Demographic study of major conferences in heavy ion physics

Abstract

We present a study of the demographics of major conferences in heavy ion physics. We look at the distribution of talks by gender for Quark Matter, Strangeness in Quark Matter, Initial Stages, and Hard Probes between 2011–2022. We find that women are often underrepresented among plenary speakers and usually underrepresented among parallel speakers. At Quark Matter, women are more likely to be given a poster presentation in lieu of an oral presentation. The Quark Matter summary talk has never been given by a woman. We discuss the collection of data and possible approaches to make the field more equitable and, therefore, more scientifically productive.