University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Illinois Physics
Center for the Physics of the Living Cell

Inclusion

Diversity and Inclusion in the CPLC

The Center for the Physics of Living Cells (CPLC) is a community of researchers committed to shared values of respect, diversity, and inclusion. These values support our Center’s core mission, to make transformational advances at a genuine scientific frontier: the physics of living cells. This work is only possible when we are able to recruit and retain excellent researchers who feel supported and empowered to bring their diverse experiences and perspectives to tackle problems in the field . We recognize that there are many groups who have been previously excluded from participation in Physics and thus we commit to actively work to continually improve the culture of our discipline to include these individuals and groups. Our approach involves the following:

  • Promoting awareness of diversity issues among members of the CPLC through workshops, trainings, and reports;
  • Tracking the participation of under-represented groups in all CPLC programs and their long-term career outcomes;
  • Fostering a culture of respect by a) communicating a clear code of research conduct, including expectations and consequences for discrimination and harassment to all CPLC members and trainees, and b) creating and improving mechanisms to continually monitor and respond to issues of diversity and inclusion as they arise in the Center.

The CPLC works actively with the Physics Department diversity committees to ensure alignment with the policy against harassment and discrimination, which is as follows: We recognize we can succeed in our core missions—research, education, and outreach—only if each member of our Physics Illinois community is free to contribute, without fear of bias or prejudice. We embrace diversity in our faculty, staff, and student body as a strength and we support the principles of academic freedom, equity, and inclusion as expressed in the University of Illinois’ policy against discrimination and harassment. As a department, we are committed to actively promoting equity and inclusion and to safeguarding our community from intolerance with regard to race, color, sex or sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, religion, culture, national origin or ancestry, or socioeconomic status. Our hiring and admissions practices reflect these core principles and are based on merit, without bias.

Our center will not tolerate harassment or discrimination of any type nor will we tolerate retaliation for reporting incidents of harassment and discrimination. Please see below for resources regarding discrimination and harassment: