In Search of Excellence and Equity in Physics

Abstract: Equal opportunity is central to the concept of meritocracy. Opportunity and leadership should go to the people most qualified by performance, and not on the basis of arbitrary or irrelevant attributes. This principle is arguably most important for high-level leadership due to their outsized impact on the field. At the moment, many in the community perceive that the choice of leaders is infused with a lack of meritocracy and too often driven by cronyism. This is possibly a reason why far worse underrepresentation persists than could be expected from a functioning meritocracy. If we want to change this, we need to change our behavior, i.e., practices.