Why do I care? Creating impact at the intersection of interest and values

Many physicists enter the field because we want our work—whether in research, teaching, or outreach—to make a real difference. Yet deciding where to focus our energy and how to generate ideas that matter can be challenging. One useful way to think about impact is to look at the intersection of our interests and our values. When those two things align, our work often becomes more creative, more sustainable, and more meaningful.

In this talk, I’ll share how this idea has guided me at different points in my career—from being a new assistant professor to serving as a Dean, from working on the National Mentoring Community to mentoring individual junior faculty. My goal is to offer a personal look at how we can think about impact in ways that evolve with us, and how aligning what we care about with what we’re curious about can lead to new ideas, better choices, and a more fulfilling path in physics.