WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:04.960 Marco Romo-Gonzalez: Thank you for joining us today as we kick off our, the first installation 2 00:00:04.960 --> 00:00:09.360 of our day speaker series where we hope to bridge DEI conversations 3 00:00:09.360 --> 00:00:12.800 and the importance of these conversations in our respective fields. 4 00:00:13.280 --> 00:00:15.720 So again, thank you all for joining us and thank you, Dr. 5 00:00:15.720 --> 00:00:17.520 Michael Williams. 6 00:00:17.520 --> 00:00:20.520 For those of you that don't know me, my name is Marco Romo-Gonzalez. 7 00:00:20.760 --> 00:00:24.600 I'm a research engineer in the PULSE division and also the deputy manager 8 00:00:24.600 --> 00:00:27.600 of our Diversity Equity and Inclusion Council here at LLE. 9 00:00:28.200 --> 00:00:31.320 Joining me today is Raka Ghosh, our operations manager. 10 00:00:31.720 --> 00:00:35.480 And the person who probably contacted you all, sent out those emails. 11 00:00:35.840 --> 00:00:39.040 Got Michael on board with us and thanks Raka. 12 00:00:40.600 --> 00:00:42.760 So there's other members of the gang here. 13 00:00:43.680 --> 00:00:45.360 There's other members of the council here today. 14 00:00:45.360 --> 00:00:48.240 So thank, thank you all for also making this happen. 15 00:00:48.840 --> 00:00:50.680 I'm excited to welcome our speaker today. 16 00:00:50.680 --> 00:00:51.560 Dr. Michael J. 17 00:00:51.560 --> 00:00:56.040 Williams, 2021's Optica Ambassador to kick off our series. 18 00:00:56.160 --> 00:01:00.120 I will share a brief introduction and then hand over the space to Dr. 19 00:01:00.120 --> 00:01:03.000 Williams. Please hold off any questions until the end. 20 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:06.600 As we are trying to go through a lot of material in this one hour. 21 00:01:08.200 --> 00:01:10.520 So just very quickly, Dr. 22 00:01:10.720 --> 00:01:14.720 Michael Williams received a Bachelor of Science in Physics in 2009 23 00:01:14.720 --> 00:01:18.720 from Morehouse College, a master's in science in Materials science 24 00:01:18.720 --> 00:01:23.520 in 2012 from Fisk University, and obtained his PhD in optics 25 00:01:23.520 --> 00:01:27.360 from Delaware State University in 2018, where he investigated 26 00:01:27.360 --> 00:01:31.200 the linear, nonlinear and fluorescent characterization of various nano 27 00:01:31.200 --> 00:01:35.760 diamond suspensions using well-established characterization methods and techniques. 28 00:01:36.240 --> 00:01:39.480 Dr. Williams has also served on several committees which allowed him 29 00:01:39.480 --> 00:01:43.280 to present groundbreaking science policy to the US government 30 00:01:43.440 --> 00:01:47.440 and promote new leadership in optics and photonics and racial diversity. 31 00:01:48.680 --> 00:01:52.680 Just as a transparency, today's talk is an updated version of one that Dr. 32 00:01:52.680 --> 00:01:56.520 Williams has shared with the Rochester chapter of the Optical Society of America. 33 00:01:57.080 --> 00:01:58.320 We're very grateful to Dr. 34 00:01:58.320 --> 00:02:00.400 Williams for joining us today and 35 00:02:00.400 --> 00:02:03.840 on this final day of Black History Month and thank him for his time. 36 00:02:03.840 --> 00:02:07.280 And I know scheduling was a little bit of a conflict, but we made it happen. 37 00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:08.880 So thank you. 38 00:02:08.880 --> 00:02:10.920 So without further ado, let's welcome Dr. 39 00:02:10.920 --> 00:02:16.720 Williams for the first of many conversations around DEI and STEM. 40 00:02:19.040 --> 00:02:20.280 Dr. Michael J. Williams: Well, thank you, 41 00:02:20.280 --> 00:02:24.600 Marco, for that wonderful introduction and hello everyone. 42 00:02:24.640 --> 00:02:27.720 Thank you for allowing me to speak to you all today. 43 00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:31.360 This is a near and dear topic to my heart 44 00:02:32.360 --> 00:02:35.760 and I'd like to just get into it right here. 45 00:02:35.880 --> 00:02:40.880 So if we just bear with me, I'm just going to share my screen. 46 00:02:40.880 --> 00:03:07.440 Okay with the slide? 47 00:03:07.920 --> 00:03:09.720 Marco Romo-Gonzalez: Yup, we can see it well. 48 00:03:09.720 --> 00:03:10.600 Dr. Michael J. Williams: Okay. 49 00:03:10.600 --> 00:03:13.320 Alright, so today's topic 50 00:03:13.680 --> 00:03:18.440 is entitled Continuing the Search for Equity, Advancing the Need 51 00:03:18.440 --> 00:03:23.520 for More Representation of black Scientists in optics and Photonics. 52 00:03:24.600 --> 00:03:30.560 I will be giving my introduction about who I am as a scientist 53 00:03:30.680 --> 00:03:35.560 and as an individual and show you the road 54 00:03:35.640 --> 00:03:38.360 that I chose to earned the PhD, 55 00:03:39.400 --> 00:03:43.800 which was all exclusively historically Black colleges and universities, 56 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:48.080 namely Morehouse College, Fisk University, and Delaware State University. 57 00:03:48.520 --> 00:03:51.640 I'll also talk about the ambassador program that I was invited 58 00:03:51.640 --> 00:03:56.680 to in 2021 and the news article, which I will say 59 00:03:57.200 --> 00:04:01.760 jumpstarted the interest for me to join the ambassador program 60 00:04:02.760 --> 00:04:03.720 as well as that year. 61 00:04:03.720 --> 00:04:07.640 Talk about the protests that happened during the year 2020 62 00:04:07.920 --> 00:04:12.240 and all of the hashtags that were generated 63 00:04:12.240 --> 00:04:15.280 as a result, including Black in the Ivory. 64 00:04:15.320 --> 00:04:18.600 How that has affected so many of my colleagues. 65 00:04:19.080 --> 00:04:22.240 We can also look at the campaign that after the year has 66 00:04:23.960 --> 00:04:25.520 passed, took, 67 00:04:25.520 --> 00:04:28.400 if you will, or the past two years, 68 00:04:28.680 --> 00:04:31.880 namely the embassy of Black Voices and Optics 69 00:04:32.240 --> 00:04:35.440 and let to finalize everything with some questions at the end. 70 00:04:36.880 --> 00:04:39.080 So let's go back to the beginning. 71 00:04:39.080 --> 00:04:43.200 I have found Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, right here, smack dab 72 00:04:43.520 --> 00:04:47.520 in the heart of what is called the tri state area. 73 00:04:48.680 --> 00:04:51.800 In this image right here, 74 00:04:51.800 --> 00:04:56.840 this is a microcosm, if you will, about who I am. 75 00:04:56.840 --> 00:04:59.960 I am very jovial. I love life. 76 00:04:59.960 --> 00:05:04.160 I love to learn, and I am just full of joy all the time. 77 00:05:04.200 --> 00:05:08.360 This is who I am here in Philadelphia. 78 00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:12.960 I started being a scientist at the Franklin Institute's 79 00:05:12.960 --> 00:05:16.200 Science Museum, which is then one of the nation's 80 00:05:16.200 --> 00:05:20.080 most hands on science museums in the entire country. 81 00:05:20.520 --> 00:05:25.680 And it was here there was a program here called PAX Pacts. 82 00:05:26.040 --> 00:05:28.560 It stands for Partnerships for Achieving Careers. 83 00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:32.560 It's acknowledging a science as there it was when I got my start 84 00:05:32.560 --> 00:05:35.760 as a junior scientist into Franklin Institute. 85 00:05:36.080 --> 00:05:38.400 And it was there that I 86 00:05:39.520 --> 00:05:39.840 had a 87 00:05:39.840 --> 00:05:44.920 love for science, communication and outreach, and I was able to do science 88 00:05:44.920 --> 00:05:49.400 demonstrations on the museum floor, which includes this exhibit 89 00:05:49.400 --> 00:05:54.120 called The Gigantic Arts, which allows you to go through the heart 90 00:05:54.120 --> 00:05:59.000 to see how the blood is pumped through all four chambers of the heart 91 00:05:59.160 --> 00:06:02.880 and how oxygen is being distributed to the rest of the body. 92 00:06:03.480 --> 00:06:04.880 And so 93 00:06:05.520 --> 00:06:08.400 after that, all of that, 94 00:06:08.400 --> 00:06:12.240 you know, going to college, going to grad school, earning my PSC. 95 00:06:12.600 --> 00:06:17.320 I am now in Boston, Massachusetts, right here 96 00:06:17.840 --> 00:06:23.240 is where I had been employed for the last two years at Boston Electronics. 97 00:06:23.880 --> 00:06:27.880 Honestly, however, as of last week I have been laid off, 98 00:06:28.080 --> 00:06:30.680 unfortunately due the financial situation of the company. 99 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:34.920 But the thing is, I loved doing my job 100 00:06:36.120 --> 00:06:37.480 in what's called 101 00:06:37.480 --> 00:06:43.080 application engineering, being able to provide people with advanced 102 00:06:43.080 --> 00:06:47.160 solutions, intellectual optics, and provide them with knowledge support. 