March 2013 • Vol. 22, No. 3

Fisics and Phynance A Publication of the American Physical Society See page 8 www.aps.org/publications/apsnews

Super Bowl of Physics Comes to Baltimore TV to Cover the Action at March Meeting The APS March Meeting, the dynamics, sustainable energy and who announced he would be The British televi- tion with conferences of the largest annual physics meeting in energy storage. stepping down after 4 years as sion production company American Psychological the country, will take place from Nobel Prize US Secretary of Energy, will WebsEdge will add a new Association, the Materials March 18 through 22 at the Balti- The winners of the 2012 No- be headlining Wednesday after- dimension to this year’s Research Society and the more Convention Center in Balti- bel Prize in physics will speak noon’s Kavli session “Forefront March Meeting. A camera American Historical Asso- more, Maryland. Physicists from about their research on Thursday Physics for Real World Problems” and editing crew will be on ciation. across the globe will present over evening. Serge Haroche from the about energy, climate change and site to do studio interviews “We’re pioneers in con- 8,000 papers at more than 500 Collège de France, École nor- the environment. Chu will speak and location filming. Daily ference TV,” said Veronica sessions, 112 of which are invited male supérieure, will discuss his about the promise of photovolta- one-hour segments will Vaquer, a senior producer sessions. Total attendance is ex- method of trapping photons and ics, Lonnie Thompson from The be aired on screens at the at WebsEdge. “We target pected to exceed 8,500 scientists, putting them into a superposition. Ohio State University will discuss meeting, on hotel TV cir- specific issues for specific who will hear about the latest Afterward, David Wineland from how scientists can reconstruct the cuits, and online. The seg- audiences.” developments in areas including the National Institute of Stan- history of Earth’s climate from ments will also be archived Terri Gaier, Director of condensed matter, computational dards and Technology, Boulder, ice core samples, while Stephen for future viewing. Meetings for APS, said that physics, chemical and biological will share how he developed his Harris from General Motors will WebsEdge specializes bringing in WebsEdge is physics, new materials, polymers ion trapping technique that simi- highlight his company’s battery in producing television as much for APS members and fluids. A number of sessions larly places the trapped particles development for electric vehicles. spots from meetings for who aren’t at the meetings, will also look to explore the role into a superposition state. (Ses- Other speakers in the session in- meeting attendees. Among as the ones who are. of physics in different segments sion X1) clude Graeme Stephens and Amy others, they have pro- “I think it’ll make them of society, including its role in in- Kavli Session McKenna. (Session R0) duced shows in conjunc- TV continued on page 6 dustry, national security, human Nobel laureate Steven Chu, BOWL continued on page 6

Six APS Fellows Among National Medal Recipients Panel Says Flat Funding Could Doom RHIC On February 1, President By Michael Lucibella sity, while running the Relativistic Obama presented the National A Department of Energy panel Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhav- Medal of Science and the National has reluctantly concluded that un- en. Medal of Technology and Innova- less budgets for nuclear science The issue has been looming tion to 23 scientists, engineers and increase, the DOE will not be able for some time. Last year, at the researchers, six of whom are Fel- to afford to keep Brookhaven’s request of the DOE’s Office of lows of the APS. RHIC accelerator running. Be- Science and the National Science “Success depends on the ideas cause of projected budget short- Foundation, the Nuclear Science that you can dream up, the pos- falls, the agency likely will not Advisory Committee (NSAC) ap- sibilities that you envision, and have the money to keep its three pointed Robert Tribble of Texas the hard work, the blood, sweat nuclear science projects going at A&M University to head a sub- and tears you’re willing to put the same time. committee charged with recom- in to make them real,” President The Office of Nuclear Physics mending a plan for the next five Obama said at the ceremony at (NP) within the DOE Office of years of nuclear science. Tribble, the White House honoring the re- Science operates three major fa- who is past-Chair of the APS Divi- cipients. “[T]oday, it’s clearer than cilities, and is in a financial bind. sion of Nuclear Physics, presented ever that our future as a nation de- Funding for the three has been ef- his team’s report on January 28 at pends on keeping that spirit of cu- fectively declining while simulta- an NSAC meeting in Bethesda, riosity and innovation alive in our neously costs have been increas- Maryland, concluding that if in- time. So these honorees are at the ing because of inflation, planned creased funding for nuclear phys- forefront of that mission.” upgrades and new construction. ics is not forthcoming, CEBAF Photo by Michael Lucibella The National Medal of Science NP is in the middle of upgrad- and FRIB should receive priority was founded in 1959 by an act of President Obama congratulates James Wynne and Rangaswamy Srinivasan who ing the Continuous Electron Beam over RHIC. were honored, together with their late colleague Samuel Blum, for the invention of “In light of the substantial Congress, and is administered by excimer laser surgery, the technique that makes LASIK surgery possible. Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) at the National Science Foundation Jefferson Lab, building the new commitment that’s been made to science. The National Medal of tered by the U.S. Patent Office. to honor individuals who have Facility for Rare Isotope Beams upgrade CEBAF under all budget Technology and Innovation was made significant contributions to (FRIB) at Michigan State Univer- RHIC continued on page 6 founded in 1980 and is adminis- RECIPIENTS continued on page 6 Six Local Sites Host Diverse and Vibrant Conference for Women By Halleh B. Balch among four college students and aims to provide women in phys- To organize the most success- three faculty advisers—and see- ics mentorship, opportunities for ful annual Conference for Under- ing every responsibility through. networking, and motivation to graduate Women in Physics, the Now in its eighth year, the pursue graduate work and careers plan was to divide and conquer, 2013 Conference for Undergradu- related to physics. While main- explained Shannon Glavin. ate Women in Physics brought taining these founding principles, Glavin, a physics major at together almost nine hundred un- each host site assumed complete the University of Illinois Urba- dergraduate students at six host responsibility for the conference na-Champaign, was one of four universities across the country. planning. undergraduate students who led This year’s six universities were “Part of the experience of the the organizing committee for California Institute of Technol- conference is that these under- this year’s Conference for Un- ogy (198 attendees), Colorado graduate women are organizing dergraduate Women in Physics School of Mines (129), Cornell it,” said Daniella Bortoletto, a at UIUC. Glavin said that key to University (135), University of professor of physics at Purdue Central Florida (87), University University and the present chair their success in orchestrating over Photo courtesy of Kevin Pitts two hundred students, thirty vol- of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign of the Conference faculty com- (235), and University of Texas mittee. “Undergraduate women Student organizers of the University of Illinois CUWiP event demonstrate their unity of pur- unteers, and twenty-five speakers pose. Left to right: Shannon Glavin (UIUC), Remmi Baker (Millikin University), Hannah Tan- at Austin (88). The Conference was delegating responsibilities SITES continued on page 7 quary (Eastern Illinois University), and Novarah Kazmi (UIUC). 2 • March 2013

