing to do, and it basically puts a target on your back in a very, like, already horrible place, you know, being in secondary school where you
just wanna keep your head down. Having doing these things put targets on your back and whatnot, like, I in my, like, in my physics GCSE because I didn't actually do physics at a level. I have a I have a weird way that I got into physics, but I didn't do physics a level. But in my physics GCSE, my physics teacher I was one of the, say, the privileged people to have a specialist physics, like, somebody who did a physics degree be a teacher.
But he used to talk about again, I won't go into the details of it because it wasn't appropriate for children, but he used to go into very details about his sex issues on women, how much he hated women. He sort of exploits with women to a bunch of 15 year old students, and it just sort of puts this far, this far of this physics being a very much a boys' club. That's extraordinary. I'm very, very sorry to hear that. That's I just I just can't quite believe that. I I don't wanna go too much into
it. So but there was something you said there, which I do want to go into, which is you had a weird way into physics. Go on. Tell us what's your weird way into physics. Yeah. I I don't know. When I was 16, I was trying to be rebellious because my mom's a math teacher. So I guess I was trying I I was into science. So I was like, what if we just do all humanities for a levels and be, like, different or whatever? Then I started doing all my humanities subjects, then I was like, get me out of
here. You know what I mean? I was like, k. Get me out of here. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a marine biologist. I was really into biology. You know, I was coming to the end of my a levels, and I was like, I do not wanna do a humanities degree. Get me like, don't make me do this. And then I found out about foundation years. So the University of Birmingham offers a foundation year for people who haven't studied maths or physics at a level to go into,
computer science, engineering, or physics. And a lot of other universities like Nottingham also offers it, like a similar sort of course. I just wanted to go into physics for for some very odd reasons. One, just because I was good at maths, you know, having a mom with a maths teacher. But, also, I'm really into science fiction, so I was just I I was just like, oh, it's a doctor who degree. Let's do this. Very serious, very, like you know?
But, you know, I I came into it, and I just, like, I came into it for a problem that, like, you know, science fiction, I'm good at math sort of side of it, and then really found my sort of love in nuclear energy. And I've to effect, coming into sort of thoughts about women in physics, I feel that women, when they go into degrees, they're sort of expected to have their sort of life plan a lot more fixed in their mind. They're not allowed to sort of have, say, what I went through just be like, I
like science fiction. I like math. Let's do physics. They're sort of expected to be like, let's go to medicine, and I'm gonna be a doctor. I'm gonna be a GP. I'm gonna get money, and I'm gonna support my family. But they're not really allowed to have a freedom. I think a lot of, like, young boys going into degrees are of just being able to be like, I like this
subject. Yeah. Let's do it. Yeah. I mean, I think that also puts away people going to physics because we don't really have much as a general thing from boys and girls, we don't really have much of a knowledge of what do you actually do with a physics degree in most people. And I acknowledge what you do with an engineering degree, but people don't, like, know what you do with a physics degree, really. Transparent? Yeah. I really agree with everything that Harriet has talked about.
Like Harriet said, physics isn't really seen as a naturally feminine or girly subject for people to follow. And I think it's quite tricky as well because physics and math are probably two of the subjects that are not taught very well at school. So I think it's a bit difficult if someone does have the potential to do well in physics or math or whatever, but they don't really have the support that goes with, doing well, in those subjects and getting ahead.
And I think I just wanna say that I think what I've found is having a supportive network can be really helpful in helping you to follow your interest because I went to a co ed school myself, and very few people were interested in the sciences. My friends certainly weren't, but they were quite supportive in, like, what I wanna do at a level, what I wanna do a degree, and that sort of thing. So I I think that I like physics. I like biology, so that's obviously what I'm gonna do.
And I think it's important to have supportive teachers as well, which is unfortunately not something everyone gets. But I guess that's the sort of supportive network that Kiwi plus is trying to give to people who have managed to at least study physics, at degree level because it just shows you that the experiences that we have are quite similar often. And it's really important to support people in, like, following what they're interested in. Jean?