103 00:06:47.640 --> 00:06:52.280 So if you know anybody that has any type of opinions 104 00:06:52.280 --> 00:06:56.880 regarding anything in optics and application 105 00:06:57.120 --> 00:07:01.600 engineer, even being a project manager, please send them my way. 106 00:07:02.120 --> 00:07:06.440 So after Philadelphia, I went to Morehouse College. 107 00:07:06.440 --> 00:07:09.360 Now Morristown College, if you're unfamiliar with Morehouse, 108 00:07:09.360 --> 00:07:14.400 it is the nation's only historically black college for African-American men 109 00:07:14.760 --> 00:07:17.160 and a lot of famous alumni 110 00:07:17.400 --> 00:07:21.360 have attributed their careers to Morehouse, namely Dr. 111 00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:22.760 Martin Luther King Jr. 112 00:07:22.760 --> 00:07:25.520 Spike Lee is Samuel L. Jackson. 113 00:07:25.520 --> 00:07:30.320 We didn't know that Morehouse College was initially started 114 00:07:30.320 --> 00:07:34.920 in 1867, two years after the end of the Civil War. 115 00:07:35.400 --> 00:07:40.080 And it is one of the nation's top producers for African-American 116 00:07:40.080 --> 00:07:45.120 male graduates in biology, humanities, mathematics and health science. 117 00:07:45.600 --> 00:07:48.120 And so we hear and Morehouse 118 00:07:48.120 --> 00:07:52.240 Morehouse instilled a lot of affirmations for me as a black young man. 119 00:07:52.480 --> 00:07:56.880 It shall be examples of class, professionalism and dignity. 120 00:07:56.880 --> 00:08:00.920 And here there was an idea is called the Morehouse Man. 121 00:08:00.920 --> 00:08:05.600 Then the Morehouse man is the epitome of excellence in all facets of life, 122 00:08:05.840 --> 00:08:08.520 including academics, professional aspirations, 123 00:08:08.760 --> 00:08:13.520 family devotion, community service and leadership, and is supposed to be 124 00:08:13.520 --> 00:08:18.480 the embodiment of integrity, honesty, respect, resourcefulness, poise 125 00:08:18.720 --> 00:08:23.040 and self-discipline as students were transformed by these standards. 126 00:08:23.400 --> 00:08:28.920 And so was here is that I first gaze upon my first images of black scientists, 127 00:08:28.920 --> 00:08:31.920 engineers who can embrace black culture 128 00:08:32.160 --> 00:08:34.600 and do quality science at the same time. 129 00:08:35.360 --> 00:08:38.000 So here are a couple of landmarks. 130 00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:39.320 Here at Morehouse. 131 00:08:39.320 --> 00:08:43.880 It is Graves Hall, which the grave of one of our famous 132 00:08:43.880 --> 00:08:47.400 presidents, Benjamin Elijah Mays, rests right here. 133 00:08:47.720 --> 00:08:49.800 And also we have the statue of Dr. 134 00:08:49.800 --> 00:08:52.200 Martin Luther King Junior in front of the king. 135 00:08:52.200 --> 00:08:53.880 It's a national chapel. 136 00:08:53.880 --> 00:08:56.720 And here I am in my full Morehouse garb 137 00:08:56.920 --> 00:09:00.120 in our annual homecoming event we have every year. 138 00:09:01.680 --> 00:09:02.520 Next up 139 00:09:02.520 --> 00:09:05.960 is Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. 140 00:09:06.280 --> 00:09:10.880 Now, particularly, I love this program because I was able to be a dual student 141 00:09:11.200 --> 00:09:14.400 at both Fisk and Vanderbilt University. 142 00:09:14.760 --> 00:09:17.320 And it was there earned my degree in material science. 143 00:09:17.600 --> 00:09:21.640 Now, the bridge program was created to improve 144 00:09:21.640 --> 00:09:26.480 the demographic representation of underrepresented minorities in STEM. 145 00:09:26.800 --> 00:09:29.600 So not just for black 146 00:09:29.600 --> 00:09:33.280 students, for any minorities that wanted to have 147 00:09:33.560 --> 00:09:37.320 some sort of support system in earning their advanced degrees. 148 00:09:37.680 --> 00:09:41.040 And this program has been proven 149 00:09:41.320 --> 00:09:47.080 to be a very successful program with the 83% success rate, 150 00:09:47.400 --> 00:09:52.720 which is higher than the national stem average, is really, really amazing. 151 00:09:53.080 --> 00:09:57.880 And Fisk University exclusively is the number one producer 152 00:09:58.120 --> 00:10:01.320 of black students earning their master's degrees. 153 00:10:01.760 --> 00:10:05.040 So here here I am in my first year in the British program, 154 00:10:05.400 --> 00:10:08.760 I am fully decked out in my Morehouse suit 155 00:10:09.120 --> 00:10:13.560 and also in their paraphernalia or in their brochures. 156 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:19.000 They see me in my Morehouse tie giving off the Morehouse stare. 157 00:10:20.280 --> 00:10:23.240 But I loved this program because it was here. 158 00:10:23.240 --> 00:10:26.560 I was able to witness genuine people in science. 159 00:10:26.800 --> 00:10:29.520 They actually cared for your well-being 160 00:10:29.680 --> 00:10:32.120 and not just for scientific results. 161 00:10:32.960 --> 00:10:35.880 And lastly, I want to do with State University. 162 00:10:35.880 --> 00:10:40.400 Now, I know a lot of people do not know where Delaware State University is, 163 00:10:41.000 --> 00:10:45.760 is in Dover, Delaware, and smack dab right in the middle of Delaware. 164 00:10:46.040 --> 00:10:51.640 And Delaware State University is the only HBCU that offers a Ph.D. 165 00:10:51.640 --> 00:10:56.440 in optics, and particularly is the only HBCU that has the state. 166 00:10:56.520 --> 00:11:01.440 Your office facility, which is named after for the optical sector 167 00:11:01.600 --> 00:11:03.600 for applied research. 168 00:11:05.680 --> 00:11:06.520 I'm sorry. 169 00:11:07.440 --> 00:11:09.200 Oh, that's nice. Someone's talking to me. 170 00:11:09.200 --> 00:11:09.920 I'm sorry. 171 00:11:09.960 --> 00:11:13.920 So here I earn my Ph.D. 172 00:11:13.920 --> 00:11:14.800 in optics. 173 00:11:14.800 --> 00:11:16.920 And the dissertation was the investigations, 174 00:11:16.920 --> 00:11:20.760 a linear and nonlinear and forensic aftercare properties for nanodiamonds 175 00:11:20.760 --> 00:11:22.840 photonic applications. 176 00:11:23.760 --> 00:11:28.320 So I just want to go over just quickly what my research was about. 177 00:11:28.680 --> 00:11:31.640 It was mainly focusing on how 178 00:11:31.640 --> 00:11:35.840 to properly apply Diamond to any particular photonic 179 00:11:36.880 --> 00:11:38.280 application, if you will. 180 00:11:38.280 --> 00:11:41.280 We want to characterize Diamond because we wanted 181 00:11:41.280 --> 00:11:43.320 to use it in different 182 00:11:44.800 --> 00:11:46.280 categories of usage. 183 00:11:46.280 --> 00:11:48.240 Number one, bio photonics. 184 00:11:48.240 --> 00:11:50.280 Mainly we want to use diamond. 185 00:11:50.280 --> 00:11:53.920 It has a particular impurity that gives off 186 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:57.640 particles for essence under a sort of excitation wavelength. 187 00:11:57.960 --> 00:12:00.480 And these 188 00:12:00.480 --> 00:12:02.360 nanodiamonds would prove 189 00:12:02.360 --> 00:12:07.800 to be efficient in being cellular biomarkers for early cancer detection 190 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:10.400 if we able to nanotech with certain proteins. 191 00:12:10.880 --> 00:12:14.160 Also, you can use diamond as a cavity 192 00:12:14.400 --> 00:12:19.880 in this in in the in the laser cavity to use them as a source for Raman lasing 193 00:12:20.120 --> 00:12:22.920 which would produce output wavelengths than normal 194 00:12:23.040 --> 00:12:27.040 conventional lasers can not a team as you see in the picture before you 195 00:12:27.120 --> 00:12:31.920 you see a diamond crystal being decided by 532 nanometers. 196 00:12:32.080 --> 00:12:35.360 You see the output is in the yellow 197 00:12:35.720 --> 00:12:39.520 wavelength range and this is something that we cannot attain normally. 198 00:12:39.720 --> 00:12:44.240 So this is something that has been really, really essential in showing 199 00:12:44.320 --> 00:12:47.520 what can we do in doing any type 200 00:12:47.520 --> 00:12:51.120 of characterization or even effects regarding 201 00:12:52.880 --> 00:12:54.720 this effect is nonlinear effects. 202 00:12:54.720 --> 00:12:58.560 And we also look at our full tunneling sensing regarding nanodiamonds, 203 00:12:58.560 --> 00:13:04.200 which the different impurities can be used as, can be engineered 204 00:13:04.200 --> 00:13:09.280 as certain sensors for sensing magnetic fields of various. 205 00:13:09.520 --> 00:13:14.160 It's changing of the electric field or even the temperature variance 206 00:13:14.840 --> 00:13:16.920 within a particular space. 207 00:13:17.760 --> 00:13:21.080 And lastly, we also look at the diamond as a source of quantum computing, 208 00:13:21.480 --> 00:13:25.040 mainly because, as you know, with classical computers, 209 00:13:25.040 --> 00:13:29.280 we use transistors as switches that use bits or binary digits. 