Members This Month in Physics History in the Media March 23, 1882: Birth of Emmy Noether “It’s really boring when all the “They’re flocking.” ne of the most significant 20th century mathe- tem with a continuous symmetry. When Einstein measurements and theory agree Paul Chaikin, New York Uni- Omaticians is also one of the most obscure when read Noether’s work on invariants, he wrote to Hil- with each other. This kind of dis- versity, describing microscopic it comes to public recognition: Emmy Noether, bert: “I’m impressed that such things can be under- agreement gives us something to particles his team was able to self whose work provided a fundamental connection be- stood in such a general way. The old guard at Göt- talk about that isn’t the Higgs bo- assemble into a crystal, The Los tween symmetry in nature and the laws of conserva- tingen should take some lessons from Miss Noether. son.” Angeles Times, February 1 20133. tion. She seems to know her stuff.” Chad Orzel, Union College, on The eldest of four children, Noether was born on As World War I ended, the German Revolution of the changing diameter of the pro- “Could it be possible to use March 23, 1882, in Erlangen, Bavaria, and showed 1918-1919 resulted in improved rights for women, ton, MSNBC.com, January 27, this idea to make a material that an early aptitude for logic when she quickly solved and the University of Göttingen relented a little in 2013 shrinks to a very small volume a brain teaser at a children’s party. Her father, Max, its stance on women faculty, eventually granting when exposed to light and ex- was a mathematician who taught at the University her an untenured professorship. Noether even re- “The long-term civic and eco- pands to fill a large volume in the of Erlangen, where Emmy eventually enrolled. Ini- ceived a small salary beginning in 1923. She never nomic welfare of the country de- dark? Maybe.” tially, however, she studied French and English and did achieve the rank of tenured professor, however, pends heavily on a robust public Aparna Baskaran, Brandeis, qualified to teach those languages at nor was she elected to the Göttingen higher education system.” commenting on Chaikin’s study, girl’s schools. academy of sciences, despite her aca- Robert J. Birgeneau, Univer- The Los Angeles Times, February She soon changed her focus to demic accomplishments. sity of California, Berkeley, on 1 2013. mathematics, however, enrolling at Noether rarely followed lesson heading a national effort to study her father’s university. She was one plans in her lectures, preferring spon- and help public universities, The “I had a new car and put 35,000 of only two women students; just two taneous discussions with her stu- Los Angeles Times, January 28, miles on it in one year. It just years prior, the school’s Academic dents, and often became so passion- 2013. wasn’t worth it… The ferry is the Senate declared that allowing wom- ately engrossed in the subject that her only game in town.” en to enroll would “overthrow all ac- hair came loose. She showed unusual Thomas Ullrich, Brookhaven, ademic order.” In fact, Noether was “The folks that are running the devotion to her job, once teaching on commuting to work using a allowed only to audit classes, and agencies aren’t in a position to class at a local coffee house when ferry, The Connecticut Post, Feb- then only after acquiring permission know what the best science may the building was closed for a holi- ruary 3, 2013. from the professors to attend their be to go after; they have to put day. Most of her students were male, lectures. But it was sufficient to en- together plans. One of the issues Emmy Noether dubbed the “Noether boys,” although “Physicists study phenomena able her to pass the graduation exam we are really facing in the Depart- Noether mentioned her pleasure, that have no relevance to race, so in 1903 and qualify for the equivalent of a bache- ment of Energy, and perhaps other upon meeting Czech mathematician Olga Taussky, one might expect that black physi- lor’s degree. She spent the next year studying at the places, is what is a reasonable that more women were pursuing studies in the field. cists would be silent on issues University of Göttingen, but returned to Erlangen The rise of the Nazi government brought an end trade-off between research that regarding race. This would be when the university finally revoked the restrictions to Noether’s academic career in Germany with the takes place with a very short-term incorrect. Organizations like the on women students, completing her dissertation on enactment of a law to remove Jews from government goal versus research that takes National Society of Black Physi- invariants for ternary biquadratic forms in 1907. and university positions unless they had proven their place with a very long-term pay- cists have spoken out on issues of While the university may have relaxed its restric- loyalty to Germany by serving in World War I. (One off?” inclusivity. Still, in my opinion, tions on women students, it continued to exclude student protester proclaimed, “Aryan students want Robert Tribble, Texas A&M some members of the black phys- women from holding faculty positions. Noether Aryan mathematics, not Jewish mathematics.”) University, The San Francisco ics community are silenced by taught at Erlangen for the next seven years with no Chronicle, January 31, 2013. fear of exacerbating their alien- salary, sometimes substituting for her father. David Noether was among the first to be dismissed from ation from the majority commu- Hilbert sought to bring her into the mathematics de- the University of Göttingen. Initially, she gathered “I believe we should be judged nity that still holds the power to partment at the University of Göttingen in 1915, but students at her home, but eventually was forced to not by the money we direct to a grant access to faculty jobs.” other faculty objected. “What will our soldiers think flee Germany, along with many other Jewish aca- particular state or district, com- Stephon Alexander, Dart- when they return to the university and find that they demics in Germany. She wound up taking a position pany, university or national lab, mouth College, The New York are required to learn at the feet of a woman?” one at Bryn Mawr in the United States in 1933. She also but by the character of our deci- Times, February 4, 2013. professor complained. Hilbert was indignant. “I do lectured at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princ- sions… The Department of Ener- not see that the sex of the candidate is an argument eton, although she felt less welcome at Princeton, gy serves the country as a Depart- “It’d be great if more scientists against her admission,” he retorted. “We are a uni- describing it as a “men’s university where nothing ment of Science, a Department of wanted to become regular contrib- versity, not a bath house.” Instead, Noether lectured female is admitted.” Innovation, and a Department of utors, to at least try to explain their there unofficially under Hilbert’s name for the next Her new life in the US did not last long. In 1935, Nuclear Security.” most recent work.” four years without pay; her family provided living doctors found a tumor in Noether’s pelvis, and Steven Chu, Department of Sean Carroll, Caltech, talk- expenses. during surgery uncovered an ovarian cyst and two Energy, in a letter announcing ing about his blog, MSNBC.com, Noether is best known for her contributions to the smaller tumors in her uterus. Although the surgery that he is stepping down as Secre- February 6, 2013. development of the then-new field of abstract alge- was successful, Noether died of complications four tary, The Washington Post, Febru- bra, as well as ring theory. But one of the reasons days later at 53. One of her physicians thought her ary 1, 2013. “We saw an incredible oppor- Hilbert pushed to bring Noether to Göttingen was death may have been due to “some form of unusual tunity to measure the dynamic the hope that her expertise on invariant theory –num- and virulent infection.” Friends and associates held “I hope we can hold hearings properties of language at the bers that remain constant even though manipulated a memorial service a few days later. Her ashes were where people can hear about Dar- microscopic scale of individual in different ways–could be brought to bear on Al- buried under the walkway in the Bryn Mawr library’s win and science and the jobs it particles, and to observe how the bert Einstein’s fledgling theory of general relativity, cloisters. Einstein wrote to the New York Times after creates, the lives it saves, every- system coevolves in response to which seemed to violate conservation of energy. her death, declaring Noether to be “the most signifi- thing.” external socio-technological forc- Noether did not disappoint, devising a theorem cant creative mathematical genius thus far produced Rush Holt, U.S. House of Rep- es.” that has become a fundamental tool of modern theo- since the higher education of women began.” resentatives, on designating Feb- Alexander Petersen, Bos- retical physics. One of its consequences is that if a Reference: ruary 12th as Darwin Day, The ton University, on using Google physical system behaves the same regardless of its Noether, E. (1918) “Invariante Variationsprob- New York Times, February 1, Books to study the evolution of spatial orientation, the system’s angular momentum leme,” Nachr. D. König, Gesellsch. D. Wiss. Zu Göt- 2013. language over time, The Boston is conserved. Noether’s theorem applies to any sys- tingen, Math-phys. Klasses 235-257. Globe, February 9, 2013.