The research that's been done into this shows that underrepresented groups are are put off by outdated stereotypes that occur within in the physics community. And, also, there's a gap of three and a half thousand specialist physics teachers. Right? That's the gap in not physics teachers. And it's very hard for somebody who's not a specialist in that's in a subject to go into a classroom and really enthuse the class.
Lots of them make huge efforts and undertake CPD, continuing professional development even though their original degrees might have been in biology or psychology, but they they will not start with that immediate passion, which is really important to get across. And, you know, women and other and other underrepresented groups are really, put off by the outdated stereotype that appears. So yeah. Just to say but you two illustrated that beautifully, actually.
Absolutely. I mean, you've you've touched on the fact that, you know, this isn't the only underrepresented group, and there are other groups. So people of color, working class people, mature students, migrants, for example. Is is that something that's covered in the conference, or is it specifically looking at women and and non binary
people? In terms of recruiting undergraduates to the conference, we usually have far more applicants than can actually be accommodated and literally accommodated if we're talking about accommodation, but also in terms of the finances, etcetera. And so some years ago, efforts has been made to make sure that the, invite list, if you like, covers a diversity of backgrounds.
And, what what what, there was a high point for me in Warwick when I realized that, four of the women came from the Open University and literally had never met before because there's no longer any kind of practical component to the OU physics degree. And they were at the other end, they were not very young. I hope they won't mind me saying that, but they, you know, I I could identify with them, and they
had a fantastic time. And they've gone back and set up a group within the OU to network and support each other. But there are other obviously, you know, it's the it's a it's a lot of work for the organizers each year to do this, but they do try to arrange it. Look at the background statements of all the applicants. So without wanting them to write novels or in asking them to write an awful lot, we do try and get some, information beforehand.
And Harriet and Tansbury will probably be involved in this in January in that selection process if you don't have exams. Okay? Yeah. You do. Harriet. Yeah. I think what June said about the open university students is something that I found really impactful. You know, because again these were a lot of people coming back to education or who who were working, who had families who couldn't go to uni
and are currently working across their degree. And I found it, like, really interesting to speak to these people because, again, like, they like, I feel that I have, like, a before the fall of conference, I felt like I didn't really have much connections to the physics community, but, obviously, this is so much more it's so much more for them. You know what I mean?
And I'm not gonna be, like, having a go at other sort of, like, conferences for this sort of stuff, but I feel like a lot of other sort of, like, female empowerment stuff is very, like, just hollow, you know, that you sort of take take that I've taken part like, that I've participated in before, like, say, secondary school or whatnot all these things you say. And it's really doesn't like it's very on the service level, just to be, like, to tick a box. Go. We've done this.
All the problems are solved. Yeah. But it felt really like there's been a lot of consideration put in. You know what I mean? Speaking to a lot of people from a lot of different backgrounds. You know what I mean? I feel one of the ones that I found really nice was the obvious, like now the name is, like, the conference for women and non binary students, undergraduates,
business or whatnot. I was scared when I applied that I was just gonna sort of be in name only, and it wasn't gonna actually be something that was deeply, like, put into the conference, but it was. You know what I mean? The first speaker we had was a, a trans woman, and I found it really nice as well that it wasn't there just to go, look. We've got this. No. The woman spoke about her research in, like, in astrophysics.
You know, it was a sort of normalization of different communities, you know, with mature students, with people of color, with, like, trans women and non binary people, of allowing them just to have a sort of space in physics, which is sort of regardless of their backgrounds. Because I feel like being a a woman in a lot of physics community that's really put us, like, you're the woman purse well, you don't be whatever they're the group projects. It's like, this now we've got the woman speaking.
You know what I mean? Like, it it really didn't feel like that. We had the inclusion, but without sort of the, the patting ourselves on the back. Like, look, guys. We've got we've got we've got somebody who isn't like an old white man on screen. Guys, well done. Like, it just it felt naturally inclusive. Again, I agree with what Harriet has just said. It just felt natural that this is what physicists can look like. It's not just people from a certain demographic.