210 00:13:29.520 --> 00:13:34.000 But with the color defects in diamond like the nitrogen vacancy, 211 00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:37.960 such a defect, we can use that as a quantum bit 212 00:13:38.200 --> 00:13:43.400 so we can use that to have a brand new innovation. 213 00:13:43.600 --> 00:13:47.040 We in science, technology and in computer 214 00:13:48.320 --> 00:13:50.280 information technology as well. 215 00:13:50.280 --> 00:13:54.640 And so here is where I did all of our research at DSU, 216 00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:59.320 and it was here that exposed me to a lot of different 217 00:14:00.280 --> 00:14:01.120 opportunities. 218 00:14:01.120 --> 00:14:06.360 For example, with Africa NSP, I was able to partake 219 00:14:06.360 --> 00:14:09.400 in the congressional visits that we have each year. 220 00:14:09.680 --> 00:14:13.880 I was able to represent Delaware and 221 00:14:15.280 --> 00:14:18.080 go to my 222 00:14:18.080 --> 00:14:24.040 local congressman and representative regarding the National Photonics 223 00:14:24.040 --> 00:14:28.520 Initiative, which was passed not so long ago in law. 224 00:14:28.520 --> 00:14:31.360 And we also 225 00:14:31.360 --> 00:14:33.960 allowed me to go to Nessim, 226 00:14:34.080 --> 00:14:36.880 which is a daughter of the Goddard Space Flight Center. 227 00:14:37.160 --> 00:14:38.200 During the summer. 228 00:14:38.200 --> 00:14:42.080 I was able to win the award of excellence while I was there during the summer. 229 00:14:42.080 --> 00:14:45.160 So being there and exposing me to a lot of 230 00:14:45.160 --> 00:14:47.760 different organizations, a lot of different things. 231 00:14:48.200 --> 00:14:54.200 So if you really want to understand the importance of historically 232 00:14:54.200 --> 00:14:57.600 black colleges, because a lot of people do not really graphs 233 00:14:57.760 --> 00:15:03.080 why HPC use are so needed, especially in today's society. 234 00:15:03.360 --> 00:15:05.360 Well, here's some history. 235 00:15:05.360 --> 00:15:08.360 Prior to the civil rights movement, prior to the 1950s, 236 00:15:09.240 --> 00:15:13.160 black people were universally considered intellectually inferior 237 00:15:13.480 --> 00:15:17.640 and socially and morally depraved, which sadly still echoes today. 238 00:15:18.200 --> 00:15:20.840 And there were laws based during that time 239 00:15:21.160 --> 00:15:26.040 which denied black people entry to white colleges and universities. 240 00:15:26.040 --> 00:15:29.920 So as a result, many black as some benevolent white 241 00:15:31.160 --> 00:15:33.480 created as established 242 00:15:33.840 --> 00:15:36.560 colleges for black education, academic, 243 00:15:36.840 --> 00:15:39.120 academic achievement and scholarship. 244 00:15:40.200 --> 00:15:43.320 And so 13 years 245 00:15:43.320 --> 00:15:45.840 of my life spent in the soil of Black colleges 246 00:15:45.840 --> 00:15:50.440 first and Morehouse, then a Fisk, and lastly at DSU. 247 00:15:50.920 --> 00:15:55.600 And now the next part of my journey after being in academia 248 00:15:55.600 --> 00:15:59.400 for all those years involves being ambassador for Africa. 249 00:15:59.920 --> 00:16:02.280 Stanford at the time has allowed me to do 250 00:16:02.560 --> 00:16:06.600 is share my experience with everybody that I'm able to talk to. 251 00:16:06.800 --> 00:16:08.400 I mean, to give advice. 252 00:16:08.400 --> 00:16:11.720 Different things I've learned over the years, 253 00:16:11.720 --> 00:16:14.280 a lot of different experiences that allow me to be wise 254 00:16:14.280 --> 00:16:17.040 regarding being trained as a professional. 255 00:16:17.560 --> 00:16:21.080 And I'm able to mentor different students all over the world. 256 00:16:21.280 --> 00:16:24.880 I'm able to network with different professionals and connect 257 00:16:24.880 --> 00:16:28.000 with different leaders and Nobel laureates. 258 00:16:28.480 --> 00:16:29.760 This has not been 259 00:16:30.840 --> 00:16:32.960 a I would say, 260 00:16:33.480 --> 00:16:36.920 a possibility, had not been a part of the program. 261 00:16:37.360 --> 00:16:43.440 Sadly, however, I did not even desire to be an ambassador program 262 00:16:43.800 --> 00:16:48.720 prior to 2020 and the reasons why is because mainly 263 00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:53.400 in the demographic of the people that were appointed ambassadors, 264 00:16:53.760 --> 00:16:57.200 I did not see one person that looked like me. 265 00:16:57.600 --> 00:17:03.160 Prior to 2020, I believe we had a black woman being inducted as an ambassador, 266 00:17:03.680 --> 00:17:07.200 but I didn't see any male figure of color, 267 00:17:07.920 --> 00:17:10.160 of dark color being in the program. 268 00:17:10.960 --> 00:17:13.200 However, that changed. 269 00:17:13.200 --> 00:17:16.080 My outlook on the ambassador program, changed 270 00:17:16.480 --> 00:17:19.600 once they released a statement 271 00:17:20.040 --> 00:17:24.560 during the summer of 2020 regarding what happened to George Floyd 272 00:17:24.720 --> 00:17:28.520 in every Science Lives in a society affected 273 00:17:28.520 --> 00:17:31.920 by and in many ways built upon systemic racism. 274 00:17:32.320 --> 00:17:35.240 As always, the Ambassadors was only at the time 275 00:17:35.600 --> 00:17:39.680 we are committed to fighting for justice, equality, integrity 276 00:17:39.840 --> 00:17:43.640 and inclusivity in the scientific community and beyond. 277 00:17:43.920 --> 00:17:47.920 We recognize we need to do more by sustainably supporting, 278 00:17:48.080 --> 00:17:52.920 amplifying and promoting black scientists, engineers and students. 279 00:17:53.240 --> 00:17:55.160 Black Lives Matter 280 00:17:56.280 --> 00:17:59.640 now we just put into context. 281 00:17:59.680 --> 00:18:02.680 This article was released 282 00:18:03.040 --> 00:18:07.120 in September 2020 and is a title in search of equity, 283 00:18:07.280 --> 00:18:11.080 and I used that from my presentation today. 284 00:18:11.280 --> 00:18:14.640 So I highly suggest you look up this article 285 00:18:14.640 --> 00:18:20.160 in Open magazine because it shows you all of the things 286 00:18:20.160 --> 00:18:23.120 that our fellow black colleagues 287 00:18:23.640 --> 00:18:26.240 had gone through 288 00:18:26.240 --> 00:18:28.440 just to see if we can have 289 00:18:28.440 --> 00:18:31.800 some sort of respect in our own scientific community. 290 00:18:32.040 --> 00:18:36.360 But if you look at in the study that was published 291 00:18:36.360 --> 00:18:40.480 with this article, it's called the Diversity Innovation Paradox, 292 00:18:41.280 --> 00:18:44.960 and it's found that demographically underrepresented to students, 293 00:18:44.960 --> 00:18:47.640 if you see programs tend to innovate 294 00:18:48.040 --> 00:18:50.920 at higher rates than majority students. 295 00:18:51.280 --> 00:18:54.480 Yet only too deeply entrenched biases, 296 00:18:54.960 --> 00:18:58.880 their contributions tend to be discounted and devalued 297 00:18:59.160 --> 00:19:03.080 in the same settings, prevented them from getting scientific traction. 298 00:19:04.200 --> 00:19:05.640 If you need more proof 299 00:19:05.640 --> 00:19:10.160 of this statement, here's a study that was also released in 2020, 300 00:19:10.960 --> 00:19:13.200 and I read biology 301 00:19:13.200 --> 00:19:16.880 and physics professors from eight large public U.S. 302 00:19:17.080 --> 00:19:21.680 research universities were asked to read one of eight identical CVS 303 00:19:21.960 --> 00:19:24.720 depicting a hypothetical doctoral graduate 304 00:19:24.960 --> 00:19:28.240 applying for a postdoctoral position in their field 305 00:19:28.480 --> 00:19:32.520 and raised them for competence, height, ability and likability. 306 00:19:33.120 --> 00:19:36.480 The candidate's name on the CV was used to manipulate race 307 00:19:36.840 --> 00:19:39.560 and gender with all other aspects 308 00:19:39.560 --> 00:19:42.600 of the CV held constant. 309 00:19:42.680 --> 00:19:44.760 So in other words, 310 00:19:44.760 --> 00:19:47.920 only if the candidate's name was changed 311 00:19:48.360 --> 00:19:52.040 to manipulate race and gender. 312 00:19:52.160 --> 00:19:54.400 And so the physics faculty 313 00:19:55.800 --> 00:19:58.280 see, hey there. 314 00:19:58.280 --> 00:20:01.600 Actually, he's being held constant still. 315 00:20:01.600 --> 00:20:05.880 Meaning I had the same if I was part of this study, 316 00:20:06.080 --> 00:20:09.520 I had the same accolades, I had the same papers being published, 317 00:20:09.720 --> 00:20:12.960 I had the same presentation is being shown at different conferences. 318 00:20:13.200 --> 00:20:18.120 And the physics faculty still rated Asian and white candidates 319 00:20:18.320 --> 00:20:22.280 as more competent and hirable than black 320 00:20:22.560 --> 00:20:25.640 and Latino candidates. 321 00:20:26.320 --> 00:20:29.080 And so we have to admit 322 00:20:30.720 --> 00:20:32.080 the science does 323 00:20:32.080 --> 00:20:36.120 indeed have a of racism problem. 