Series II, Vol. 22, No. 3 both the old and new addresses, and, if possible, include Past-President (Physics of Beams), Vincent Chan* (Plasma), TBA March 2013 a mailing label from a recent issue. Requests from sub- Robert L. Byer*, Stanford University (Polymer Physics), Nan Phiney (California Section) scribers for missing issues will be honored without charge © 2013 The American Physical Society only if received within 6 months of the issue’s actual date General Councillors ADVISORS of publication. Periodical Postage Paid at College Park, Haiyan Gao*, Marcelo Gleiser, Marta Dark McNeese, Representatives from other Societies Coden: ANWSEN ISSN: 1058-8132 MD and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send Pierre Meystre*, Warren Mori, Keivan G. Stassun Fred Dylla, AIP; Gay Stewart, AAPT Editor•...... Alan Chodos address changes to APS News, Membership Department, American Physical Society, One Physics Ellipse, College International Councillors International Advisor Staff Science Writer ...... Michael Lucibella Park, MD 20740-3844. Marcia Barbosa, Annick Suzor-Weiner Gabor Kunstatter, Canadian Association of Physicists Art Director and Special Publications Manager...... Kerry G. Johnson APS COUNCIL 2013 Chair, Nominating Committee Staff Representatives Design and Production...... Nancy Bennett-Karasik Sally Dawson Alan Chodos, Associate Executive Officer; Amy Flatten President Director of International Affairs; Terri Gaier, Director Proofreader...... Edward Lee Michael S. Turner*, University of Chicago Chair, Panel on Public Affairs of Meetings, Ted Hodapp, Director of Education and APS News (ISSN: 1058-8132) is published 11X yearly, Subscriptions: APS News is an on-membership publi- Rob Rosner Diversity; Trish Lettieri, Director of Membership, Dar- President-Elect monthly, except the August/September issue, by the cation delivered by Periodical Mail. Members residing lene Logan, Director of Development, Michael Lubell, Malcolm R. Beasley*, Stanford University American Physical Society, One Physics Ellipse, Col- abroad may receive airfreight delivery for a fee of $15. Division, Forum and Section Councilors Director, Public Affairs; Dan Kulp, Editorial Director; lege Park, MD 20740-3844, (301) 209-3200. It contains Nonmembers: Subscription rates are available at http:// Neil Cornish* (Astrophysics), Thomas Gallagher (Atom- Christine Giaccone, Director, Journal Operations; Mi- Vice President news of the Society and of its Divisions, Topical Groups, librarians.aps.org/institutional.html. ic, Molecular & Optical Physics), Jose Onuchic (Bio- chael Stephens, Controller and Assistant Treasurer Samuel Aronson*, Brookhaven National Laboratory Sections, and Forums; advance information on meetings logical), TBA (Chemical), Francis Hellman (Condensed of the Society; and reports to the Society by its commit- Subscription orders, renewals and address changes Matter Physics), Steven Gottlieb (Computational), James Administrator for Governing Committees Executive Officer tees and task forces, as well as opinions. should be addressed as follows: For APS Members– Wallace (Fluid Dynamics), TBA (Forum on Education), Ken Cole Kate P. Kirby*, Harvard Smithsonian (retired) Membership Department, American Physical Society, Eric Sorte, (Forum on Graduate Student Affairs), Mi- Letters to the editor are welcomed from the member- One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3844, chael Riordan (Forum on History of Physics), Gregory * Members of the APS Executive Board Treasurer/Publisher ship. Letters must be signed and should include an ad- [email protected]. Meisner (Forum on Industrial and Applied Physics), Joseph W. Serene*, Georgetown University (Emeritus) dress and daytime telephone number. The APS reserves Herman Winick* (Forum on International Physics), the right to select and to edit for length or clarity. All cor- For Nonmembers–Circulation and Fulfillment Division, Lowell Brown (Forum on Physics and Society), Anthony Editor-in-Chief respondence regarding APS News should be directed to: American Institute of Physics, Suite 1NO1, 2 Huntington Johnson* (Laser Science), TBA (Materials), David Gene D. Sprouse*, Stony Brook University (on leave) Editor, APS News, One Physics Ellipse, College Park, Quadrangle, Melville, NY 11747-4502. Allow at least 6 McIntyre (Northwest Section), Wick Haxton* (Nuclear), MD 20740-3844, Email: [email protected]. weeks advance notice. For address changes, please send Marjorie Corcoran* (Particles & Fields), John Galayda March 2013 • 3

Sorters Meet for Assorted Meetings

Digital Strategy Enhances APS Online Presence

In the coming months, the APS cross-site navigation in place,” online presence will undergo an Alinger said. “The long term goals overhaul to make the many APS- are to have more personalization, run websites better coordinated to make it easier to get around our and more user-friendly. The chang- sites, and to increase members’ es were prompted by the strategic awareness of all the things that we plan, which called for “seamless do.” integration across the APS web Over the last several months, sites” so users can have a more the Society has been working with personalized experience. consultants to study ways to im- On two recent occasions, groups “It’s an effort to bring all of the prove branding and to make the of physicists assembled at APS digital initiatives of the Society content transferrable from one site headquarters in College Park together in support of the strate- to another. In addition, APS is de- to sort abstracts for upcoming gic plan, so we’re not doing things veloping a universal login for both meetings. On January 18, twenty- in such a fragmented way,” said the membership site and for access two April Meeting sorters met, Tracy Alinger, APS’s Director of to the journals. and on February 4 it was the Information Technology at Col- “In the long run if we do our turn of 16 sorters for the DAMOP lege Park. job correctly, users will be more Meeting. In the upper picture, Currently, different depart- engaged with APS, they will be sorters Tatjana Curcic (Air Force ments of the Society operate a better able to find the content and Office for Scientific Research), variety of websites, including the activities that best suit them,” said Georg Raithel (University of Society’s homepage at www.aps. Mark Doyle, Director of Journal Michigan), and Randy Hulet (Rice org, and ones run by education, Information Systems. “The idea is University) put DAMOP abstracts outreach, meetings and the jour- to build more of a community to in order, while in the lower photo, nals. The plan is to develop a sys- better serve our members.” Amitabh Lath (Rutgers University) tem that more closely ties the sites Other improvements that are in and Kaustubh Agashe (University together, both through common process include making the APS of Maryland) decide the fate of an branding and content sharing. webpages more compatible with April Meeting abstract. “We want to have a lot more mobile devices, and increasing so- Photos by Michael Lucibella consistency and we want to put cial media presence.