And I remember when I was writing the application, I think, one of the things I wrote was that we kind of only just learned physics that people from a certain demographic have come up with. And it's quite easy to forget that someone who looks like you and has your background can also make an impact in this field. So it was really, really nice to see how genuine and confident, and amazing all of the speakers were. And, again, the people at Warwick did a great job of organizing, the conference.
Conference, and it was really nice to meet all the other students as well. I think we have a really strong network now. I think when you do, like, a is this not is this not just about physics or about you? I think that whenever you sort of having a conversation about, say, specifically, I guess, feminism on this term, you know, in the inclusion of women, you have to realize that a woman's existence isn't purely the fact that she's a woman. You know what
I mean? So many other things are put into it, you know, the, their race, their sexuality, their class. You know what I mean? And when you wanna have a conference or anything that includes women, you have to realize the barriers that are putting down other women and not having sort of idea of a woman like, a woman physicist in your head that we want to include these ones and not include the others.
You know what I mean? I have to sort of you have to be aware of the barriers that you may put down barriers in terms of, in terms of gender. But if you don't put the barriers and down in terms of other aspects, then you're only including a subset of women. You're not including the whole lot. Humans are a lot more complicated than their one sort of one trait. And I think QWIP
is it's really, really understand. There's obviously, there's, like, things that you can do better because, obviously, some people will always slip through the cracks. But I feel like through the history of QWIP consistently, you know, like, by adding, like, the thing with non binary people, It's consistently been trying to work to improve getting more and more, like, represent representative of women in general, you know what I mean? Not just a subsection of women. And we were talking
specifically here about The UK context. But, you know, for example, in America, the the, the trans community, the the non binary community, and to a certain extent, definitely, in The UK are the brunt of a quite a lot of, political conversations, we're saying. And it's not it's not often that it's a positive, slant that's given to them. Is that something that's talked about in in
the among the community at the conference? I can comment a little bit on, not particularly the past year, but on previous years, is that we have had some sessions where it's been specifically talked about how you can bring how what you would hope to bring more facets of your identity to the identity you have within your work or study place. So that has been, since the meeting in York. The yearly conferences have had sessions that where that is discussed.
I mean, I wouldn't automatically know about the students discussing it amongst themselves, because I don't try any of it to that extent. To a certain extent, yes, neatly. But there is a an element of each, conference develops its own identity because the organizers are different and have different ideas about how it should go. And, but it is, it is something that some of the organizers have formally included in the program in the past.
So Harriet. I really appreciate in terms of of of this conference, you know, not parties to participate in sort of the current culture war of just bashing trans people with a stick because it's a current new thing to have a go at. Yeah. I mean, it was really it it felt refreshing. It's all it was said earlier that it was just sort of a nonissue.
Like, it was like it this space was I would talk talk about the the difficulties women face in physics, but it was also just a celebration of physics and allowing women just have a space just to like physics without having to face, you know, the the natural sort of barriers that people put in front of us, you know, at me. And it allowed people like trans of men like trans women and non binary people and other women to just speak naturally about our love of physics.
This isn't again, this is not just a purely physics problem, but I feel because physics is seen as, like, the proper archetypal as your masculine subject or whatever. There's been a big problem with sort of, being like it's a bad thing to include your own personal experiences within your, within your physics research, within, like, your physics career, which I think is stupid because, say, for me, what I'm mainly interested in is is, like, radiological protection, is nuclear waste management.
And, you know, the reason why I got into this is because I grew up in an area like, my house was built on a toxic waste site. I grew up in an area which I was surrounded by waste all the time, you know I mean because I lived in a lower class area where we were just seen as a dumping site for anybody, you know I mean and this passion that I have towards radiological safety is both because of my passion for nuclear physics because I just let you know it's cool, you know,
I love all that. So but I also have my passion for protecting communities like mine. So, you know, all these things interlocked with one another. And I think people think of, like, say, physics and personality biology as a more, like, less human science. Like, it's less to do with humans, but I would argue it's it's a lot more to do with humans. Like, all your electricity or, like, nuclear waves or every everything that is that is we control that for better or for worse.
