Milestone for Working Group of Women in Physics in Taiwan

(WGWIP in Taiwan, WGWIPIT)

The first edition is written by Ming-Fong Tai on 03/26/2003

The revised done by Grace Lin & Huei-Ming Wu on 04/02/2003

1. Functional meetings of WGWIP

• Nov. xx/2000 --- Discuss the possibility of initiating a working group of women in physics in Taiwan (WGWIPIT) on the committee panel of Physical Society of ROC (PSROC).

• Jan. 13/ 2001 --- Initiate a working group of female physicists to attend the IUPAP

International Conference on Women in Physics.

• Feb. 13/2001 --- Discuss the structure, functions and the goals of working group.

• March 3/2001 --- Solidify its name and the functions. WGWIP was established formally.

• May 19/2001 --- Discuss about the participation of 2002 IUPAP Conference in Paris.

• July 4/2001 --- Prepare works for attending 2002 IUPAP Conference in Paris.

• Sep. 15/2001 --- Discuss about holding an outreach party for female graduate students in Physics.

• Jan. 5/2002 --- Decide the details of the poster and the submitted paper for 2002 IUPAP conference.

• March 30/2002 --- Report and follow-up work after the IUPAP conference.

• April 15/2002 --- Discuss about the holding of first join symposium with female Chemists.

• May 10/2002 --- Organize first join symposium with female Chemists.

• Oct. 27/2002 --- Report the outcome of the first join symposium with female Chemists and discuss about the resource for female Physicist scholarship.

• Jan. 23/2003 --- Draft the rules for “Wu-Chien-Hsiung scholarship” and a letter to NSC (National Science Council), ROC for extending the funding period for young female physicists who have pregnancy and child-care leave.

2. Outreach programs

• Oct. 6/2001 --- Tea party for fresh female graduate students in Physics.

• Nov. 3/2001 --- Panel discussion with female graduate students in Physics.

• Dec. 15/2001 --- Seminar for female professors and graduate students. The title of this talk was “The growth of mind vs. relationship”.

3. Annual meetings

• Feb.13/2001 Taipei – the first annual meeting at Taipei joined with the 2001 annual meeting of PSROC, there were 7 female and 4 males who are all professors in university showed out.

• Feb. 4, 2002 – the second annual meeting at Taichung joined with the 2002 annual meeting of PSROC, more female professors than those in the first time were showed out, but fewer males attended. As well as some graduated students in the PH.D and master-degree classes were invited to join this meeting.

• Feb.12/2003 in –the third annual meeting at Hua-Lien joined with the 2003 annual meeting of PSROC There were more than 20 female students and 10 female professors attended in the third meeting. In addition, 8 male professors joined us. Two of them are the current committees of physical research proposal review panel in National Science Council (NSC), ROC. The male professors gave a lot of interesting suggestions and had a lost of funny free talks in this party. All attendants had great time and felt time flying too fast.

· May 25-26, 2002 --- Held the 1^st joint symposium with female chemists in a beautiful vocation area, Woolia, Taiwan. Total participants of this symposium were more than 40. Some couples including two from China and some children accompanied with their mothers joined this symposium. There were many important experiences and interesting problems being discussed and shared with all participants. Ms. Ho, who is a senior researcher in NSC and is responsible to the survey of the research proposal applications. All participants had a really great time and expected to have the other symposium soon. The second symposium is be organized to be held in June 2003. The records about most discussions and feedback information of all participants have been corrected and reported in the bimonthly journal of PSROC (in Chinese).

4. Policy making

· Establish a special scholarship for female graduated students in physics ---

We have secured a special fund of about US$600/year through “Wu-Chien-Hsiung foundation” for one or two female graduated students in physics.

· Sent a formal letter to NSC for establishing new regulation of research funding for female scientists. The new proposal includes a special rule for annual leave of female scientist due to the pregnancy and family leave, and special scholarship for female PhD candidates.

Some realistic suggestions and related supporting methods were also listed in this letter.

· Propose a new tenure track policy in National Taiwan University for female pregnancy and child-caring problems. The new proposal includes a special rule for annual leave of female scientist due to the pregnancy and family leave. The improving work was begun in May 2002. Some positive effects have been obtained in many science fields and departments in Taiwan.

5. Supporting activities

• Published an article about the establishment of WGWIPIT in the bimonthly journal of PSROC (in Chinese).

• Completed the Chinese translation of the resolutions obtained in the conference in Paris and published it in the bimonthly journal of PSROC.

· Setup a web page of WGWIPIT and a discussion web site under the web site of PRSOC for connecting with all females working or studying in science fields.

• Hold some get-together activities named "FREE TIME PARTY" for faculties which were just for free talks between women and women in physics at an irregular period, about once every two months.

• Some activities of "Seeds Planting Around the Island" by meeting woman faculties and under- or graduate-students of most of the colleage and universities to share our experiences since the fall in 2001.

· In conjunction with National Union of Taiwan Woman Association, we have formed a special group of female physicists to promote female high school students to choice sciences as their career. In Nov. 2002, we have our first executive committee and established the format for our course (the minutes for the meeting is enclosed). In the beginning of 2003, we will tour all major high school in Taiwan, present seminar to promote female students to choice science as their career.