By 2006, only 42 African American women and 246 African American men had ever earned a Ph.D. in physics, according to a 2010 report from the American Institute of Physics (AIP). The AIP records and analyzes various trends in physics through their Statistical Research Center.
While those numbers are terribly low, they are representative of a continuing disparity between the numbers of minority students who earn Ph.D.s and White students, who still earn the overwhelming majority of Physics degrees.
More recent AIP data points to new trends in physics degree attainment. The most positive development is that Hispanic students are increasingly getting degrees in physics. The number of African Americans earning Ph.D.s has held steady over the past decade, but that means proportionally, fewer are going into physics because more are obtaining degrees in other fields.
“With African Americans overall there is an increase in the number of bachelors degree that are being granted, but STEM [degrees are] not keeping up with that percentage,” said Dr. Laura Merner, principal research assistant at the AIP’s Statistical Research Center.
Native Americans have shown a decline in physics degree attainment over the past four years. Only 25 Native Americans earned a bachelor’s degree in physics in 2012, out of a total of 6,177 students earning such degrees, to put their attainment into context.
Merner and her colleagues say that the continued lack of racial representation in physics has its roots in a number of causes.