324 00:20:36.120 --> 00:20:40.320 And this was brought by the cell editorial team, 325 00:20:41.120 --> 00:20:45.600 and they admitted that they were part of the problem. 326 00:20:45.600 --> 00:20:49.600 They were 13 scientists as part of this team, and now one of them 327 00:20:50.040 --> 00:20:51.360 is black. 328 00:20:52.040 --> 00:20:54.920 And they said something very prevalent here. 329 00:20:54.920 --> 00:20:59.320 They say it shouldn't have taken the recent deaths of George Floyd, 330 00:20:59.400 --> 00:21:02.040 Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery 331 00:21:02.400 --> 00:21:06.400 for us to speak and to act, we are asking ourselves 332 00:21:06.400 --> 00:21:11.920 what can we do to be stronger allies, stronger anti-racist? 333 00:21:12.640 --> 00:21:15.600 And I have to bring up this point 334 00:21:15.600 --> 00:21:19.360 because it should not have taken three 335 00:21:19.560 --> 00:21:25.160 consecutive murders when a span of three months. 336 00:21:25.160 --> 00:21:28.680 It should not have taken these three people to die 337 00:21:28.680 --> 00:21:31.360 in the public eye for people to care. 338 00:21:32.200 --> 00:21:34.680 And yet, sadly enough, 339 00:21:34.680 --> 00:21:37.760 we still have not brought 340 00:21:38.040 --> 00:21:40.960 Breonna Taylor's murderers to justice. 341 00:21:42.280 --> 00:21:43.120 And but 342 00:21:43.120 --> 00:21:45.720 you have to admit, this brought up 343 00:21:46.560 --> 00:21:49.280 the most amazing, 344 00:21:49.320 --> 00:21:52.440 the most surprisingly positive 345 00:21:52.440 --> 00:21:55.280 uprising, if you will, against systemic racism, 346 00:21:55.440 --> 00:21:59.160 police brutality and anti-black discrimination. 347 00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:03.040 But as a black person, 348 00:22:03.040 --> 00:22:07.120 I have to let you in on a little something that black people feel. 349 00:22:08.640 --> 00:22:10.320 We feel 350 00:22:10.320 --> 00:22:14.080 that we do not matter because we always have to prove 351 00:22:14.080 --> 00:22:19.320 our importance, our competence, our relevance and existence. 352 00:22:19.760 --> 00:22:22.080 And in so-called white spaces, 353 00:22:22.320 --> 00:22:27.240 we have to walk on eggshells, if you will, to hold our jobs in our positions, 354 00:22:27.440 --> 00:22:30.480 because we think that the people in power think 355 00:22:30.920 --> 00:22:33.520 we are expendable. 356 00:22:33.520 --> 00:22:36.640 But if you look at the people that 357 00:22:36.640 --> 00:22:41.960 that resonated with the pain of that year, 358 00:22:42.560 --> 00:22:44.960 you can see it wasn't just black people marching. 359 00:22:46.320 --> 00:22:48.000 People all over 360 00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:51.560 the world felt the same. See, 361 00:22:53.000 --> 00:22:55.480 it was a result This this 362 00:22:56.080 --> 00:23:00.280 this explosion, this explosive behavior, this powder keg. 363 00:23:01.680 --> 00:23:04.440 It was the result of a racist system of ethnic hatred 364 00:23:04.440 --> 00:23:06.200 against black people of color, 365 00:23:06.200 --> 00:23:09.960 that people of color, if you will, that has figuratively had gone 366 00:23:09.960 --> 00:23:13.080 cold their knee on our necks for far too long. 367 00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:17.040 If you had to understand the anger that people feel, it's 368 00:23:17.040 --> 00:23:21.800 because prior to this, so many policemen over the over 369 00:23:21.840 --> 00:23:26.400 decades have been acquitted of murders of innocent 370 00:23:26.640 --> 00:23:30.000 black people of color in a broken judicial system. 371 00:23:31.400 --> 00:23:33.720 But you have to look at how many people marched 372 00:23:33.720 --> 00:23:36.800 for George Floyd over that summer. 373 00:23:36.800 --> 00:23:39.480 It accomplished the entirety of our country 374 00:23:39.760 --> 00:23:43.320 in every state and every state. 375 00:23:43.320 --> 00:23:48.000 They marched for George Floyd, and it also went all over the world. 376 00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:53.400 I'm talking about places that do not have a lot of black people as a demographic. 377 00:23:53.640 --> 00:23:57.560 We're talking about Iran, South Korea, Germany, 378 00:23:57.800 --> 00:24:00.600 Ireland, Brazil, England. 379 00:24:01.440 --> 00:24:04.160 So many people marched for this man. 380 00:24:05.160 --> 00:24:07.400 But I want you to understand this. 381 00:24:07.840 --> 00:24:11.400 Things like these do not just happen 382 00:24:11.560 --> 00:24:15.160 to unlearned black people out in the streets. 383 00:24:16.280 --> 00:24:17.280 This right here is Dr. 384 00:24:17.280 --> 00:24:19.000 Lawrence Crosby. 385 00:24:19.040 --> 00:24:21.640 In 2015, he was a Ph.D. 386 00:24:21.720 --> 00:24:24.880 student at Northwestern University. 387 00:24:24.880 --> 00:24:28.240 A white woman thought he was burglarizing someone else's car 388 00:24:28.560 --> 00:24:33.000 when he was just trying to fix the smoke heading on his own car. 389 00:24:33.760 --> 00:24:39.240 And when he drove off, the woman fouled Crosby to his left 390 00:24:39.760 --> 00:24:42.000 on Northwestern's property 391 00:24:42.520 --> 00:24:44.640 and gave the police his location. 392 00:24:45.240 --> 00:24:47.520 The police tackled him. 393 00:24:47.520 --> 00:24:51.960 He got well, Crosby got on this car with his hands raised. 394 00:24:52.640 --> 00:24:57.400 The police still tackled him and they charged him with disobeying 395 00:24:57.400 --> 00:24:59.920 a police officer because he didn't get on the ground 396 00:25:00.480 --> 00:25:03.480 and resisting arrest 397 00:25:03.480 --> 00:25:05.880 just for trying to get in his own car. 398 00:25:06.960 --> 00:25:09.120 But thankfully, the judge acquitted him 399 00:25:10.160 --> 00:25:12.480 and he filed a lawsuit against the city 400 00:25:13.560 --> 00:25:19.320 and they settled for one for $1.25 million. 401 00:25:19.440 --> 00:25:21.840 But I want everybody to look at this young lady right here, 402 00:25:22.840 --> 00:25:24.880 this young lady. 403 00:25:24.880 --> 00:25:27.240 Her name is Bobby Wilson. 404 00:25:27.320 --> 00:25:30.480 She was honored by Yale, the Yale School of Public Health. 405 00:25:31.960 --> 00:25:33.680 She was trying to eradicate 406 00:25:33.680 --> 00:25:38.680 the invasive spotted lanternfly in her whole town, made it. 407 00:25:38.680 --> 00:25:42.480 She made a homemade repellent of soap, dish, soap, 408 00:25:42.760 --> 00:25:46.840 water and apple cider vinegar because apparently spotted 409 00:25:46.840 --> 00:25:50.040 lanternfly is our extremely harmful to the environment. 410 00:25:50.280 --> 00:25:52.880 And she was trying to do a public service. 411 00:25:53.680 --> 00:25:56.480 October 22nd of last year, 2022. 412 00:25:56.680 --> 00:25:58.560 This is 2022. 413 00:25:58.560 --> 00:26:02.480 A neighbor called the police on this young girl 414 00:26:03.360 --> 00:26:07.000 and I quote, There's a little black woman walking 415 00:26:07.280 --> 00:26:11.520 springs stuff on the sidewalks and trees on Elizabeth and Florence. 416 00:26:11.880 --> 00:26:14.800 I don't know what the h she's doing. 417 00:26:15.080 --> 00:26:16.200 Scares me, though. 418 00:26:17.560 --> 00:26:18.400 There is a gentleman. 419 00:26:18.400 --> 00:26:22.280 What possesses a person to call the police 420 00:26:22.280 --> 00:26:25.320 on a nine year old girl? 421 00:26:26.640 --> 00:26:28.080 And here's the thing. 422 00:26:28.080 --> 00:26:31.000 In 2017, the Georgetown 423 00:26:31.000 --> 00:26:34.000 Law Center on Poverty Inequality released 424 00:26:34.400 --> 00:26:37.680 a analysis called Girlhood Interrupted 425 00:26:37.960 --> 00:26:41.480 the Erasure of Black Girls Childhood. 426 00:26:41.840 --> 00:26:44.640 It is a quantitative analysis showing that adults 427 00:26:44.880 --> 00:26:48.400 perceive black girls as less innocent 428 00:26:48.960 --> 00:26:51.520 and less worthy of protection 429 00:26:51.960 --> 00:26:57.200 than white girls, and explained that this bias subsequently 430 00:26:57.520 --> 00:26:59.760 makes black girls targets 431 00:27:00.240 --> 00:27:04.040 of harsh treatment by police. 432 00:27:04.080 --> 00:27:06.520 So you just see the data regarding that. 433 00:27:06.800 --> 00:27:10.200 This is a lifetime risk of being killed by the police in the United States. 434 00:27:10.640 --> 00:27:13.440 You can see the majority of the people 435 00:27:13.680 --> 00:27:16.560 at risk of being killed by the police 436 00:27:16.800 --> 00:27:18.880 are African-American males. 437 00:27:20.520 --> 00:27:22.760 This is really, really sad. 438 00:27:22.760 --> 00:27:26.280 If we look at going into the science demographics 439 00:27:27.240 --> 00:27:27.880 compared to 440 00:27:27.880 --> 00:27:33.640 1999 and 2020, you can see that the number of undergraduate degrees 441 00:27:33.640 --> 00:27:38.840 in physics as a whole has tripled since 1999. 