More than 500 nuclear physicists from around the world and 200 students from the United States will inundate Kellogg Center later this week for the fall meeting of the American Physical Society’s Division of Nuclear Physics.

MSU’s Cyclotron is sponsoring the event for the third time - the first since 1991 - and local scientists say the conference, which runs from Thursday through Sunday, will focus on several issues. Some topics include swapping findings among physicists, discussing recent discoveries in astrophysics and attempting to solve the problem of too few female workers in the physics field.

“Statistically, there are very few women in the business,” said Heather Olliver, a graduate student who works at the Cyclotron and plans on attending the meeting. “We need to hone in on