The Graduate Student Council (Grad Council for short) is an organization of physics graduate students dedicated to improving the department. We serve as advocates for physics graduate students and also organize several departmental events.

If you have an issue with department policy or any individuals within the department, including faculty, you should reach out to us. We can present your case to the department anonymously and work to resolve the issue.

If you have any questions or are interested in joining the Graduate Student Council, you can either attend one of our monthly meetings or contact us by email at gradcouncil@buphy.bu.edu. We always welcome new members!

Events

The Graduate Student Council organizes several departmental events. You can see a complete list of all past and upcoming scheduled events on the Graduate Student Council events page. Below is a summary of our regularly hosted events which are open to all physics graduate students. We sometimes host special one-off events, please see the events page for details of these.

Graduate Student Council Meetings: The Graduate Student Council meets every month to discuss issues relating to graduate students as well as to plan events. These meetings are open to all physics graduate students, whether or not you are an official member of the Graduate Student Council!

Colloquium Lunches: We organize lunches for graduate students with the departmental colloquium speakers. This is a chance to have an informal discussion with the visiting researcher about physics, academia, and life in general.

Industry Lunches: According to the AIP, half of the physics PhD population go into non-academic careers after graduation, and even more choose these careers a few years later. To familiarize students with non-academic careers, we organize lunches with physics PhD alumni working in industry.

Student Seminar Series: We host a series of talks by graduate students and for graduate students. These half hour to one hour talks range from research results to journal clubs to tutorials. If you are interested in giving a talk, please contact us!

Department Social: Every month we host a departmental social where everyone can get together over soft drinks and snacks. These socials are open to physics graduate students as well as post-docs, faculty, and staff.

Ice Cream Social: We also host a monthly ice cream social which is open to all members of the BU physics community.

Members

The Graduate Council is organized as an open democratic association. As such, all members have equal rights and all decisions are made by majority consensus. Consistent with these principles, the Council does not have a hierarchical structure or a president. The current members are listed below in alphabetic order.

If you would like to join, please email us at gradcouncil@buphy.bu.edu!

Other Student Organizations

Women in Physics (WIP) promotes the advancement and success of female physicists

Photon is the BU chapter of the Society of Physics Students for undergraduates.

The Graduate Student Organization (GSO) represents the entire graduate study body of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.

The Graduate Student Council supports the unionization efforts of the Boston University Graduate Workers Union.