442 00:27:39.400 --> 00:27:43.720 But the share of black physics majors have plummeted, 443 00:27:44.440 --> 00:27:48.320 and the majority of the students 444 00:27:48.320 --> 00:27:52.560 who get their degrees from universities, 445 00:27:54.080 --> 00:27:57.040 the majority of them are only at historically black colleges. 446 00:27:57.360 --> 00:27:59.520 With Morehouse College being the number one. 447 00:28:00.720 --> 00:28:04.640 We can also look at how it relates to other minorities 448 00:28:04.880 --> 00:28:09.040 and look at how the trend has increased 449 00:28:09.560 --> 00:28:12.760 for the number of Hispanic people earning the SDS. 450 00:28:13.240 --> 00:28:16.440 But the trend is relatively static 451 00:28:17.200 --> 00:28:19.920 for black teens. 452 00:28:20.160 --> 00:28:22.960 And this hits home for me, 453 00:28:22.960 --> 00:28:25.360 mainly because, well, 454 00:28:25.360 --> 00:28:28.800 we look at the 2019 census. 455 00:28:29.480 --> 00:28:32.120 I represent 456 00:28:32.160 --> 00:28:36.200 only 13.4%, but only less than 3% earned 457 00:28:36.200 --> 00:28:40.280 the SDS during the year of 20 1420 2018. 458 00:28:41.760 --> 00:28:44.520 As for me, I earned my Ph.D. 459 00:28:44.520 --> 00:28:46.240 in 2018. 460 00:28:46.240 --> 00:28:50.720 So here I represent only one part. 461 00:28:50.720 --> 00:28:53.840 I'm part of the 1% of U.S. 462 00:28:54.080 --> 00:28:56.960 physics PhDs 463 00:28:57.760 --> 00:29:00.080 that are African-American, 464 00:29:00.080 --> 00:29:03.200 and I represent just less than 1% 465 00:29:03.560 --> 00:29:06.000 of all physics pieces. 466 00:29:06.880 --> 00:29:09.240 Regardless of where you live. 467 00:29:09.240 --> 00:29:12.920 I am part of less than 1%, 468 00:29:14.280 --> 00:29:17.160 and this is 2019. 469 00:29:17.640 --> 00:29:21.000 So let's look at some of the factors of why this is. 470 00:29:21.760 --> 00:29:24.480 We need to understand why this is so we can make changes. 471 00:29:25.800 --> 00:29:27.760 We can say that, number one, 472 00:29:27.760 --> 00:29:30.480 there has been a lot of support system 473 00:29:30.480 --> 00:29:34.080 for our black colleagues, mainly in academia. 474 00:29:34.840 --> 00:29:37.520 We can say that is a form of of exclusion 475 00:29:38.240 --> 00:29:41.520 and makes us feel that there's no sense of belonging 476 00:29:41.880 --> 00:29:46.680 within optics or even any type of hard science related to physics. 477 00:29:48.120 --> 00:29:49.040 We have to understand 478 00:29:49.040 --> 00:29:52.360 that there's a lot of STEM poverty in the United States, 479 00:29:52.880 --> 00:29:56.080 which leads to a lack of education and preparation 480 00:29:56.400 --> 00:30:00.200 for college courses, which includes calculus and physics. 481 00:30:01.400 --> 00:30:04.320 Physics will also be seen as an elitist field, 482 00:30:04.760 --> 00:30:07.600 as is part of the racial majority. 483 00:30:08.040 --> 00:30:13.440 Only partake in physics and everyone else has to try something else 484 00:30:14.360 --> 00:30:17.960 which produces a lot of imposter syndrome with scientists. 485 00:30:18.320 --> 00:30:21.200 Because some people feel that the positions 486 00:30:21.200 --> 00:30:25.080 that they have rightfully earned and fought for could be. 487 00:30:25.080 --> 00:30:28.640 They could be easily substituted for someone else 488 00:30:30.480 --> 00:30:32.840 that is non-black. 489 00:30:34.200 --> 00:30:38.640 And we can also say there's a lack of opportunities, access to opportunities 490 00:30:38.920 --> 00:30:43.680 due to systems purposely excluding black academics from succeeding. 491 00:30:43.920 --> 00:30:47.720 So if you're unfamiliar with Nicole, Nikole Hannah-Jones, 492 00:30:48.480 --> 00:30:53.200 she is the founder of the 1619 Project, which is a groundbreaking, 493 00:30:53.680 --> 00:30:57.720 groundbreaking work on the bitter legacy of slavery. 494 00:30:58.000 --> 00:31:01.200 And right now on Hulu, her 495 00:31:01.680 --> 00:31:05.160 her work is featured on Hulu right now. 496 00:31:05.160 --> 00:31:08.240 So I highly suggest you look it up on your own time. 497 00:31:09.000 --> 00:31:11.160 She was rightfully 498 00:31:12.600 --> 00:31:14.920 she had rightfully 499 00:31:14.920 --> 00:31:15.600 does. 500 00:31:15.680 --> 00:31:18.560 I will say she was 501 00:31:18.840 --> 00:31:21.280 supposed to be given tenure 502 00:31:21.600 --> 00:31:23.760 in the University of North Carolina. 503 00:31:23.880 --> 00:31:26.280 She was denied tenure. 504 00:31:27.560 --> 00:31:30.160 And she had over 20 years 505 00:31:31.640 --> 00:31:35.480 of being a pole surprise winning reporter for The New York Times. 506 00:31:35.760 --> 00:31:38.480 And they denied her tenure. 507 00:31:38.480 --> 00:31:42.840 And the only reason offered it back to her was because of the protest 508 00:31:42.840 --> 00:31:45.960 that happened by the students, showed people 509 00:31:45.960 --> 00:31:48.240 how this is unjust. 510 00:31:49.880 --> 00:31:52.160 But when they offered it back to where she 511 00:31:53.880 --> 00:31:58.640 taught that she was not celebrated at the university. 512 00:31:58.640 --> 00:32:00.600 So you know what she did? 513 00:32:00.600 --> 00:32:03.120 She went to Howard University, 514 00:32:03.120 --> 00:32:06.240 which is an historically black college in Washington, D.C., 515 00:32:07.200 --> 00:32:09.240 and it was there that she felt 516 00:32:09.400 --> 00:32:13.720 her work would be celebrated and wanted. 517 00:32:13.720 --> 00:32:17.880 And this produces a sense of feeling invisible to different people, 518 00:32:18.320 --> 00:32:22.000 or it feels that people who want to see 519 00:32:22.440 --> 00:32:25.160 black pieces of black success 520 00:32:25.800 --> 00:32:30.240 in the public eye, we hardly see it because of the suppression 521 00:32:30.600 --> 00:32:34.480 of all the people that rightfully deserve that praise. 522 00:32:35.480 --> 00:32:37.920 We also have to look at the microaggressions 523 00:32:38.280 --> 00:32:39.960 that a lot of people go through. 524 00:32:39.960 --> 00:32:42.440 These are some that I have heard 525 00:32:42.960 --> 00:32:45.880 either personally or myself being a third party. 526 00:32:46.760 --> 00:32:49.640 Why do you care what happens out there? 527 00:32:49.640 --> 00:32:52.800 Meaning, why do you care what happens on the streets? 528 00:32:53.280 --> 00:32:57.000 This was said to me regarding the time when Freddie Gray 529 00:32:57.640 --> 00:33:03.480 was murdered by the police in Baltimore during 2015. 530 00:33:03.480 --> 00:33:08.080 And when that was said to me, I initially thought, 531 00:33:09.200 --> 00:33:13.800 why don't you care what happens out there? 532 00:33:15.080 --> 00:33:17.280 Because that tells me you have no empathy 533 00:33:18.360 --> 00:33:21.840 to particularly in my well being as a black man, 534 00:33:22.640 --> 00:33:25.000 because the only things that because I'm a scientist, 535 00:33:25.520 --> 00:33:32.560 I just need to do the science because to political people, science is colorblind. 536 00:33:33.120 --> 00:33:35.600 But let's look at that claim for a second. 537 00:33:35.640 --> 00:33:37.080 Science is colorblind. 538 00:33:38.080 --> 00:33:39.640 If someone says, 539 00:33:39.640 --> 00:33:43.720 I'm not racist, I don't see color, I'm colorblind. 540 00:33:44.280 --> 00:33:45.160 You know what that means? 541 00:33:45.160 --> 00:33:48.240 If that means you have no acknowledgment of what 542 00:33:48.240 --> 00:33:51.720 I will personally go through 543 00:33:51.720 --> 00:33:53.240 because I am black, 544 00:33:53.240 --> 00:33:56.640 the harassment, the potential harassment by the police, 545 00:33:57.000 --> 00:34:00.520 the strain of being looked at as a potential threat, 546 00:34:00.840 --> 00:34:04.880 and always have to look behind my back and cover myself 547 00:34:05.080 --> 00:34:08.880 whenever I'm walking into a store. 548 00:34:08.880 --> 00:34:10.480 Oh, I heard this 549 00:34:10.480 --> 00:34:14.880 said to many of my friends, You're very articulate for a black man. 550 00:34:14.920 --> 00:34:21.200 You speak so eloquently for a black man, that means this person who was speaking. 551 00:34:21.200 --> 00:34:25.880 This has low expectations of the way 552 00:34:25.880 --> 00:34:30.240 I speak, more articulate in my professionalism and education. 553 00:34:32.040 --> 00:34:34.000 And also we have to look at the gaslighting. 554 00:34:34.000 --> 00:34:36.600 If someone goes to someone 555 00:34:37.120 --> 00:34:40.440 and protests things that are happening, 556 00:34:40.800 --> 00:34:44.280 all of a sudden, the person that is making this complaint, 557 00:34:44.480 --> 00:34:48.600 they're in the wrong because no one else feels the same way. 558 00:34:49.560 --> 00:34:52.480 So you mean they believe this this person to think that they're wrong 559 00:34:52.880 --> 00:34:55.880 when actually objectively 560 00:34:55.880 --> 00:34:59.080 they are right for calling that out? 561 00:34:59.080 --> 00:35:02.240 And you see the preference I have for all of these. 