Conference Examines Many Facets of Graduate Education By Bushraa Khatib The 2nd Graduate Education in Physics Conference, held Janu- ary 31-February 2 at the Ameri- can Center for Physics in College Taking Procedural Stock Park, generated in-depth discus- by Michael S. Lubell, APS Director of Public Affairs sion on topics such as preparing graduate students for non-academ- For a time, it seemed as though pressing for raising the nation’s ic careers, improving on diversity, Republicans and the White House credit card limit enough to cover and debating graduate school ad- might have an opportunity to cozy two more years of planned spend- missions policies, including use of up. After all, during their January ing. But he accepted the short- the GRE. GOP House retreat, Speaker John term compromise with a pledge The conference, organized by Boehner and Majority Leader Eric to work for a long-term bipartisan APS and the American Associa- Cantor decided to heed the advice “balanced” solution to the debt tion of Physics Teachers (AAPT), of Newt Gingrich and a posse of threat. followed on the success of the first economists who had urged Con- Niceties they were indeed, but such conference, held in 2008. gress not to hold the world’s econ- the discourse contained a major One hundred seven partici- omy hostage to partisan wrangling barb aimed squarely at the Senate. pants represented 74 universities, over the debt ceiling. Although somewhat weakened including PhD-granting physics Fresh from their Kingsmill by a nascent insurrection that departments across the United sanctuary, a tony resort in Wil- nearly cost him his speakership States, both large and small. De- liamsburg, Va., Boehner and Can- in early January, Boehner cobbled partment chairs and directors of tor, who were close to splitsville together a bipartisan bloc by ca- graduate studies attended, as did last year, presented themselves to joling Democrats into swallowing graduate students and members the media as newlyweds, taking a potentially poisonous legislative of the physics community from their vows to make Washington pill. Noting that the Senate hadn’t industry, funding agencies, and work. They announced a three- passed a budget in four years, as professional societies. month reprieve for the GOP’s required by law, he and Cantor Renee Diehl, professor of phys- Photo by Michael Lucibella debt-ceiling crusade and commit- proposed that if either chamber ics from Pennsylvania State Uni- At the session on "Promoting Diversity in Physics", Kathy Prestridge (left) of Los ted the Republican House Confer- missed the April 15 deadline, that versity and a conference organiz- Alamos listens while Zelda Gills of Lockheed-Martin makes a point. ence to producing a plan for long- chamber’s members would have er, remarked, “Sessions included term deficit reduction through their paychecks placed in escrow in the same way, especially by the nary on “Some Thoughts on the active discussions by participants “regular congressional order.” until the day of budgetary reckon- GRE. “If we want to increase the Future of Graduate Education.” clearly interested in improving I found the chords of Cop- ing or until the end of the calendar diversity of physicists, we need to Cherry Murray, Dean of Engi- their own graduate programs.” land’s “Fanfare for the Common year, whichever came first. find ways to tap into and build on neering and Applied Science at A session on “Building Suc- Man” echoing in my ears as good- Across the Capitol grounds, the strengths of individuals,” she Harvard University and 2009 APS cessful Graduates” discussed the government trumpets sounded Senate Majority Leader Harry commented. (See the Back Page President, gave a keynote address GRE as an admissions tool. Fran- throughout the nation’s capital. In Reid was dealing with his own article on the GRE in last month’s titled “Reflections on Getting a ces Hellman, UC Berkeley, pre- short order, the House and Senate band of insurrectionists. Jeff APS News, http://www.aps.org/ PhD in Physics.” Murray present- sented data that suggests that there got down to legislative business Merkley, of Oregon, and Tom publications/apsnews/201302/ ed data on PhD enrollments and is almost no correlation between and with alacrity unprecedented Udall, of New Mexico, two young backpage.cfm). employment. GRE scores and future success as in recent years passed a bill in less parvenus, had mobilized a major- Meg Urry, chair of the phys- A significant conference focus a researcher. Diehl said that one of than 10 legislative days, one that ity of their Democratic colleagues ics department at Yale University, was the importance of educating the messages to drive home was allows federal red ink to flow until to address the dysfunction that started the conference with a ple- that not everyone can be measured CONFERENCE continued on page 5 May 18. The president had been STOCK continued on page 4 4 • March 2013

