Laura McCullough, PhD
Professor of Physics at University of Wisconsin-Stout
AWIS member since 2001
“I want physics to be welcoming to everyone interested in it. I will keep researching and working to improve the inclusivity of the field.”
What do you aspire to accomplish in your career?
I want physics to be welcoming to everyone interested in it. I will keep researching and working to improve the inclusivity of the field.
What is the most important leadership lesson you’ve learned the hard way?
You can’t win every fight; sometimes the bad guys win. It isn’t fair, but you need to learn to live with it.
Describe an amazing opportunity in your STEM career.
An invitation to be a session leader at a conference in Kuwait, a joint effort by the Kuwait foundation for science and the AAAS.
What is your favorite word?
Together
How do you define your favorite word?
Working with others, joining with others, and communing with others.
How has this word influenced your career?
I can’t fix the world alone. We need people with different goals and passions, and working with those others is how things get done, how things get better.
What are you currently reading?
Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez and Building Gender Equity in the Academy by Laursen & Austin
Laura McCullough, PhD, is Professor of Physics at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. She is a former department chair and has headed numerous committees at institutional and national levels, and she has received multiple teaching awards. Her primary research area is gender and science and surrounding issues, though she has also done work on women in leadership, and on students with disabilities. She is best known for her work on gender and context issues in assessment, and has had articles published in the Journal of College Science Teaching, the Journal of International Women’s Studies, and The Physics Teacher, among others. Her first book, on the topic of Women and Physics, was released by the British Institute of Physics Press in the spring of 2016. She is a frequent speaker on this topic and has given talks at such institutions as Harvard, Purdue, and the Oxford Round Table.