562 00:35:03.480 --> 00:35:06.240 And so during the time there was a time 563 00:35:06.240 --> 00:35:09.920 where there was hashtags being represented on Twitter, 564 00:35:11.160 --> 00:35:14.400 giving people an opportunity to do the research for yourself 565 00:35:14.880 --> 00:35:18.440 regarding all of these claims, shutdowns stem shut down 566 00:35:19.080 --> 00:35:21.840 academia, strive to Black Lives Matter, 567 00:35:22.440 --> 00:35:26.160 and a lot of people, they still feel that 568 00:35:26.160 --> 00:35:29.440 a lot of people are just making things things up, or we're 569 00:35:29.440 --> 00:35:34.320 just overly complaining and whining and doing all these things 570 00:35:34.320 --> 00:35:38.800 because it's just trying to find a way to cut corners 571 00:35:39.600 --> 00:35:42.000 and being successful while 572 00:35:42.000 --> 00:35:44.240 throwing out false flags. 573 00:35:44.240 --> 00:35:47.760 But I like to share with you a lot of the stories 574 00:35:48.200 --> 00:35:50.640 that we shared during 2020 575 00:35:51.000 --> 00:35:57.040 by scientists, credible scientists, and it was launched by De 576 00:35:57.040 --> 00:36:00.960 Davis, who was an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut. 577 00:36:01.280 --> 00:36:03.080 They joined Melody Woods. 578 00:36:03.080 --> 00:36:07.920 She was a student student at the University of Texas in Austin. 579 00:36:07.920 --> 00:36:08.520 And I read 580 00:36:10.600 --> 00:36:12.040 a former senior professor 581 00:36:12.040 --> 00:36:16.160 asking me to stay after a faculty meeting when others left. 582 00:36:16.160 --> 00:36:22.160 He said he had seen a documentary of a black woman so in other people's hair. 583 00:36:22.440 --> 00:36:26.360 And he yanked mine and said, Is this real? 584 00:36:27.840 --> 00:36:30.120 Ladies and gentlemen, this is assault. 585 00:36:34.080 --> 00:36:37.080 Campus police will follow black male grad students 586 00:36:37.080 --> 00:36:40.800 around campus when they graduate to physically accosted us. 587 00:36:40.800 --> 00:36:42.120 We complained. 588 00:36:42.120 --> 00:36:45.240 The dean of the medical school said that maybe we should wear ties 589 00:36:45.520 --> 00:36:49.240 so that they know we were students and not custodial staff. 590 00:36:49.880 --> 00:36:54.000 Being black in academia, constantly seeing people who excluded you, 591 00:36:54.480 --> 00:36:57.480 promote themselves as leaders in inclusion and diversity, 592 00:36:57.960 --> 00:37:01.320 and is watching people use the success you have achieved 593 00:37:01.680 --> 00:37:05.160 in spite of them as evidence that they support black people 594 00:37:06.720 --> 00:37:09.480 instilling dread every time you have to ask professors 595 00:37:09.480 --> 00:37:13.560 to risk playing something out of fear, of being looked at like you're dumb 596 00:37:13.760 --> 00:37:17.280 or being met with, maybe this isn't the right field for you. 597 00:37:17.800 --> 00:37:21.520 While your peers receive enthusiastic responses 598 00:37:21.720 --> 00:37:24.960 for asking the same questions 599 00:37:24.960 --> 00:37:27.560 as being told by a senior white woman professor, 600 00:37:27.920 --> 00:37:30.880 of course, in a said We'll fund your career award. 601 00:37:31.200 --> 00:37:34.240 You are a black woman 602 00:37:35.640 --> 00:37:38.920 is being invited to give a talk only to be mistaken for a Ph.D. 603 00:37:39.000 --> 00:37:42.560 student. Coming for an interview 604 00:37:42.560 --> 00:37:44.960 is finally mustering the courage to tell your advisor 605 00:37:45.200 --> 00:37:48.600 that you're experiencing microaggressions in your research group, 606 00:37:48.920 --> 00:37:52.720 only for your advisor to tell you that your group members didn't mean it 607 00:37:53.000 --> 00:37:57.240 or jerks over exaggerating. 608 00:37:57.240 --> 00:38:02.520 And this isn't person who was who had experienced his friend drop out 609 00:38:03.000 --> 00:38:07.920 because of the terrible advisor that this person had. 610 00:38:07.920 --> 00:38:10.040 And here's the response to that 611 00:38:11.000 --> 00:38:13.200 which you're reading has two filters 612 00:38:13.680 --> 00:38:16.760 that suggest the situation may be even worse than it appears. 613 00:38:17.080 --> 00:38:19.200 One survivor bias. 614 00:38:19.200 --> 00:38:21.720 You've seen the people who stayed. 615 00:38:21.720 --> 00:38:23.880 Number two, publication bias. 616 00:38:24.120 --> 00:38:26.880 The stories that feel safe to share publicly 617 00:38:28.160 --> 00:38:33.000 now well know Williams is one one of my friends 618 00:38:33.000 --> 00:38:37.400 and she is a fellow bridge graduate from Fisk. 619 00:38:38.000 --> 00:38:40.960 She brings over from Fisk to Harvard. 620 00:38:41.600 --> 00:38:44.360 She's about to graduate with a Ph.D. 621 00:38:44.360 --> 00:38:48.360 this year from Harvard and she said 622 00:38:49.200 --> 00:38:53.760 people may sought to inform her that she was accepted to Harvard 623 00:38:53.920 --> 00:38:57.920 because there is no black woman in physics. 624 00:38:57.920 --> 00:39:00.600 And the response to that was I never 625 00:39:01.440 --> 00:39:06.320 I almost never accomplished something without someone telling me I was that 626 00:39:06.320 --> 00:39:11.640 diverse city, higher as if my application materials, which is a picture of my face. 627 00:39:12.560 --> 00:39:16.080 Now, this is particularly disheartening and offensive 628 00:39:16.320 --> 00:39:18.960 because this is an actual medical 629 00:39:19.800 --> 00:39:23.880 article published that talks about interventions 630 00:39:23.880 --> 00:39:27.240 that takes less than 8 minutes and 46 seconds. 631 00:39:27.240 --> 00:39:28.960 And just to keep in context, 632 00:39:30.040 --> 00:39:30.960 the police officer, 633 00:39:30.960 --> 00:39:34.720 Derek Chauvin, had his knee on George Floyd's neck 634 00:39:35.160 --> 00:39:37.560 for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. 635 00:39:37.920 --> 00:39:41.080 And this article has no reference 636 00:39:41.680 --> 00:39:45.600 to the protests, to the anger, to George Floyd, to the murder. 637 00:39:45.880 --> 00:39:52.360 All it talks about is the 8 minutes of 46 seconds. 638 00:39:52.360 --> 00:39:56.600 Black in the ivory is when a history teacher brings me in front of the class, 639 00:39:56.880 --> 00:40:01.520 closes the door and says to the class, Ruben, you're a strong black guy. 640 00:40:01.800 --> 00:40:04.840 You would have been the perfect slave. 641 00:40:06.120 --> 00:40:09.960 Ladies and gentlemen, this is real life. 642 00:40:09.960 --> 00:40:13.200 And the thing about it, they did not believe him when he complained. 643 00:40:13.760 --> 00:40:19.320 And nothing happened to that professor after he complained, my Tia 644 00:40:19.320 --> 00:40:22.800 thought I plagiarized a paper based on the quality 645 00:40:22.800 --> 00:40:25.080 of writing reporting me. 646 00:40:25.920 --> 00:40:29.080 I showed the professor my revising history and he apologized. 647 00:40:29.320 --> 00:40:31.720 You said I should take it as a compliment. 648 00:40:32.160 --> 00:40:35.880 And then he asked if I ever consider an English pasty 649 00:40:37.880 --> 00:40:38.560 in med school. 650 00:40:38.560 --> 00:40:42.120 When I struggled with neurology as a first year student, I was told, 651 00:40:42.360 --> 00:40:47.640 You should accept this isn't your thing and you should accept your poor perform. 652 00:40:47.640 --> 00:40:52.520 It's why countless white students were offered one on one tutoring. 653 00:40:53.680 --> 00:40:57.520 When I told my medical school appointed advisor that I was in my second term 654 00:40:57.760 --> 00:41:00.360 of being our medical school class president, 655 00:41:00.920 --> 00:41:06.240 he said, It's so hard to be a white male in medicine now. 656 00:41:06.240 --> 00:41:09.960 Not that they're giving away our leadership spots to people 657 00:41:09.960 --> 00:41:14.640 like you. 658 00:41:14.640 --> 00:41:19.200 I was reprimanded by the dean for advocating that the hiring committee. 659 00:41:19.600 --> 00:41:24.600 I was on to interview a prospective black applicant. 660 00:41:25.640 --> 00:41:28.400 The dean said it was because I was engaging 661 00:41:28.400 --> 00:41:31.640 in behavior inconsistent with community norms. 662 00:41:31.640 --> 00:41:32.280 I applied. 663 00:41:32.280 --> 00:41:35.280 I replied, Ain't I part of the community? 664 00:41:36.520 --> 00:41:37.080 So this is for 665 00:41:37.080 --> 00:41:41.720 everybody here who is reading all this, who has to sit through everything 666 00:41:41.720 --> 00:41:44.640 I'm reading to you and you're feeling uncomfortable. 