January 2009 Volume 18, No. 1 www.aps.org/publications/apsnews APS NEWS Meet the New APS President A PublicAtion of the AmericAn PhysicAl society • www.APs.org/PublicAtions/APsnews Page 3 April Meeting Heads for Denver in May Physicist Chosen to be Secretary of Energy The 2009 APS April Meeting Astrophysics, Nuclear Physics, Par- gram, there will be several special Steven Chu, Director of Law- will be held May 2-5 in Denver, ticles and Fields, Physics of Beams, events, including a professional rence Berkeley National Labora- Colorado. This year’s April Meet- Plasma Physics, and Computational development workshop for women tory, has been chosen by Presi- ing will center on the theme “New Physics; the Forums on Education, physicists, a high school teachers’ dent-elect Barack Obama to be Eyes on the Universe: 400 Years of day, a students’ lunch with the ex- nominated the next US Secretary Telescopes.” perts, and the presentation of APS of Energy. Addressing this theme, Richard prizes and awards in a special cer- Chu, an APS Fellow, received Ellis of Caltech will give a keynote emonial session. A special sympo- the APS Arthur L. Schawlow address titled “The Quest for Giant sium on the APS energy efficiency Prize in Laser Science in 1994 and Telescopes: Four Centuries of Chal- report will be held May 2. the APS Herbert P. Broida Prize in lenge and Scientific Discovery.” A town hall meeting on the 1987. He received the Nobel Prize The scientific program, which DOE/NASA Joint Dark Energy in 1997 for his work on laser cool- focuses on astrophysics, particle Mission (JDEM) will be held on ing and trapping of atoms. physics, nuclear physics, and related Saturday, May 2. A town hall meet- “Steve Chu’s scientific accom- fields, will consist of three plenary Physics and Society, International ing on the NRC’s Astronomy & As- plishments make him an outstand- ing selection for US Energy Secre- sessions, approximately 75 invited Affairs, History of Physics, and trophysics Decadal Survey will be steve chu sessions, more than 100 contributed Graduate Student Affairs; and the held on Monday, May 4. tary. As the Obama administration sessions, and poster sessions. The Topical Groups on Few-Body Sys- For further details of the program develops its energy policy, he will Institute, one of three Bioenergy meeting will be co-located with the tems, Precision Measurement and and registration information visit: undoubtedly serve as an effective Research Centers funded by the Sherwood Fusion Theory Confer- Fundamental Constants, Gravita- http://www.aps.org/meetings/april/ leader, striving to strengthen US U.S. Department of Energy, and ence. tion, Plasma Astrophysics, and The abstract submission deadline energy security and tackle the dev- the Energy Biosciences Institute, APS units represented at the Hadronic Physics. is January 9. The Early Bird registra- astating effects of global warm- a $500 million pact among BP, the meeting include the Divisions of In addition to the regular pro- tion deadline is February 27. ing,” said APS Past-President Ar- University of California, Berkeley, thur Bienenstock. Berkeley Lab, and the University Chu has been a strong support- of Illinois. Physics Degrees Retain Value in Weak Economy er of renewable energy and an ad- Chu received his PhD in 1976 With the economy in a severe people who have analytic skills and One indicator, according to vocate of controls on greenhouse from the University of California, recession, states are cutting funds a creative background will be much Czujko, is the fraction of new PhDs gas emissions to combat global Berkeley. He worked at Bell Labs from public colleges and universi- more in demand than most college who take postdoctoral positions. warming. As director of Berkeley from 1978 to 1987, then became ties, and private universities have graduates. Many career fields This fraction has been increasing Lab, he increased the lab’s fo- a professor in the physics depart- lost money from their endow- are open to those with training in in recent years, reaching about 60% cus on researching clean energy ment at Stanford University. He ments. Many colleges and univer- physics.” for the classes of 2005 and 2006. technology, including advanced served as chair of that department sities have reported implementing “My basic view of the job market The proportion of new PhDs taking biofuels and solar energy technol- from 1990-1993 and 1999-2001. or considering measures such as for physicists is that it is always very postdocs also increased sharply ogy. Chu has also been a leading He became director of Berkeley hiring freezes, salary freezes, fur- strong, but it is also well hidden,” during the mid-1980s, preceding organizer of the Joint BioEnergy Lab in 2004. loughs, and other cuts to save mon- said Mark Sincell, Chair of the a major