San José State SEA Change Bronze Award

College Park, MD, January 5, 2026—The San José State Physics and Astronomy Department has earned a Bronze Award from the Physics and Astronomy SEA Change Committee (P/A SEA Change) for its work to create a more inclusive, diverse, and supportive physics department.

Commenting on this award Curtis Asplund, Assistant Professor in the San José State University Department of Physics & Astronomy said, “I’m proud to be part of the team of faculty who earned this recognition of our years of ongoing work to critically examine and improve our department’s policies, practices and culture. We look forward to implementing the action plan we created during this process in the coming years. I believe this work is strongly aligned with our University’s values statement, where we declare our commitment ‘to embody the movement for social and racial justice. Our pursuit to eradicate disparities and advance justice encompasses all axes of difference, backgrounds, and identities and promotes a sense of belonging and empowerment in our community.’”

“We are excited to start 2026 with announcing that San José State Physics and Astronomy earned a Bronze Award. They did a terrific job in thoroughly exploring their department, and leveraging those data to create a robust action plan. Some highlights from the department’s action plan include creating departmental resources to support faculty in mentoring and advising all students, as well as improving hiring practices for faculty and staff. The committee is eager to see how the department improves over the next 5 years.” said Alexis Knaub, Director of P/A SEA Change.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) SEA Change Awards program aims to advance institutional transformation that supports success for all in STEMM — science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine — fields. SEA Change Awards recognize institutions and their academic units for interrogating the policies, processes, culture, programs, and practices that promote or impede success for all. For more, see https://seachange.aaas.org.

The P/A SEA Change process is a non-trivial undertaking during which the participating department first undergoes a comprehensive self-assessment, critically examining its demographics, policies, procedures, culture, and climate. Next, the department creates a five-year action plan with measurable outcomes to address some of the structural and systemic challenges identified. A review panel evaluates the department’s self-assessment and action plan and provides feedback, and then the P/A SEA Change Committee decides whether to award the department a Bronze Award that is good for five years. Finally, P/A SEA Change continues to provide check-ins and guidance on the action plan as it is implemented across the next five years. 

Physics and Astronomy SEA Change

SEA Change empowers participants to identify and address barriers that will enhance student and faculty retention, and foster resilience aligned with each institution's unique mission and goals. Participants join a supportive community of peers where they complete a self-assessment and create bespoke action plans rooted in data and the realities and opportunities of context. The Physics and Astronomy focuses on postsecondary physics and astronomy contexts. P/A SEA Change is a collaboration of professional physics and astronomy societies: American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT), American Astronomical Society (AAS), American Institute of Physics (AIP), American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), American Physical Society (APS), AVS (Science and Technology of Materials, Interfaces, and Processing), National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP), National Society of Hispanic Physicists (NSHP), the Physics and Astronomy Division of the Council on Undergraduate Research, Optica, and the Society of Physics Students (SPS).

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