You know what I mean? And people's identities, even, like, you know, as like a straight white man, their identity is still affecting their physics world just but but just their physics work. But just because they're seen as the normal basic expected one, nobody considers that that affects their work as well. You know what I mean? And it's effective for better or for worse.
Yes. And I think just when we bring our personality or the kind of things that we're interested in outside of physics, but you still link to it and the kind of research that we're doing, People just think that it's, like, too soft or, like, too easy to mention. Like, they just think that proper, hardcore physics research is lots of numbers, coding, experiments,
that sort of thing. So people I think a lot of people just don't like it if you try to combine some different techniques or concepts or even just talk about why you're interested in whatever it is that you're doing or, you know, bring the human side, physics. But like Carrie, it was saying that actually makes things more relevant, and it helps people to connect with their work. Brilliant. Yeah. Let's go to the conference specifically in in 2025. What what were your favorite
moments from it? What's come out of it for you? It was, the conference dinner, and it was not because of the food. It was watching student after student after student queuing up, not just to get Jocelyn Bell Burnell to sign their menu or their card, but to tell her what they were doing and what they were interested in and what they're passionate about. And Jocelyn's an absolute star, and I think she responded. She listened, and she responded to everybody that
she could. And that, for me, was a fantastic highlight. Amazing. Can I come next time? I didn't realize. Harriet. I I have a I my my favorite memory is I saw a Jocelyn Belbin Al story. Not to be I'll see only things going on at this conference. But, like, I'm not an astrophysicist, but, you know, everybody knows Bel everybody knows Belbin Al. Like, everybody's like she's basically gone, like, regardless of gender. You know? She's she's discovered the neutron star, you know, call us.
But we were walking back from a lab tour, and we were behind the other group because somebody had to stay back to go to toilet. And we see this little old woman, and she's like, do you know the way to queue whip? In this, like, nice nice little north Northern Irish voice. And I was like, wait. Is that Belle Burnell? But you don't wanna say any sort of Northern Irish old woman who's going to a physics conference is Belbinel.
You know what I mean? This whole thing is supposed to be about being like, oh my god. There's so many different women in physics. So we're like, yeah. Yeah. We can we can direct you there. Walk her along and try to slightly sort of ask her being like, oh, what do you do? Like, what university are you at? What what are you doing? And she's like, oh, I'm I'm at Oxford. You know? I'm interested in astrophysics. I'm like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then I could the the Warwick is
lovely. Warwick, a lovely uni, but it's very confusing, to get around. So we directed out the dodgy corridors. And then I say to to z, Jocelyn Belber now, I'm not going to mug you. She seemed to appreciate it. But then when we got towards the actual conference, I thought I've just gotta bite the bullet and ask her, are you Jocelyn in Belbinow? And she's like, yeah. And I was like, okay. Why don't we do that? And then she phantoms us for help and go back to
go to the thing. And I think that's real and then, like, later in one of the other talks, she just sat next to me, and I was like, oh, so Jesus has sat next to me. Okay. Sound. And I think, like, obviously, that is just like a funny story, but I think it really shows the fact that
it's it's was a really weird thinker. I feel like especially when you're younger, you really tell this sort of, like, hierarchy of being like, this is a person who's really, really smart that we all have to, like, like, praise and go nowhere near. But it was it felt really like the conference really made me feel like a physicist for the first time. You know what
I mean? Just talking with these people you're reading, like literally reading books being like this is like the smartest person ever and just like having a chat with her. And that's the case with a lot of other like these really like these like amazing like, people like doing the talks and whatnot. And even ones they weren't doing the talks, they were just there because they just enjoyed the conference, but were, like, oh, so these really, like, high level physicists.