recession. While some ey. In addition, many national labs APS Committee on Careers and postdocs indicate that they took are under funding pressures, and Professional Development. Many the position to advance their career, Seven Thousand and Counting industries are under duress. Given people with physics degrees will many accepted a postdoc position this challenging job market, physi- find work in areas not traditionally because they could not obtain a cists may be faced with a difficult associated with physics. Recent suitable potentially permanent situation. But in the long run, peo- graduates may need to be patient, position. ple with degrees in physics tend to and consider a wider range of However, physics PhDs fare relatively well, and APS will options in their job search. typically have very low rates of do what it can to help. While data are not yet available unemployment, lower than for PhDs “One of main roles of APS is to on the rates of unemployment for in other fields. In general, those serve the community,” said 2008 physicists or other scientists for with PhDs in any field have lower APS President Arthur Bienenstock. this year, the job market for PhD rates of unemployment than those “We will be looking for ways physicists has in fact been looking with less education. Nonetheless, to help physicists through any down for several years, according those who graduate during a bad difficult times ahead and welcome to Roman Czujko, Director of the economy do struggle. “In general suggestions on how we can be of Statistical Research Center of the we are expecting a lot of new degree service. I think over the long haul American Institute of Physics. DEGREES continued on page 2 Nominations are Key to Increasing Number of APS Women Fellows By Nadia Ramlagan 2006 and 2007 there were 15 and cess begins with a nomination by In February of 1900, Jeannie 25. Of the two hundred and twen- one’s peers; there is no way to be Evans and Jessie I. Spofford were ty five 2008 Fellows approved by elected if one is not nominated. elected as APS Fellows–the earli- the APS Council at its November Every individual nomination needs est recorded names of female Fel- meeting, 18 are women. a sponsor and a co-sponsor, each lows from APS archives. The So- Only half of 1 percent of rough- of whom must be APS members. ciety itself had been founded less ly 47,000 APS members can be Nominations are evaluated by the than a year before. elected to Fellowship yearly. As Fellowship Committee of the rel- Since then, according to the it currently stands, 94% of Fel- evant Division, Topical Group or lows are male and 5% are female, Forum, and after review by the APS Committee on the Status of Photos by Ken Cole Women in Physics, over 300 wom- with the remaining 1% providing APS Fellowship Committee, those A record number of 7,156 abstracts were submitted to this year's March en have become APS Fellows. Al- no gender information, according who have been recommended are to the APS membership database. elected by full APS Council. meeting. in December, a heroic band of about 130 physicists met at though it is increasing, the number APs headquarters in college Park, mD to sort them all into appropriate of women receiving Fellowship Given that women constitute ap- “Women who are nominated to sessions. in the top photo, barry wells of the university of connecticut yearly remains relatively small. proximately 11% of total APS their unit have a very good chance (center) makes a point to Karin rabe of rutgers (left) and Jaime fer- nandez-baca of oak ridge. in the bottom photo, march Program com- For example, in 1997 and 1998, membership, there is a definite of being selected for inclusion on need and opportunity for improve- the list of proposed new Fellows: mittee chair Allen goldman of the university of minnesota (left) consults there were 10 and 13 new women with DcmP program representative David Pine of new york university Fellows, respectively; in 2001 and ment. the bottleneck is the nomination (center) and mark stiles of nist. 2002 there were 13 and 26, and in The Fellowship election pro- WOMEN continued on page 6 2 • January 2009 APS NEWS Members This Month in Physics History in the Media “Every extrasolar planet de- unprotected surface, and then you January 1998: The accelerating expansion of the universe tected so far has been a wobble on get focusing under the helmet as a graph. These are the first pictures the blast wave penetrates the hel- n the mid-1990s, two competing teams began Schmidt of the Australian National University and of an entire system.” met.” Iobserving supernovas with the goal of pinning Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Insti- Bruce Macintosh, Lawrence David Mott, Naval Research down the rate at which the expansion of the uni- tute, worked on a competing effort.