IOP Women in Physics Group previous events

An archive of events organised by the group, including presentations and associated resources.

Returners Workshop – What More Can the IOP Do to Help Those Taking a Career Break across Physics?
21 June 2023

Networking with Leading Influencers in the Physics Community
3 May 2023

Networking with Leading Influencers in the Physics Community
18 May 2022

An afternoon aimed at inspiring, promoting, supporting and motivating young people to work towards achieving their goals in a post-Covid world where science has really come to the fore and into the public psyche in a manner never seen before.

The Culture of and Naming of SI Units
25 April 2022

Have you ever thought about why measuring standards are useful? We have units of measure that are convenient (the tea spoon, a pint, the centimetre), fundamental constants (the speed of light, Planck’s constant and many others), and measurement standards that are now called SI units. Would we have been able to make the discoveries in physics without this process of standardisation? Have these units of measure been fairly attributed to the discovery teams and how do differing cultures see this? Are we missing anything?

Find out more

Physics and the Green Economy
24 November 2021

The group supported the week-long Physics and the Green Economy conference that was held alongside the UN Climate Change Conference (Cop26) in Glasgow.

Find out more about the session and the whole conference

JBB Prize event 2021
26 October 2021

We hosted a fully virtual Jocelyn Bell Burnell Prize event in 2021 to celebrate the finalists of this prestigious IOP medal. Each finalist gave an overview of their work, and we also heard from a previous winner for inspiration.

Find out more about the prize

Returner event: ‘Planning Your Return from a Physics Career Break and the Support Available’
19 May 2021

The group hosted a virtual event to help those planning on returning to a physics career, with lots of information on the support available.

We shared what the IOP currently does to support career returners, held a discussion about what career returners feel the IOP could do further to support them, had a brilliant talk from the Open University on how to plan your return, and ended with a Q&A.

Useful resources that were discussed include:

The IOP Concessionary rate, CPD recording and opportunities to continue professional registration whilst you are not professionally active.

There are also groups and volunteering opportunities to keep your skills going.

And the Carers’ Fund for financial support, including legal and financial discounts.

External resources:

Lunchtime IOP Webinar Series – Career and Skills Opportunities for Physicists in the Nuclear Sector
20-24 July 2020

Hosted by this and the Nuclear Industry Group and with support from the Physics Communicators Group, each day had a theme speaker (up to 30 minutes) on career pathways, skills and inclusivity with contributions.

Read the article about the series, Heat, energy and diverse ways of thinking (PDF, 368KB)

Getting Back into the Workplace
30 April 2019

A one-day meeting for women returning to the workplace after a career break with hands-on support and advice on returning to paid employment.

Employers and experts offered practical guidance on: