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Engagement

  • Gender Diversity in STEM: Simmons has served on the Organizing Board of the grass-roots organization lgbt+ physicists since 2012 and contributed to the writing of its Best Practices Guide for department chairs in physics and astronomy who wish to make the departmental climate more inclusive. In 2014-16, she served on the American Physical Society's ad hoc Committee on LGBT Issues, and co-authored its report on the current status of LGBT physicists and recommendations for revision to APS policy, procedures, and structures that would be more supportive of diversity.
  • Women in Science: In 2013 and 2015 , Simmons co-organized Career Development Workshops for Women Physicist from Developing Nations at the International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy. She served as member of the US Delegation to the IUPAP International Conference on Women in Physics in 2008 and 2011 (see her two articles in the CSWP Gazette). Drawing on these experiences, she has given colloquia in the US and Japan on issues related to women's under-representation in physics at institutions. From 1994-2003, EHS led the Pathways Program for high-school girls that she founded at Boston University. Here are a few articles published about Pathways in the BU Bridge, Boston University Today, and the Daily Free Press.
  • Simmons runs the QUEST outreach project in collaboration with   R. S. Chivukula. Together with MSU undergraduates, they develop and test outreach materials for use with K-12 students, teachers, and the general public.
  • Simmons participates in the annual Lyman Briggs College outreach event, Spartan Science Day, as described in this talk on student-led outreach. She also is a regular session leader in the East Lansing Girls Math Science Conference, the Visiting International Professionals Program, and the MSU Grandparents University.
  • Simmons has presented a number of physics colloquia colloquia on Physics Education and Public Outreach (see links to streaming video) and has published an article in
    Physics Today on How to Popularize Physics.
  • Elected to the Board of Trustees of the
    Summer Science Program, Inc. in 2006, served as Chair of the Board from 2008 - 2011, and was the Senior Vice President in 2012-13.
  • Served on the National Advisory Board of the QuarkNet project since 2005.
  • Workshops on Education and Outreach: EHS co-organized a 2-week workshop for physicists and educators in July 2004 at the Aspen Center for Physics. In 2001, she organized a 3-week program of educational outreach for K-12 students & teachers and for the general public in conjunction with the Snowmass Summer Study on the Future of Particle Physics. More information is available through the web pages (click on Education & Outreach) and the streaming video of her July 2001 presentation about the program before the
    High-Energy Physics Advisory Panel to the National Science Foundation and the US Department of Energy.
Photos from June 2004 visit to the Lyman Briggs Tropical Biodiversity study-abroad program in Panama (credit: G. Urquhart).
These are from a night-time outing to a pond in the Canal Zone.