You were talking to you, like like, equal. Obviously, no. But I'm I'm a second year physics student. I'm not like I'm not I'm not proper clued up. But talking to you, like, you have the potential to be very equal, like, in terms of, like, the physics sort of standpoint without this sort of this sort of force hierarchy she's seeing sort of of a space. It it felt really welcoming. So, yeah, that's the story about how I sort of threatened Belbin out. Amazing. Touch free. Yeah. I also met, Jocelyn.
She's absolutely amazing. I I'm quite impressed by Harriet's story. Mine was a bit more simpler. So I've I I was really awestruck sorry, starstruck when I met Jocelyn, and I was just I just didn't know what to say. I was like, hi, professor. And I think I I wish I'd spoken to her more because I was quite nervous about just speaking to her and, like, seeing her in person. Just like Harriet was saying, she's a really amazing and humble person, and it's amazing that she comes to Kiwi plus, every
year. She was saying that she just really enjoys it, and she loves talking to everyone there. So if you do get to speak to her, at the conference in Birmingham, then please don't be shy. Just talk to her. Ask her about her interests and what she's doing, and tell her about yourself as well. Yeah. But not everybody. Right? Because you need to speak to her, in in more depth this time because you were a bit stuck. Yes. Yes. I do. Well, yeah. I won't remind her to embarrass
myself next time when I met. She won't know. It's fine. She won't know. It's fine. I'll I'll say I'll I'll think I'll I'll try to give a non Jocelyn Bell Burnell story because that's not it's not just a Jostling Balbanelle meet up convention. Yeah. That would be a good thing, though. We should do that. But yeah. Yeah. Like, I'll be up for that. That's what we're all going for next year. She doesn't know it yet, but she'll do it.
But in terms of, like, there's, like, general memories, like, when we go to the conference dinner, you know, we were, it was right next to Coventry Cathedral. And we if anybody knows you know, it's currently December when we're recording this. If anybody knows the amazing Christmas film nativity, which was filmed at Coventry Cathedral, me and a couple of the other students tried to recreate scenes from the, the Christmas film Nativity at Coventry Cathedral.
And I felt this is this is I I I traditionally have I I'm autistic. I have a hard time communicating with others and hard time making friends, But it just came so naturally at this conference, you know, I made I just naturally made a load of mates. I didn't feel ostracized. I was sort of sitting in a corner, like, you know, you know, everybody was lovely. I got on
with everybody. You know? It was, like, it was great to see tons of, like, you know, to talk about the problems with space and physics and also just physics itself, but also just really great just to, like, speak to other people in your situation and have have a laugh. You know? Yeah. So it's not like a really, like, serious, like,
serious high level, like, physics conference. Like, it's it's just like a great community sort of event with, you know, feminism and physics as a sort of, like, call side bit. At least I found it like that. Okay. So aside from checking which films have been on location in those cities, what what would your recommendation be for people who are thinking about going to Cuot plus in those places next year and beyond? I think I would say just look forward to it, because it's a really great, event.
So, Harry Oates saying how nice and easy it is to talk to all the other attendees, and I I agree with that. So, like, don't feel that you're, not gonna enjoy it or it's gonna be this, like, really stressful event. Just make sure you pack everything you need, I think, and just, enjoy it. I I basically just agree with, like, Hashpreet. So I think the biggest thing is just, like, speak to people. You know? It's an event to speak to people, other students, and also academics. Yeah. You know?
Just talk people's head off until they tell you to stop. Yep. That's sort of my advice. And also as as a brewing myself, if you're coming to next year's conference, you know, explore Birmingham, best city in the world. Don't give me those dodgy looks. I am. Yeah. I'll do it. I will. But yeah. It's Bristol, obviously. But yeah. But Birmingham, yeah, best thing in the world. So have a look around. Enjoy yourself. Yeah. Amazing. I'd just to say Birmingham is a wonderful
place. It's a great place to Yes. Tanchprit. Yes, sir. I I just wanted to say we keep telling everyone that they should just keep talking, when they come to the event, which is a really good to give. But people do have different personalities. They don't feel that you're, going to have to be really extroverted, in the three or four days that you're gonna be here. Like, just take your time and just make sure that you talk to people
when you feel like it. And there are quiet rooms as well, during the conference where you can just go there for a little bit if you just need some peace and quiet. And it's not, you know, a race to speak to the most, amount of people, to ask the best and most interesting questions during the q and a's. It's nothing like that. Please just feel comfortable talking to people and Amazing. Amazing. That's brilliant.