Anxiety Over Peer Review Somewhat Exaggerated Letters On the basis of my own recent to be damaging and so the paper Our experience was not what Readers interested in submitting a letter to APS News should experience of submitting, as a joint should not be published. The Edi- your correspondent seems to fear author, a paper which challenged tor then stepped in and said he had and, as expected, the reactions to email [email protected] accepted dogma, to a well-regarded decided that the paper should be our dogma-questioning were var- journal, I wonder if Arthur Cohn’s accepted, as it was important that ied. But even those who felt that U238: Fissionable but not Fissile letter in the January APS News is it should be realised more gener- we were wrong, expressed them- not expressing a bit too much anxi- ally, that there were problems with selves in measured terms. Ed. Note: On the Back Page of the January APS News, in a box ety about peer review. the accepted dogma. As an aside, I do not quite fol- headed "A Primer on the Technical Issues" we stated that U238 is Our paper, as submitted, natu- Since publication we have re- low the analogy with the Lysenko not fissionable. This confuses the terms "fissionable" and "fissile". rally had a pretty hard time from ceived a number of emails com- affair, made in the letter. It was the U238 is fissionable, in that it can undergo fission, but unlike U235 the referees and had to be exten- menting on the paper. They range intervention of the state authorities sively revised. But after a couple from one saying that the paper was and not peer review that got Ly- it is not fissile, i.e., it cannot be induced to fission with low-energy of passes one referee agreed, re- “crazy nonsense” to another say- senko’s views to become dogma, thermal neutrons. We thank Eric Ottewitte, Marshall Blann, and Jim gretfully, that we had a point and ing that our article was “a rehash as I understand it. Fuller for pointing out this distinction. that the paper should be published. of old stuff that has been known Another referee felt that our con- for a long time.” But all were cour- Brian Sutcliffe January 1851: First Reference to clusions were so misleading as teously expressed. Brussels, Belgium Photography in Literature In connection with the article capable of drawing out and re- Interview left questions unanswered January 2, 1839: First Daguerreo- vealing intrinsic human charac- Regarding the interview with Washington (the current Con- 6. Should the APS restructure type** of the Moon [This Month teristics normally not visible–in new APS President Michael S. gress, no matter what we try to its meetings formats to bring in Physics History: APS News this case the true nature of Judge Turner (APS News, January 2013) ask of them, has no intention of them into a more efficient January 2013], the following note Pyncheon. A man of “exceedingly in view of the needs of the nation increasing funding for science), and realistic structure such may be of some interest. pleasant countenance, indicative and the role that should be ex- how will our APS academic as has been implemented by The first reference, of which I of benevolence ...” is revealed as pected of our physics community, colleagues receive the funds our older sister organization, am aware, to photography in lit- “sly, subtle, hard, ....., cold as ice.” I would have specifically liked to they need? Who will provide the American Chemical Soci- erature, both as a science and as Oscar Wilde was later to develop hear his opinions on the following the money that Congress does ety? (Among the absurdities a profession, occurs in Nathaniel a similar theme in more extreme topics: not intend to provide? is splitting the national meet- Hawthorne’s romance The House form in his novel The Picture of 1. What should be the role of 4. What role should physicists ing into two somewhat arbi- of the Seven Gables, which was Dorian Gray (1891). APS in preparing its phys- play in restoring the nation’s trary, though closely related, completed for publication in **Hawthorne’s spelling fol- ics trained constituents (e. g. manufacturing base? groups. The enormous ener- Lenox, Massachusetts, in January, lows that of the surname Da- graduate students) for perma- 5. Once its publications’ gener- gies and costs devoted with 1851. In chapter 6 of this work, guerre, without abbreviation. nent employment? ated income dries up (with the “sorting sessions” should cer- the author, who does not dwell 2. Since most physicists in this inevitability of open source tainly be reduced; probably on technical details, develops the John Douglas Hey country do not work in aca- publishing), how does APS by asking each abstract author notion that the daguerreotype is Calgary, Alberta demia, what should be the intend to support itself? (Few- to sort his/her own.) relation between APS and its er than a couple of hundred STOCK continued from page 3 industrial colleagues? APS members donate annu- Philip J. Wyatt, had become the Senate’s third make the 112th Congress the least 3. When the money runs out in ally to the APS general fund.) Santa Barbara, CA millennium signature. productive in history. Last sum- For almost 200 years, senators mer, Reid spoke out in favor of Planck is a European Mission had used the filibuster to extend Merkley and Udall’s request to debate only on rare occasions. allow a simple majority vote on The article on “April Meet- sion, which has been launched be like talking about ESA's Hub- And when they did, the cham- changing the Senate rules when ing features latest research by ESA, with mission teams ble mission–an unnecessary case ber’s rules required them to hold the 113th Congress convened. But and more” in the January is- led by European Institutes. The of mis-information... the floor. What they said or read under pressure from Republicans sue of APS News speaks about contribution of NASA to Planck was immaterial, but they had to and a handful of Democratic old “NASA’s Planck satellite.” The is important, but to speak about Tanja Rindler-Daller be present in body if not in mind. bulls, he backed off in January, Planck satellite is an ESA mis- “NASA’s Planck satellite” would Austin, TX When their stamina eventually with the Senate ultimately adopt- waned or a supermajority of their ing only minor rule modifications. colleagues voted to terminate Those changes, Capitol Hill ex- their oratory, the chamber would perts say, will barely scratch the Beltway Column Reflects Bias return to legislative business. Senate’s dysfunctional skin. I look forward to reading Mi- to get through four paragraphs ism. Anyone who doubts the In more recent years, the Sen- Whatever respite from hyper- chael Lubell’s Inside the Belt- before veering sharply to the truth of my claim I direct to the ate had relaxed its filibuster rules, partisanship might have existed way columns. They are so “over left. His characterization of the PBS Frontline program, “Inside allowing members simply to in early January disappeared last the top” and humorous, they Tea Party as “rebellious rabble,” Obama’s Presidency,” which express an intention to hold the month when President Obama de- make me laugh. In his column ‘ideologues” dedicated to “ob- aired on Jan. 15. The narrative floor and requiring 60 votes in the livered an aggressive State of the in the January APS News, New structionism” and responsible included on-camera statements 100-member body to break the Union address, and Republicans, Directions or More of the Same, for the “downgrading of US from top political strategist promised legislative disruption. predictably, delivered an in-kind he manages to insert inflamma- Treasury bonds” is absurd, pure Frank Luntz, who took credit for For the minority, the temptation to response. Add to that the GOP’s tory expressions and partisan leftist propaganda. organizing a meeting of Repub- halt action on a bill it opposed be- Senate filibuster of Chuck Hagel’s bias into 8 of the 32 sentences I think the idea of a column lican luminaries the night of the came increasingly seductive, and confirmation as defense secretary, he wrote, e.g., “overt or threat- such as ‘Inside the beltway’ is a 2009 inaugural to discuss how during the last four years, 60 votes and an odor of toxicity once again ened obstructionism,” “peddles good one, but we need an unbi- has been the norm for achieving the GOP could “obstruct” the is emanating from the shallow our nation’s future prospects ased journalist to write it. any legislative progress. new president’s policies. And in well of bipartisan good will. for a fire sale price,” “tea party Republicans may have taken their thoughtful Jan. 26 Nation- If the state of the nation ideologues” (as contrasted with Thomas Wolfram advantage of the mere threat of a al Journal piece on how to re- “determined democrats”), “push San Clemente, CA filibuster to thwart the will of the weren’t so in need of sound policy boot the Republican Party, Tim making, the relapse into partisan our nation into default,” “op- majority, but so, too, have Demo- position to compromise,” “far * * * * * * * * * Alberta and Jim O’Sullivan not- strife might be simply a footnote crats used the arcane process of right ideologues,” “rebellious Michael Lubell replies: ed that “Republicans on Capitol on the state of Washington. But “filling the amendment tree” to rabble,” and “hold the nation’s To readers who found some Hill have been rebranded since economic growth, fiscal health prevent the minority from even credit worthiness hostage.” It of the rhetorical flourishes in 2008 as the reliable obstruction- and national security are in des- trying to modify a bill. Under would be funny except that the my January column to be over ists, a group known more for its perate need of cooperation. And current Senate rules, the majority column comes under the banner the top, I apologize for the of- reflexive opposition … than its sadly, collaboration and comity leader has the power to give his of the APS Director of Public fense. But in my defense, I note proactive problem solving.” are becoming scarce commodities party’s amendments priority and Affairs where one might expect that although I often take credit Finally, on my observa- once again. exhaust all the allowable modifi- real professionalism and in- for smart turns of phrase, in my tion that the Tea Party wing of If there is any hope for a new cations to a piece of legislation. sightful analysis. last piece I cribbed many of the the House Republicans–often The late Robert Byrd (D-WV) dawning in America, science objectionable terms from non- called “raucous,” “rebellious” originated the formula when he could provide it. It knows no par- William R. Ott, partisan Washington publica- and “ideological” by the Wash- was in charge, and Reid has be- tisan boundaries, and it is central Gaithersburg, MD tions such as National Journal, ington media–had threatened come a master at using it, effec- to the nation’s future. But it isn’t * * * * * * * * * CQ, Roll Call, Politico and the to hold the credit of the United tively casting Republicans in the always so recognized. Now, more The article ‘New directions Hill. States hostage to their demand objectionable role of objecting than ever, its practitioners have or more of the same’ by Michael One note I struck that some spending cuts, I note that for- obstructionists. an obligation to hammer home Lubell that appeared in the Jan- readers found objectionably mer House Speaker Republican The combination of the major- its benefits: to the public and to uary APS News is another exam- discordant was my assertion Newt Gingrich used a similar ity and minority practices has tied Washington–if not for the future ple of biased journalism. I will that Republican strategy had turn of phrase in urging them to up the Senate in procedural knots, of science, then for the future of give Lubell credit for managing coalesced around obstruction- and their continual use helped the country and the world. abandon that strategy. March 2013 • 5

Diversity Corner

A column on programs related to diversity By Michael Lucibella

M. Hildred Blewett Fellowship APS is now accepting applications for the M. Hildred Blewett Fellowship. This award is intended to enable women to resume physics research careers after an interruption. The deadline to apply is June 1, 2013. For more information and/or to apply, please visit: www.aps.org/programs/women/scholarships/blewett/

Save the Date: APS Bridge Program Summer Meeting The APS Bridge Program Summer Meeting will bring together experts to discuss efforts to increase the number of underrepresented minorities who receive PhDs in physics. The meeting will be held June 27-29, 2013 at the American Center for Physics in College Park, MD. Workshops, panel discussions, and presentations will address topics such as: mentoring, bridge program logistics, cultivating faculty/administrative support, and building a sense of community for students.

The conference is designed for faculty, administrators, and students from prospective and existing bridge program sites, as well others who might be interested. To receive more information about the meeting as it becomes available, please email bridgeprogram@ aps.org. Nominate a Women or Minority for APS Fellowship, Prizes and Awards The APS Fellowship Program recognizes members for exceptional contributions to pure or applied physics or physics education, or for exceptional leadership or service in physics.

