Minority Bridge Program

Minority Bridge Program

  MBP Brochure
  MBP Board and Staff
  MBP Resources
  Contact MBP

Minority Bridge Meetings

Minority Bridge Workshop
  Background and Agenda
  Workshop Presentations

Engaged Institutions

Minority Serving Institutions
 • Cal State Long Beach
 • Chicago State University
 • Dillard University
 • Florida International University
 • Morehouse College
 • Southern University
 • Spelman College
 • Texas State University
 • Univ of Puerto Rico-Humacao
 • Univ of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez
 • Univ of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras
 • University of Texas-San Antonio
 • University of Texas-El Paso
 • Xavier University

Doctoral Granting Institutions
 • Columbia University
 • Harvard University
 • MIT
 • Stanford University
 • University of Arizona
 • Univ of California, Berkeley
 • University of Colorado
 • University of Maryland
 • University of Michigan
 • University of Texas-Austin

Program Goal

The goal of the Minority Bridge Program (MBP) is to bring the fraction of physics PhDs granted to underrepresented minorities (African American, Native American and Hispanic American) into parity with the fraction of undergraduates (an increase of about 30 per year) within the next ten years. This will be accomplished by establishing a set of bridge programs that facilitate the transition to graduate school.

• Physics as a community ranks at the bottom of science disciplines in educating the growing US minority population.
   
• Underrepresented minorities (URMs) now make up about a third of the college-age US citizens, yet we graduate less than 10% of our bachelor physics degrees to all of these groups combined. The situation at the doctoral level is even bleaker with only about 5 to 6% of PhDs granted to URMs.
   
• Currently, only about 30-35 PhDs in physics are granted to URMs every year nationwide (US citizens or permanent residents). These small numbers allow a program of this type to have a significant and measurable impact on this issue in the United States.
   
• Improvements that will facilitate this increase will benefit all students with better attention to student development.
  

APS Resolution

June 2010, the APS Executive Board passed the following resolution:

The American Physical Society recognizes the significant disparity in participation by under-represented minorities in physics at all levels, and commits to support the Minority Bridge Program that will establish a set of programs and related efforts to help under-represented minority undergraduates transition to doctoral degree-granting programs and obtain PhD degrees in physics.

  Human Rights: Joint Diversity Statement

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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0958333. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.