Thank you for saying that. I do I speaking as an introvert myself, it it's not often that people bring that up and yeah. Amazing. Thank you very much. Harriet. I I'd like to speak to people because I'm a nurse. But, that's been annoying for people that aren't from East Coast. Apparently, that sort of thing in Birmingham.
But, yeah, I feel like, obviously, like, a social I feel like the social aspect of it is that even if you're, like, not very talkative, like, I find a lot of people who are there who were weren't very talkative, but they were still very involved in in groups or whatnot. Like, even if you're, like, don't wanna talk a lot, don't feel like that's, like, won't allow you to make makes or, like, be in groups or discussions.
Like, you can you can just chill there and, like, listen to other people if that's what you want and whatnot. Well, I just wanted to say quickly that, what Town Street said, there are quiet rooms. There were at Warwick. There will be at Birmingham. And we found that as an important thing to add into the mix so that if you do just want to, you know, have the half hour dipping out or hour dipping out, there is a quiet there there are
quiet rooms. So, whilst we hope everybody will network fantastically well, we all know that there's times when we just need to kind of withdraw and and and, enjoy our own space for a bit. Yeah. Amazing. I just if there are any introverts listening, I can also recommend making podcasts because you have a very structured conversation. It has a very limited amount of time while you're having the conversation. Mhmm. And then you get to spend time on your own in the
room editing it. It's a perfect job for an introvert. There's how's it funded? Is it is it something that will go on forever? Is there no there are no barriers to this stopping? Or how's it going? Funding's tough. I'll say that. So Harriet and Tanjibit will know a little bit about this from the local organizing committee meetings. So we have a number of funders, but the host university normally has to find about 50% of the cost.
The exterior, supporters are Institute of Physics, Ogden Trust, EPPSR, STFC, and now most recently, the Royal Society. And the important thing for the organizers, because it genuinely takes, like, a two year run up to running this conference, is for me slash the, the National Steering Group to know that we have a funding stream for the next two, three, four. I mean, my my dream is to have five years funding stream.
My dream is actually for QIP to become completely unnecessary to run because the situation within departments, there'll be no more, you know, the percentage of students taking a level, women taking a level will increase, and therefore, the numbers going into university will increase because there isn't really much of a leaky pipeline between a level and university. The leaky pipeline is between GCSE and a a level.
But, yeah, my ultimate dream is that I won't have to fundraise for it anymore because it will be completely unnecessary because we'll be living in this new environment with, where there's no such thing as implicit bias or structured gender discrimination. You know, that's my idea. But that's not where we're at. So at the moment, we will actively encourage anybody out there who's listened to this. Please do contact me if you have any desire whatsoever to, to provide funding.
So the barriers to this continuing indefinitely are that the landscape for higher education or the funding landscape for higher education and the staffing levels are precarious at the moment. And so we're asking, universities They have to put forward a proposal saying what their roughly what their budget will be, what their school will give them in terms of resources and actual finances. So that's, you know, that is a hard ask at the moment, a really hard ask, but also time time of staff.
It's a lot of effort by the staff who are involved at host universities. So that those are the barriers to it continuing indefinitely. One would be positive if there was no need for it to happen anymore. The others are more around the funding issues, which for anything that is not, it's getting to the point where it's so embedded that it's almost seen as a core activity. Whereas at the moment, it's, you know, how much discretionary funding does a department have in order to devote
towards it. And I won't there's no point in me giving actual numbers on funding it here because, obviously, what we did see was a huge increase in the cost over the last two years of running it because of accommodation and catering costs and even just railway costs. Right? Buying tickets. So that those are the barriers. But I think it's so a call will go out fairly soon asking for people to, or departments to put forward proposals for 2028 and 2029.