Further information on the fellowship nomination process can be © Michael Lucibella, 2013 found online at http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/fellowships/ CONFERENCE continued from page 3 For information on nominating women and minorities for APS prizes students for a wide variety of ca- physics. Theodore Hodapp, APS, breakout sessions. “This mecha- and awards, please visit http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/ reers, given that a small percentage and Marcel Agüeros, Columbia nism allowed for many topics to nomination.cfm of PhDs in physics find permanent University, gave presentations on be covered in a highly intense and employment within academia. A their respective bridge programs. focused manner,” he said, citing Climate Site Visits The APS has had a long-standing interest in improving the climate in panel on non-academic careers The APS Bridge Program seeks to sessions on non-academic careers physics departments for underrepresented minorities and women. agreed that interdisciplinary ex- increase the number of underrep- as most useful. The Committee on the Status of Women in Physics (CSWP) and periences and resume-writing resented minorities, including Af- Chandralekha Singh, a con- the Committee on Minorities (COM) both sponsor site visit programs. skills are important for graduate rican Americans, Hispanic Ameri- ference organizer and Professor For more information on the Climate for Women in Physics Site students to master. Stefan Zollner, cans, and Native Americans, who of Physics at the University of Visit Program, visit: http://www.aps.org/programs/women/sitevisits/ physics department chair at New receive PhDs in physics. Pittsburgh, said the conference index.cfm Mexico State University, said the Sessions at the conference also was very successful in achieving fact that only 20% of PhDs go on emphasized the fact that employ- its goals. She said the most valu- For more information on the Climate for Minorities in Physics to become permanent faculty must ers need PhDs who can work able part of the conference was the Site Visit Program, visit: http://www.aps.org/programs/minorities/ be communicated to students. He well with others. Panelist Kathy “great exchange of ideas on how sitevisits.cfm urged institutions to stay in touch Prestridge, Los Alamos National to maintain excellence in gradu- with alumni, find out what skills Laboratory, said she could not ate education in physics.” This Update Your Department’s Female Friendly Graduate Program Survey they find useful, and invite non- hire people who would not work includes keeping in mind chang- CSWP provides responses to a series of questions about graduate academic graduates back to give in teams. Roel Snieder, Colorado ing demographics and increased programs in physics that should be helpful to those interested in colloquia. School of Mines, led the ses- competition for the best graduate assessing the climate for women at various graduate schools. You Increasing the diversity of the sion General Professional Skills, students. can find department responses to a short series of questions at: graduate student population was a Leadership, Team Building and Lawrence Woolf, a conference http://www.aps.org/programs/women/female-friendly/index.cfm major discussion topic during the Communication, where the par- organizer from General Atomics, conference. Anthony Johnson, Di- ticipants concluded that such “soft drew attention to another take- All responses are self-reported by department chairs (or their rector of the Center for Advanced skills” are critical for success in away message from the confer- assignees). To update your responses, please contact women@ aps.org. Studies in Photonics Research and many physics jobs today. ence: graduate students need im- Professor of Physics, Computer A session on University, In- proved communication with their Help Endow the Bouchet Award Science and Electrical Engineer- dustry and National Lab Partner- thesis advisors regarding progress For the past 18 years, the Edward A. Bouchet Award has connected ing at the University of Maryland ship for Graduate Education men- towards their PhD. This might exceptional minority physicists with students from the US and Baltimore County, gave a plenary tioned that awareness of national include setting up a mutual un- abroad. The award will lose its annual funding in 2013, so APS needs talk on his personal perspective lab programs needs to increase. derstanding between students and your help. Our goal is to endow this award by raising $140,000 to on promoting diversity in phys- The session also encouraged can- their advisors, reviewing this un- continue to mentor and inspire underrepresented minorities as part ics. Johnson described research didates to form personal connec- derstanding annually, and assign- of the next generation of scientists. Learn more and donate at: http:// www.aps.org/about/support/bouchet/index.cfm fellowships and programs avail- tions with PIs. ing mentors independent of thesis able to underrepresented minority This year’s conference featured advisors. APS Bridge Program Now Accepting Student Applications students since 1972 and shared his strong participation by the 12 Several organizers said they The mission of the APS Bridge Program (APS-BP) is to strengthen own observations from his experi- graduate students in attendance. would like to see the conference physics in the United States by increasing the number of ence at AT&T Bell Laboratories. Diehl was surprised by how large occur more than once every five underrepresented minority students who receive doctoral degrees The discussion on diversity the contribution was from students years so that there is enough time in physics. The APS-BP is open to prospective students who meet also included an afternoon break- at this year’s conference. “They to have detailed discussions on is- the eligibility criteria, exhibit academic promise, plan to pursue a out session on Bridge Programs obviously have thought a lot about sues related to graduate education doctoral degree in physics and can enhance the diversity of doctoral to Improve Diversity. Bridge graduate programs and they ex- in physics. students in physics. programs are typically one- to pressed themselves eloquently,” The conference was supported Students enroll in a one- to two-year Bridge Experience in a two-year post-baccalaureate or she said. For example, graduate by a grant from the National Sci- post-baccalaureate program that provides research experience, master’s programs that seek to students made a strong case for ence Foundation and organized by advanced coursework, mentoring, and coaching in preparation for enhance student’s chances of suc- better-defined family policies. Renee Diehl, Theodore Hodapp, graduate school. The Bridge Experience aims to improve access to cess in a PhD program. These Christopher Salvo, a graduate Chandralekha Singh, Michael and culture of graduate education for all students, with emphasis on programs offer a combination of student at University of California, Thoennessen, R. Steve Turley, and those underrepresented in doctoral programs in physics. Successful coursework, research experience, Riverside, found the conference as Lawrence Woolf. The organizing applicants will be fully supported through a combination of funding and mentoring to strengthen ap- a whole extremely valuable, but committee anticipates issuing a from the Bridge institution and the APS Bridge Program. plications to graduate school in especially enjoyed the series of conference report in 2013. Complete applications to the APS Bridge Program are due by April 15. Learn more and apply at: http://www.apsbridgeprogram.org/ about/students.cfm http://www.aps.org/ APS NEWS online: publications/apsnews 6 • March 2013

