Virtual Colloquium: Dr. Tzula Propp – “Mentorship, Failure, and Queerness: Building Resilience and Quantum Community”

As part of this week’s Virtual Colloquium session, on Dec 12th at 9:30 a.m., we are joined by Dr. Tzula Propp for a presentation titled “Mentorship, Failure, and Queerness: Building Resilience and Quantum Community”. In this talk, we’ll discuss the unique challenge of mentorship to and within communities without representation “at the top”. How do we provide adequate mentorship without relatable role models? How do we build diverse, inclusive environments if the environments are not already diverse and inclusive? And how on earth do we make ‘Diversity, Equity & Inclusion’-work sustainable and prevent student / employee activist burnout? This talk will focus on Tzula’s experience running the Queer Trans Resiliency in Physics (Mycelial) Network (QTRiP-Net), which has morphed into the global organization Diversity in Quantum (DiviQ)’s Near Peer (Queer Mycelial) Mentorship Network. Time at the end will be left for questions and discussion, so please come prepared.

Tzula (they/them) is a postdoctoral researcher at QuTech at the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands studying the emerging quantum internet, and a proud trans and non-binary queer quantum scientist. They hold a PhD in physics (quantum information, quantum optics, measurement theory, and open quantum systems) from the University of Oregon, and a BA in physics and philosophy from the College of Wooster, Ohio. During graduate school, they became involved in mentorship of queer and trans physicists through existing mentorship programs, eventually evolving first into the informal and strictly-unofficial Queer and Trans Resiliency in Physics (mycelial) Network [QTRiP-Net] during Tzula’s first postdoc at the University of New Mexico, and most recently into the DiviQ Quantum Queer Near-Peer Mycelial Mentorship Network. Tzula is an outspoken voice for “””DEI””” in the quantum workforce, highlighting the necessity for our field to become explicitly anti-racist,  anti-misoginist, and antifascist instead of (at best) tolerant of the presence of people from marginalized groups. In addition to research and teaching roles, Tzula is also a speaker and consultant for queer and trans issues in physics ranging from improving belonging in science to designing the perfect gender neutral restroom.

Please find below the Zoom link to join, which will be the same for all online sessions this semester:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82954605489?pwd=VP3XBDzVogeuQtLWaXbWEFpm9ObxiQ.1

Meeting-ID: 829 5460 5489
Kenncode: 079532