The Nordic network for diversity in physics was formed earlier in the spring and it is supported by funding from Nordforsk. The initiative came from Prof. Barbro Åsman from Fysikum. The network is composed by female physicists from Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. The first project for the network was to organize a two-day conference at Albanova with the theme of Diversity in Physics.

The conference took place October 23-24 and keynote speakers included Susanna Aalto from Chalmers University of Technology speaking about life and death of galaxies as well as Agneta Nestenborg explaining how it is to manage a project such as ESS (European Spallation Source). Several talks focused on gender issues, statistics from the nordic countries were presented as well as a presentation on how the Swedish research council works with providing a gender and diversity neutral evaluation process of applications.

The head of the Athena Swan project in UK, James Greenwood-Luch presented how they work to recognize advancement of gender equality in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) employment in higher education and research. Another system for rewarding physics departments, schools and institutes that take action and try to improve gender equality in UK and Ireland is Project JUNO .
Jennifer Dyer, the head of the project was invited to describe how departments are given JUNO awards if certain principles are fulfilled.

In a panel discussion it was discussed if a project similar to Athena Swan or the JUNO projects could be interesting for the Nordic countries to initiate in order to form joint forces to ensure physics is for everybody.
More information about the NORNDiP network and conference can be found here.

Åsa Larson