BOWL continued from page 1 RHIC continued from page 1 Physical Review Centennial tive barrier. (Session G34.10) Majorana Fermions scenarios, the subcommittee rec- struction and upgrades. A year The Physical Review is cel- Batteries Scientists have been hunting ommends completing the upgrade later the recession hit, resulting in ebrating 100 years of publishing Researchers are always try- for Majorana fermions, particles and capitalizing on the science constricting science budgets while cutting edge scientific research ing new chemical combinations that are also their own antiparticle, that it enables,” Tribble said. “The construction and upgrades went under APS. A special session will to squeeze more life and charge since they were first predicted subcommittee vote, while closely forward. both reflect on its history and look out of batteries. However more in 1937. Last year at the March split, resulted in a slight prefer- Congress allocated $547 mil- ahead to its future role at the fore- recently, the nanostructure of the Meeting researchers from Delft ence to the choice that proceeds lion for nuclear sciences in 2012. front of physics. Special for this battery’s storage materials has University in the Netherlands with FRIB.” That amount is in total about $20 meeting, for the first time, Daniel been the focus of much research. announced strong evidence that Officially, the report’s primary million higher that what was allo- Kennefick from the University Gary Rubloff from the University they’d found the elusive particles. recommendation is that funding cated for 2011, but most areas saw of Arkansas, Fayetteville will re- of Maryland has been considering Since then, the team has been im- for nuclear science be increased. slight cuts, offset by allocations veal the name of the referee that whether an organized nanostruc- “The report does not recom- proving their technique and will specially for FRIB’s construction, rejected Einstein’s third and last ture of batteries and capacitors can mend shutting down RHIC. It rec- present their latest research at this CEBAF’s upgrade and small busi- submission to the journal. (Ses- improve on disordered networks. ommends a modest growth bud- year’s meeting. (Session T13.08) ness investments. sion B10) (Session C39.04) get that would allow CEBAF and The president’s budget re- Prizes and Awards Fracking Cancer Physics RHIC to operate for the highest quested $526 million for 2013 for On Monday afternoon, at a Hydraulic fracturing for natural Physicists are working along- impact science and proceed with all nuclear sciences, but because ceremonial session, the APS gas, or “fracking,” has been both side doctors and oncologists to FRIB construction,” Tribble said of political gridlock it is unclear President will present prizes and hailed as the solution to the coun- better understand and fight can- in an email. “It is only under no- when or how much of it will pass. awards to a number of research- try’s energy needs and decried as a cer. Three sessions throughout the growth budgets that something as It is possible that Congress will ers whose discoveries and careers tremendous environmental threat. meetings are devoted specifically dire as shutting down RHIC might pass a continuing resolution keep- have broken new ground, chal- Tuesday morning’s session, “The to how physicists are helping to occur.” ing the funding the same as 2012, lenged assumptions and broad- Impact of Hydraulic Fracturing” develop treatments and map its The proposed FRIB will shoot resulting in flat flat funding. If se- ened their fields. (Session D1) will help researchers sort through spread. On Thursday morning Jan a beam of stable ions at a fixed tar- Play the controversies of the booming Liphardt from the University of get, creating rare isotopes usually questration sets in after March 1, On Wednesday evening, there energy extraction technique. Fran- California, Berkeley will speak only found in the extreme temper- NP stands to lose between 5.5% will be a special reading of the cis O’Sullivan will speak about about remaining unresolved issues ature and pressure of supernovae. and 8% of its budget. one-act play “Farm Hall” by Da- how the new extraction method where physics and biology overlap. CEBAF is the crown jewel of the Brinkman urged scientists to vid Cassidy of Hofstra University, is transforming the energy mar- That afternoon, Eshel Ben-Jacob Thomas Jefferson National Accel- lobby Congress to protect funding about captured German nuclear ket. Researchers from the EPA from Rice University will describe erator Facility in Newport News, for these programs. physicists at the end of World and Duke University will present the different ways that tumor cells Virginia. It accelerates a continu- “To me these [cuts] represent permanent damage to the field and War II. Cassidy based the piece their assessment of the environ- navigate through the body. Friday ous beam of electrons, which can I don’t think you’ll easily recover on transcripts of conversations mental impacts of fracking. Mur- morning Amy Wu from Princeton be directed at targets in any of three from them,” Brinkman said. “I between Werner Heisenberg, Otto ray Hitzman from the Colorado University will present her research different experimental halls. The think it’s extremely important for Hahn and Walter Gerlach as they School of Mines will delve into into the ways that cancer develops experiments are mainly designed awaited their fate at the hands of his recent report on the connec- everyone in the room to under- resistance to common drugs. (Ses- to provide greater understanding the Allies. (Session S50) tion between fracking and earth- stand that they need to be talking sions T45, W47 and Y45) of quantum chromodynamics. Soft Polymers Strengthen quakes. (Session F9) RHIC is a 3.8-kilometer accelera- to their Congressmen and people Random Vaccinations Steel DNA Nano Motors tor that collides heavy gold and on the Hill to get some action on Preventing the outbreak of dis- Researchers are developing DNA codes for the building lead ions to create hot quark gluon this subject.” ease relies a great deal on the ef- a way to make steel more bul- blocks of life, but it can also be plasma. RHIC was the first facil- After Tribble’s announcement, ficient distribution of a scarce re- letproof using rubber polymers. used to motorize very tiny ma- ity to create this new phase of mat- Brookhaven’s interim laboratory source, vaccines. Lora Billings from When a projectile hits the rubber chinery. Andrew Turberfield from ter, but CERN recently claimed to director Doon Gibbs released a Montclair State University found polymer developed by the Naval the University of Oxford devel- have surpassed RHIC’s milestone, statement expressing concern. He that randomly distributing vaccines Research Lab, the rubber under- oped a way to turn DNA into a creating plasma almost 40 percent pledged to work to keep RHIC op- might be more effective than cur- goes a phase change. For the ten nanoscale motor. What’s more, hotter. erating. microseconds or so of an impact, his tiny motorized submarine can rent methods on a finite population. The committee first looked at “I have been in touch with the the material become about 1000 be programmed to navigate a net- This may lead to better public health two budget scenarios, one that in- leadership of each of the other two times harder than its natural state, work of tracks. (Session F43.01) campaigns during the outbreak of a cluded increases that kept up with affected facilities, and we have temporarily becoming a protec- contagion. (Session C44.06) inflation, and a “flat flat” budget, agreed to work together to realize which kept the budget the same, the modest growth path,” Gibbs TV continued from page 1 missing,” Gaier said. “[It’s] depth with the researchers but with its buying power slightly said. reduced because of inflation. Trib- feel like part of the meet- to create a buzz about the than a single sound bite. “It Tribble reflected Gibbs’s sen- ble and his team found that neither ing,” Gaier said. “If they’re meeting.” is more thoughtful and they timents in his presentation to the scenario could keep all three fa- not there, they get to see WebsEdge will be setting have more time.” Advisory committee. cilities running, and it would take what they missed and maybe up a studio in the Baltimore Similar to network TV, “To me it would be a disas- at least a 1.6% increase over infla- come the next year.” Convention Center, and will WebsEdge finances its op- ter for the US nuclear science tion to keep them open, what Trib- be walking throughout the erations by recruiting spon- program. It’s a clear short-term After they’re filmed and ble termed the “Modest Growth meeting for on-the-spot inter- soring institutions who are problem that I think could likely edited, the videos will be Option.” views. featured in pre-produced result in the start of a longer-term uploaded to the WebsEdge Office of Science Director Bill “We’ll be interviewing peo- videos that are included in decline of the field as a whole,” website and YouTube. Brinkman is worried that there ple in the exhibit hall and by the daily segments. There is Tribble said. “So consequently I “We’re working to get the may be even more cuts coming. think we all must work together meeting to be a ‘must attend’ the registration desk,” Vaquer no cost to APS, nor any in- Unless a budget plan is worked event and show the people said. She added that the aim creased charges to meeting out, automatic 6% cuts, known to do our best to keep it from hap- who aren’t there what they’re of the spots is to go into more attendees. as sequestration, are to set in on pening to preserve our field.” March 1. Brinkman also expressed con- “We have a situation in which cern about the long-term prospects RECIPIENTS continued from page 1 the Congress [and] the administra- of the United States’ nuclear sci- James Wynne and Rangaswa- ately think of using it for eye sur- dent at MIT I was the first person tion now are starting to take the ence program. my Srinivasan, both at IBM, were gery. at the Institute who recognized the idea that sequestration might hap- “It seems to me that we’re honored with the National Medal “I thought it was going to possible importance of supersym- pen more seriously. And so we’re heading in a direction that is total- of Technology and Innovation for revolutionize brain surgery, and I metry,” Gates said. “Now 30 years starting to really look at impact,” ly the wrong direction,” Brinkman experimenting on the effects of thought it might revolutionize skin later, supersymmetry is right at the Brinkman said. “It strikes me as a said. “Everywhere I look I see in- lasers on biological tissue, laying surgery,” Wynne said. Instead, it center of the class of ideas as to dangerous thing if it happens.” ternational competition in almost the groundwork for Lasik eye sur- revolutionized eye surgery. Steven how the universe functions and the NP wound up in this finan- every sub-field that we have. And gery. Their team started by shoot- Trokel of Columbia University standard model.” cial crunch after coming up with so it strikes me that if we keep ing pieces of their own fingernails was the first to publish a paper Gates has also appeared on nu- a long-term plan in 2007. The heading in this wrong direction, and hair with an excimer laser and about using Wynne's laser discov- merous popular TV shows about plan predicted increasing annual we could really lose our position found it made very precise cuts. ery on a human eye. “Once that science, he is currently a member budgets and called for new con- in the world.” “If the laser made a really clean paper was published, the whole of the President’s Council of Ad- incision in your skin, without any ophthalmology community heard visors on Science and Technology, enough said. “I’m very happy for intelligence, and distinguished collateral damage, it would heal about it, and then it was off to the and he is serving on the Maryland the recognition that it gives to the contributions as an advisor to the without scarring,” Wynne said. races.” state board of education. particular field of electrochemistry.” United States Government.” Ar- The day after Thanksgiving 1981, S. James Gates Jr. of the Uni- John B. Goodenough at the Longtime SLAC Deputy Direc- thur Rosenfeld, Scientist Emeritus the team tried slicing up small versity of Maryland was awarded University of Texas at Austin was tor Sidney Drell received the Na- at Lawrence Berkeley National pieces of leftover turkey skin. the National Medal of Science for awarded the National Medal of tional Medal of Science for “con- Lab, won the National Medal of “When I put this sample under a developing the theory of super- Science for his work on cathodes tributions to quantum field theory Technology and Innovation for his microscope, I had my ‘aha’ mo- symmetry, and for sharing theo- that lead to the invention of the and quantum chromodynamics, work developing energy efficient ment.” retical physics with the public. lithium ion battery. application of science to inform building technologies and stan- He added they didn’t immedi- “When I was a graduate stu- “It’s a nice surprise,” Good- national policies in security and dards. March 2013 • 7