667 00:41:45.560 --> 00:41:47.920 Please understand if you're white and are 668 00:41:48.240 --> 00:41:50.880 incredibly uncomfortable with reading, 669 00:41:51.080 --> 00:41:55.680 seeing, and hearing our stories of racism and anti-blackness, 670 00:41:56.040 --> 00:41:59.880 imagine feeling like that every day of your life. 671 00:42:00.840 --> 00:42:03.560 Y'all don't even know the half of it. 672 00:42:04.520 --> 00:42:06.440 Do not turn away. 673 00:42:06.440 --> 00:42:10.320 It forgets to sit with it and do better 674 00:42:13.680 --> 00:42:16.520 in response to fast forward to here, but this is Dr. 675 00:42:16.520 --> 00:42:18.480 Raven, the science maven. 676 00:42:18.480 --> 00:42:20.080 She's really famous on Twitter. 677 00:42:20.080 --> 00:42:22.720 She talked about how people 678 00:42:22.720 --> 00:42:24.920 threatened to call the police on her because they thought 679 00:42:25.920 --> 00:42:30.480 she was a student trying to steal mail and they did not believe her faculty. 680 00:42:30.480 --> 00:42:31.440 It was real. 681 00:42:32.960 --> 00:42:36.040 And another time she showed up 682 00:42:36.800 --> 00:42:41.800 as assistant professor of biology in a suit and someone had gave her a mop 683 00:42:41.800 --> 00:42:45.000 and a broom because they thought she was the custodian. 684 00:42:46.680 --> 00:42:48.240 And she was asked, 685 00:42:48.240 --> 00:42:52.200 Why didn't I say anything when we experienced systematic 686 00:42:52.440 --> 00:42:55.760 mistreatment and oppression for our entire lives? 687 00:42:56.040 --> 00:43:01.040 For generations, these events occur and we internalize the trauma. 688 00:43:01.040 --> 00:43:05.040 Fighting back and using your voice is a learning process for some, 689 00:43:05.520 --> 00:43:10.200 many have not and many still haven't found their voice. 690 00:43:10.200 --> 00:43:11.480 I'm still attached for this. 691 00:43:11.480 --> 00:43:14.280 One of the last. 692 00:43:14.280 --> 00:43:16.280 Sorry, but I wanted to. 693 00:43:16.280 --> 00:43:18.080 I want you to listen to my friend. 694 00:43:18.080 --> 00:43:20.080 This is Dr. Bianca Jones Marlon. 695 00:43:20.440 --> 00:43:23.920 She's a neuroscientist at Columbia University in New York City. 696 00:43:24.360 --> 00:43:28.560 I want you to listen to her words because it's going to illustrate everything. 697 00:43:28.720 --> 00:43:31.200 I was speaking over the past 698 00:43:31.640 --> 00:43:40.320 several minutes. 699 00:43:41.120 --> 00:43:43.000 Bianca Jones Marlin: Hi, my name is Bianca Jones Marlin. 700 00:43:43.000 --> 00:43:48.720 I'm a post-doc in neuroscience, and I want to speak to my black scientist 701 00:43:48.720 --> 00:43:52.840 colleagues, grad students, trainees, the black students 702 00:43:53.320 --> 00:43:56.680 in the community. 703 00:43:56.680 --> 00:44:00.840 I want you to know, and this is because I feel like there have been times 704 00:44:00.840 --> 00:44:06.560 where I need to be told this. Dr. Michael J. Williams: So 705 00:44:07.560 --> 00:44:07.800 sorry 706 00:44:07.800 --> 00:44:16.680 about that. 707 00:44:16.680 --> 00:44:18.680 Bianca Jones Marlin: That your presence in science is important, 708 00:44:20.040 --> 00:44:22.440 that your purpose in science is seen 709 00:44:23.480 --> 00:44:25.960 and that you are essential 710 00:44:26.040 --> 00:44:28.920 in your communities, in the scientific community 711 00:44:28.920 --> 00:44:31.400 and the world as a whole to make the world a better place. 712 00:44:32.960 --> 00:44:36.120 I remember maybe two years ago 713 00:44:36.480 --> 00:44:39.760 during another obvious issue of racial injustice 714 00:44:40.640 --> 00:44:43.840 that I had 715 00:44:43.840 --> 00:44:46.040 no one to reach out to that I thought would 716 00:44:46.280 --> 00:44:49.200 understand just the heaviness of the situation. 717 00:44:49.920 --> 00:44:52.600 And I had to sit through a lab meeting 718 00:44:52.600 --> 00:44:53.440 while people were happy. 719 00:44:53.440 --> 00:44:57.440 Go lucky when we found out earlier today that someone was murdered unjustly, 720 00:44:58.280 --> 00:45:02.000 a black person was murdered unjustly and there is no comment said 721 00:45:02.520 --> 00:45:05.840 I felt like if I was to bring it up, I would be burdening other people 722 00:45:05.840 --> 00:45:06.840 with something else 723 00:45:06.840 --> 00:45:10.640 specific to me and specific to us as a whole, as a country, as a whole. 724 00:45:12.760 --> 00:45:13.920 And that feeling is heavy. 725 00:45:13.920 --> 00:45:18.360 And I think it's unnecessary, which is why I want to make myself available to you. 726 00:45:19.440 --> 00:45:21.000 Send me a message. 727 00:45:21.000 --> 00:45:22.320 I'm here to hear your stories. 728 00:45:22.320 --> 00:45:24.920 I'm here to hear the way you feel about the situation. 729 00:45:24.920 --> 00:45:27.960 I'm here to sit with you in silence 730 00:45:27.960 --> 00:45:28.800 about the situation. 731 00:45:28.800 --> 00:45:32.040 I know it's harder now because we're not sitting in the back 732 00:45:32.040 --> 00:45:35.280 of a conference room 733 00:45:35.280 --> 00:45:38.600 feeling this heaviness and being able to flag down in our seat and ignore it. 734 00:45:39.080 --> 00:45:42.600 We're feeling on Zoom when people are looking at our face 735 00:45:42.600 --> 00:45:46.360 and we're looking at their eyes and talking about the easiness of their day, 736 00:45:46.440 --> 00:45:50.200 we have this extra burden, this transgenerational burden on us. 737 00:45:50.880 --> 00:45:54.040 So I'm here to hear your stories because I get it, 738 00:45:55.440 --> 00:45:56.960 because I 739 00:45:56.960 --> 00:46:01.200 know that your stories aren't a paranoia, because I've been there. 740 00:46:02.360 --> 00:46:05.160 So your stories of 741 00:46:05.280 --> 00:46:07.560 being locked out of your faculty housing 742 00:46:08.040 --> 00:46:10.360 because someone decides you don't live there 743 00:46:10.360 --> 00:46:13.280 and so they close the door in your face until security comes. 744 00:46:13.320 --> 00:46:14.120 I know 745 00:46:15.960 --> 00:46:19.360 when people decide to videotape you 746 00:46:20.120 --> 00:46:23.040 for no reason and call you aggressive because of something 747 00:46:23.040 --> 00:46:25.680 someone said behind you or something that has nothing to do with you. 748 00:46:25.960 --> 00:46:28.440 And they think that they can put that on you. 749 00:46:28.440 --> 00:46:29.600 It's not being paranoid. 750 00:46:29.600 --> 00:46:31.560 I know, because I've been there 751 00:46:31.800 --> 00:46:34.160 how people directly 752 00:46:34.160 --> 00:46:36.760 attack you or question your presence 753 00:46:37.440 --> 00:46:40.960 because of the fact that you're black and for no other reason 754 00:46:40.960 --> 00:46:43.440 and not looking at your resume and not looking at other reasons 755 00:46:43.440 --> 00:46:47.720 why you are there in science and do excellent work, but making an assumption 756 00:46:47.720 --> 00:46:51.560 based on your appearance, it's not a paranoia. 757 00:46:51.560 --> 00:46:52.600 I get it because I've been there. 758 00:46:53.680 --> 00:46:56.880 It's I wanted myself available to you 759 00:46:56.880 --> 00:46:58.440 to be there for you 760 00:46:58.520 --> 00:47:01.840 and to those who are well above 761 00:47:01.840 --> 00:47:05.760 and beyond where I am in science as a postdoc, 762 00:47:05.760 --> 00:47:08.040 I would love to hear from you too, because I think it 763 00:47:10.160 --> 00:47:13.280 is essential to have that community right now 764 00:47:14.560 --> 00:47:17.000 to know that, yeah, that we're important, 765 00:47:17.040 --> 00:47:22.200 that we matter. 766 00:47:22.200 --> 00:47:27.360 Dr. Michael J. Williams: So I hope that you can hear her words and see her tears 767 00:47:28.520 --> 00:47:32.120 in this before you just illustrating everything she's been going through. 768 00:47:33.000 --> 00:47:35.040 And quite honestly, 769 00:47:35.360 --> 00:47:38.960 a lot of people, they want to say that it's a scientist. 770 00:47:38.960 --> 00:47:43.080 Since there's equal opportunity, everybody has equal share. 771 00:47:43.080 --> 00:47:44.760 Everybody can make it. 772 00:47:44.760 --> 00:47:49.280 But if you understand so many pitfalls and so many hurdles 773 00:47:49.280 --> 00:47:54.400 and so many things she has to do in order to be seen as equal 774 00:47:55.440 --> 00:47:57.560 is really, really disheartening. 775 00:47:57.560 --> 00:47:59.920 And again, if you're feeling uncomfortable, please 776 00:47:59.920 --> 00:48:03.000 understand that I myself have felt very uncomfortable, 777 00:48:04.320 --> 00:48:07.680 you know, being in white spaces, especially in conferences 778 00:48:08.880 --> 00:48:11.640 when people are just looking at me because I'm just there 779 00:48:12.120 --> 00:48:17.800 and it seems like I'm an anomaly because of my size and my stature. 780 00:48:17.800 --> 00:48:21.000 I'm six foot three and a lot of people, they cannot 781 00:48:22.040 --> 00:48:26.280 conceive even the thought of I'm impressive, 782 00:48:26.280 --> 00:48:30.000 even the thought of a six foot three black man and being a Ph.D. 783 00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:31.640 in optics. 