It's a long way ahead. You know? It's a long way ahead for them to think about it, but I had to be certain that I had or we that we had funding for those years because it's not fair to us departments to put together proposals for something where you're going, sorry. No cash. You know? It's a bit tough for you, that one. But what I would say to departments, if you're thinking about putting in proposals, it's not just the effect that QWIP has on the students
who attend. It's the ripple effect in your physics department or school because you've raised the profile of how important this topic is. And it's important in not only in terms of your undergraduate community, but in terms of your research, realizing that our diversity of experience and opinions coming into your research groups is important as well. So, think think carefully think carefully about the benefits, the long term benefits to you as schools or departments.
And as soon as I get one more bit of funding nailed down, that call will go out. I just wanna make a little comment for, say, people who are listening like, students who are listening to this if they wanted to go, to there. QWIT is, I think, to this year, it's costing like, you have to give a, sort of not donation, but a sort of contribution of £45 to attend. But this should be covered by your, your department, like, if you email them and ask them about if they can cover it or not.
But I just wanna, like, sort of put that out as sort of, I don't think of really, like, your financial background as being a sort of barrier towards this because as well, like, your department may be also able to fund your travel to Birmingham and whatnot. So don't think, oh, I'm gonna have to pay, like, £200 to go or something like that. That's not the reality of it. You know, we maybe get funding from outside of students to try and make it as accessible to students as
we can. Yeah. I just wanna say that when I got into, QIP plus at Warwick, I think it was really good of Warwick that email us and say that we should be asking our departments to, reimburse the registration fee and travel as well. Because, you know, we're undergraduate students. We don't know how conferences work. We've probably never been to one before this. So it's really good. Let students know that they shouldn't be paying for everything themselves.
Okay. Brilliant. Yeah. Brilliant. Thank you very much. I I I I really love the idea of, like, physics conferences just in the future having, you know, a trans woman opening it and it being a nonissue. I think that's that that's what I've heard from this conversation. That'd be a really lovely future to have. We're not in that future. We do have Cuot plus. I'd I'd thank you so much for talking to me about it. Do you have any last thoughts before we,
say goodbye to everyone? Attend Cuot plus. Give us money for QIP plus. No. I think how it and Tanjushree have put all of the the arguments really, really well. I just wanna reiterate what June was saying earlier about two plus being important for students and for departments because I think we as students feel happier and more confident after this conference. We feel like physicists finally. And I kind of think of this conference when I'm maybe struggling with my physics
studies or something. And it kinda just helps me to think of the really positive experience that I had there and that it's not like, I'm not struggling because I'm not good enough or because I don't understand what's going on. But there's other things that I need to look at, if that makes sense. And it just helps me to make sure that I keep my interest in physics and just STEM in general up, and that's not anything to do with me as a person, if that makes sense.
I'd like to thank Tanushpreet, Harriet, and June for talking to me and sharing their stories and bringing their insights to this episode of the Physics World Stories podcast. If listening to them has sparked an interest, whether you're a student feeling perhaps a bit isolated or just like you want to get involved in this conference and go along to it, you'll need to know about the next
one, of course. And as we've been discussing, the baton's been passed for the twenty twenty six cuitt plus conference to the University of Birmingham, and it is scheduled for the nineteenth to the 03/22/2026. And 2026 is, of course, just around the corner as this is the final episode of the Physics World Stories podcast for this year. I hope you've enjoyed all the quantum content we've been
bringing you this year. And although we have moved slightly away from it at times, it has been a wonderful year to explore everything to do with quantum mechanics. You can find out all about that and the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology on the Physics World website physicsworld.com where you'll also find links to the QWIT plus conference and how you can book your tickets and maybe get your university involved and ideally provide some funding for future years of the
conference. We'll be back next year with something else from this wonderful world of physics and I don't know about you I'm thinking maybe we should look into that comet. Thank you very much for listening and I hope you have a wonderful December wherever you are in the world.