The undergraduate Physics curriculum is highly standardized and sectioned by topic. Unfortunately, this means it has lagged behind other disciplines when it comes to meeting diversity, equity, and inclusion criteria. While many instructors have expressed the desire to include work by underrepresented groups in their syllabi, they find it difficult to do so within the traditional physics curriculum of mechanics, electromagnetism, quantum mechanics, and thermodynamics.Founded in 2021 in Yale University’s Physics Department, Irreducible Representation aims to provide homework problems that instructors can incorporate into their problem sets based on work by underrepresented groups. Scientific work by Galileo, Newton, Faraday, etc. is often included in homework problems with the full technical details abstracted away in order to make the problems appropriate for the undergraduate level. The aim is to do the same with high-achieving physicists from underrepresented groups – those who have won the Nobel Prize, Edward Bouchet Award, etc.
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The title of this website, “Irreducible Representation,” is a double entendre on the irreducible representations used in particle physics and the notion of minority representation in curricula.
The Header Image is a portrait of Edward Bouchet made by Kwadwo Adae.