784 00:48:31.800 --> 00:48:35.640 So just going back to what Nikole Hannah-Jones was talking about, 785 00:48:35.640 --> 00:48:40.160 she says this is the psychological bomb of the red racial caste system in America. 786 00:48:40.520 --> 00:48:44.160 If you're black, it couldn't overcome every obstacle to pull yourself up. 787 00:48:44.160 --> 00:48:45.400 It's because you're lazy. 788 00:48:45.400 --> 00:48:47.160 It's not want to work hard. 789 00:48:47.160 --> 00:48:49.120 If you're black, If you manage to be successful, it's 790 00:48:49.120 --> 00:48:51.760 because of affirmative action and you didn't earn it. 791 00:48:52.320 --> 00:48:55.760 Your failures and your successes will all be blamed on the same thing. 792 00:48:56.040 --> 00:48:57.760 Your blackness. 793 00:48:57.760 --> 00:48:59.520 The house wins either way. 794 00:48:59.520 --> 00:49:03.680 That's why we have to stop allowing our allowing others to validate us. 795 00:49:04.400 --> 00:49:09.640 But I do want to highlight optical resolve in promoting 796 00:49:11.680 --> 00:49:12.960 black scientists. 797 00:49:12.960 --> 00:49:15.680 And the statement regarding what happened to George 798 00:49:15.680 --> 00:49:19.120 Floyd is spokeswomen volumes to us as well. 799 00:49:19.120 --> 00:49:22.200 I'm first with this because I have a couple minutes left. 800 00:49:22.200 --> 00:49:25.120 The Amplify scholarship was was 801 00:49:26.200 --> 00:49:30.360 it it came to life two years ago 802 00:49:30.840 --> 00:49:33.560 and it was because of the ambassador program and the Bachelor 803 00:49:33.560 --> 00:49:37.440 program recognized the underrepresentation of black students 804 00:49:37.760 --> 00:49:41.960 and they proposed this development of a new scholarship program. 805 00:49:42.280 --> 00:49:45.680 And so we are in the second year 806 00:49:45.680 --> 00:49:51.240 of this program of program, which is so, so amazing. 807 00:49:51.240 --> 00:49:56.040 This I believe this this crowd right here was the first class 808 00:49:56.400 --> 00:49:58.480 of being Amplify Scholars 809 00:49:58.480 --> 00:50:01.240 and one of the sponsors, one of the promoters 810 00:50:01.920 --> 00:50:04.520 highlighted this, saying this There is a persistent underrepresented 811 00:50:04.520 --> 00:50:08.200 representation of black scientists in the optical sciences of physics, 812 00:50:08.520 --> 00:50:11.400 a lack of visibility community and resources are frequently 813 00:50:11.520 --> 00:50:15.120 cited barriers to attracting bright black students to stem. 814 00:50:15.480 --> 00:50:19.800 We saw an opportunity to initiate change in our community, 815 00:50:19.800 --> 00:50:22.640 and launching a scholarship seems a natural place to start. 816 00:50:22.920 --> 00:50:25.240 I am so happy to be a witness of this. 817 00:50:25.560 --> 00:50:26.560 And there are others too. 818 00:50:26.560 --> 00:50:28.400 We are to celebrate one. 819 00:50:29.440 --> 00:50:30.600 My friend Christine Hendon. 820 00:50:30.600 --> 00:50:32.880 She's a Columbia University. 821 00:50:32.880 --> 00:50:34.400 We have Dr. Desiree Whitmore. 822 00:50:34.400 --> 00:50:39.600 She's a physics communicator at the School Moratorium in San Francisco. 823 00:50:39.600 --> 00:50:42.240 We have Dr. Bell B.S. 824 00:50:42.480 --> 00:50:44.960 She is the lab director at Johns Hopkins University. 825 00:50:45.320 --> 00:50:49.720 We also have just a little barrow who I can now say publicly. 826 00:50:49.720 --> 00:50:55.000 He has been a doctor as a new African ambassador for the year 2023. 827 00:50:55.120 --> 00:50:57.240 I am so happy for him. 828 00:50:57.240 --> 00:50:59.920 He's at Brown right now. We have Juris. 829 00:50:59.920 --> 00:51:03.800 She's at the United Kingdom and we also have Dr. 830 00:51:03.800 --> 00:51:05.440 Kimani Toussaint Junior. 831 00:51:05.440 --> 00:51:10.000 He's also Philadelphia, which I learned last year, East, West Philadelphia. 832 00:51:10.520 --> 00:51:11.880 And I'm from North Philadelphia. 833 00:51:11.880 --> 00:51:13.400 So we have that now. 834 00:51:13.400 --> 00:51:14.040 The connection. 835 00:51:14.040 --> 00:51:17.000 I'm so happy to have a fulfilling brother in optics. 836 00:51:17.440 --> 00:51:21.000 And this was a picture from the frontiers of this conference 837 00:51:21.240 --> 00:51:22.920 where I gave this presentation. 838 00:51:22.920 --> 00:51:27.360 And you see the interests of the people that were there, 839 00:51:27.600 --> 00:51:32.720 the multicolored interest of people promoting black students and optics. 840 00:51:32.920 --> 00:51:38.360 And I want that to be more of a of a natural movement, 841 00:51:38.360 --> 00:51:42.560 if you will, to promote black black scientists in optics. 842 00:51:43.040 --> 00:51:47.280 And so how to be an ally first, 843 00:51:47.280 --> 00:51:50.520 care for us, care for our well-being, 844 00:51:51.120 --> 00:51:55.360 listen to us, believe our stories, and do not disregard our experiences. 845 00:51:55.800 --> 00:52:00.240 Educate yourself on the risk history of Black article Scientists we see use. 846 00:52:00.480 --> 00:52:03.160 There's a new book by SBI. 847 00:52:03.360 --> 00:52:07.160 I'm a part of hardly a black scientist in optics, so please 848 00:52:08.880 --> 00:52:10.480 stay tuned for that. 849 00:52:10.480 --> 00:52:11.920 Acknowledge your own biases. 850 00:52:11.920 --> 00:52:14.880 We all have them, but we have to work earnestly to correct. 851 00:52:14.880 --> 00:52:18.840 And please find support and cite our work. 852 00:52:19.320 --> 00:52:23.840 Nominate qualified black students with high positions with equal pay. 853 00:52:24.600 --> 00:52:29.080 Stand up for us, speak up and advocate both publicly and privately. 854 00:52:29.560 --> 00:52:33.960 And please do not invite black scientists just to speak only about the 855 00:52:33.960 --> 00:52:37.480 by talking about the research edge world for a respected colleague. 856 00:52:37.880 --> 00:52:40.720 And also when you see someone doing something wrong to another person, 857 00:52:41.040 --> 00:52:43.840 do not stay silent, do something about it. 858 00:52:44.200 --> 00:52:47.760 And naturally I would suggest, rather than just being an ally, 859 00:52:47.760 --> 00:52:51.600 be a coconspirator, be someone lucky, and with us 860 00:52:52.440 --> 00:52:55.880 running the race, running the maritime experiences, the pain, the 861 00:52:56.600 --> 00:53:01.160 but also experiencing the joy of victory by this being on the sidelines. 862 00:53:01.960 --> 00:53:04.560 And there are other programs. I'm part us. 863 00:53:04.760 --> 00:53:10.120 I'm going to pair up the American Society of Cell Biology just as well as 864 00:53:10.120 --> 00:53:15.480 have a grant for more than $1.4 million to implement a new inclusivity model 865 00:53:15.720 --> 00:53:19.680 to promote a more diverse scientific workforce in imaging. 866 00:53:20.040 --> 00:53:23.280 So if you know anyone who wants to be part of this program, 867 00:53:23.520 --> 00:53:27.760 well, who is a particularly in imaging, please let me know. 868 00:53:27.760 --> 00:53:29.400 We'd love to have him. 869 00:53:29.400 --> 00:53:33.240 And also talking about the bridge program and the success of his 870 00:53:34.560 --> 00:53:35.880 the the the 871 00:53:35.880 --> 00:53:38.880 success stories of the students is earning a t 872 00:53:39.120 --> 00:53:43.200 a 70 75% higher than the national average. 873 00:53:44.640 --> 00:53:47.960 So these are other resources that I can send to everybody. 874 00:53:47.960 --> 00:53:51.880 If you want to just let me know in the comments 875 00:53:52.280 --> 00:53:55.560 and I want to just finalize everything with this. 876 00:53:56.760 --> 00:54:01.680 Back in 2016, I was at the SBA conference and the CEO, Dr.. 877 00:54:01.680 --> 00:54:06.080 After was asked how can we promote optics in third world countries? 878 00:54:06.360 --> 00:54:09.520 And he said this Before we even think about going to other countries, 879 00:54:09.520 --> 00:54:13.720 we need to reach the inner city black and Latino communities first. 880 00:54:14.080 --> 00:54:18.800 They caused me so much because I felt that I was the only one at the conference. 881 00:54:19.200 --> 00:54:24.480 And we just need to give people like me consistent encouragement and 882 00:54:24.720 --> 00:54:25.680 the opportunity. 883 00:54:26.640 --> 00:54:28.840 I'd like to thank you all for listening to me today. 884 00:54:29.040 --> 00:54:31.840 Please contact me during 885 00:54:31.840 --> 00:54:34.880 my email here and with Twitter and also and the 886 00:54:35.400 --> 00:54:38.000 the founder of Black in Optics on Twitter. 887 00:54:38.400 --> 00:54:41.840 Please let me know if we can 888 00:54:42.960 --> 00:54:45.720 collaborate with anything you have going on in the future. 889 00:54:46.080 --> 00:54:48.320 And one more comment. 890 00:54:48.320 --> 00:54:50.720 It took the math of a black woman 891 00:54:51.360 --> 00:54:53.760 to get all of us to reach the stars. 892 00:54:54.600 --> 00:54:57.400 Thank you very much.