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Editor–Physical Review Letters Reviews of Modern Physics

The American Physical Society is conducting an international search for the lead- Dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates ing Editor of Physical Review Letters (PRL). The leading Editor is responsible for in optical lattices editorial standards, policies and direction of the journal, and leadership of the Oliver Morsch and Markus Oberthaler TM staff of 20 editors. PRL is the leading multidisciplinary letters journal in the field Cold atoms stored in optical lattices display a great variety of physics. of quantum phenomena, similar to those found in certain The ideal candidate should possess many of the following qualifications: stature in a field of research solid state systems. However, by using external fields the within the scope of PRL and within the PRL author community; experience with scholarly journals; atoms can be brought to new experimental regimes and management and interpersonal skills to deal effectively with an international array of authors, refer- thus allow one to explore novel phenomena. This article ees, and editors and with the APS; advocacy, integrity, and wisdom to lead the journal in responding contains a theoretical description of such a system, as well to important matters and issues. as the results of the most recent experiments in this area. The Editor may maintain his/her present appointment and location and devote at least 20% of his/her time to the position. A higher level of commitment would be desirable in the initial year of service; http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/RevModPhys.85.219 several possible levels of long-term commitment, from 20% to 50%, are possible. Candidates who can be physically present at the APS editorial office (Long Island, New York–adjacent to Brookhaven Na- tional Lab and near Stony Brook University) at least once a month are preferred. The initial appoint- http://rmp.aps.org ment is for three years with renewal possible after review. Salary is negotiable and dependent on time commitment. The desired starting date is 1 August 2013. The APS is an equal employment opportunity employer and especially encourages applications from or nominations of women and minorities. The search is not limited to residents of the United States. Brazil-U.S. Inquiries, nominations, and applications should be sent by 1 May 2013 to: U. Heinz, PRL Search Committee Chair, [email protected] Exchange Program Accepting Applications he American Physical Society is now accepting applications from U.S. appli- cants for the Brazil-U.S. Exchange Program. Physicists and physics graduate students in India and the United T States can apply for travel grants to pursue opportunities in the Through the Brazil-U.S. Physics Student Visitation Program, other country. graduate students can apply for travel funds to pursue opportunities in physics, such as: 1) attending a short-course; 2) visiting with a professor in his/her field The APS-IUSSTF Professorship Awards in Physics funds physi- of study; 3) working temporarily in a lab; or 4) another opportunity that the cists in India or the U.S. wishing to visit overseas to teach student and host professor feel is worthy of travel support. Grants are for up to short courses or provide a physics lecture series at a U.S. or USD $3,000. Indian university. Awards are for up to U.S. $4,000. The Brazil-U.S. Professorship/Lectureship Program funds Through the APS-IUSSTF Physics Student Visitation Program, physicists in Brazil and the United States wishing to visit overseas to teach a short U.S. and Indian graduate students may apply for travel course or deliver a lecture series in the other country. Grants are for up to USD funds of up to U.S. $3,000 to pursue opportunities in physics. $4,000. Travel funds could be used to attend a short-course or summer institute, or to work temporarily in a laboratory, for example. This program The application deadline for U.S. applicants traveling mostly aims to support graduate student travel to India by U.S. citizens, to Brazil is Sunday, March 31, 2013. Applications from U.S. while enabling some students of Indian citizenship to travel to the United applicants should be submitted to Michele Irwin, APS Office of International

TM States. Affairs, [email protected]. Additional information, including application guidelines, This program is sponsored by the Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Fo- is provided at: www.aps.org/programs/international/ rum (IUSSTF) and administered by the American Physical Society (APS). Information for Brazilian applicants is available from SBF: www.sbfisica.org.br/v1/ Application deadline: Sunday, March 31, 2013 This program is sponsored by Further details including proposal guidelines: www.aps.org/programs/ the Sociedade Brasileira de TM international/us-india-travel.cfm Física (SBF) and APS.

SITES continued from page 1 know what is best for undergradu- as well.” Glavin hoped that stu- year’s conferences were careers to realize their common experi- for applicants to speak a bit about ate women–and that keeps evolv- dents would return to their home in industry or in fields related to ence. While many of the confer- diversity in physics and across ing a little bit. By keeping it grass universities with a greater sense physics. At UIUC and Colorado ences included student presenta- the sciences,” said Johnson. “One roots, we are keeping it current, of their part in the network of School of Mines, the organizers tions, faculty talks, and graduate of the most interesting things we young, and vital.” women in physics. included a career panel that had and career workshops, the deci- noted,” she said, “is that some of As in years past, the indepen- This vision was realized when physicists who were almost ex- sions of the local organizing com- the best essays on diversity were dence of the local conference sites Maggie Xiao received an email clusively in industry. Every stu- mittees made each host confer- written by men.” produced a diverse and vibrant from a professor of materials sci- dent has role models in academia ence unique. A physics and mechanical en- conference weekend. ence she had met at the Cornell from classes, noted Glavin, but For example, the Mines con- gineering double major at Colo- At the University of Central conference. “About a week after undergraduates get much less ex- ference had a 22 percent male rado State University, Forrest Florida, co-coordinators Asma the conference, a professor from posure to careers in industry. The attendance. Mines organizer Ni- Craft says he applied to attend the Amjad and Tracy Becker orga- materials science wrote me an University of Central Florida held cole Johnson explained that the conference at Mines to learn how nized a Science Café where eight email with literature she recom- a well-attended industry fair, and organizing committee at Mines he could help increase the diver- physicists spoke about their re- mended I pursue for further stud- after the industry career panel at had attended the 2012 conference sity in physics. “I thought that one search with small groups of at- ies,” said Xiao, a sophomore at the Cornell conference, Xiao said hosted at Stanford University and of the main goals of the confer- tendees. In tandem with the larger Bryn Mawr College. “She had that she “was able to see the appli- had noticed that there weren’t any ence was to put people together talks, workshops on graduate some insights that we didn’t even cations of physics knowledge to a men. “Mines is 75 percent male with different viewpoints–I think schools, CV writing, and a poster think about in my own lab.” wide range of industries.” across campus,” said Johnson, presentation of student research, The conference, Xiao noted, “You always hear that you can “and we thought that all of the les- that that is very necessary for sci- the Science Café provided a “very also gave her a great opportunity do anything with a physics de- sons at Stanford were completely ence,” Craft said. “For example, interactive environment in which to learn to collaborate and reach gree,” noted Glavin, “but it was applicable to men too.” the question and answer session the speakers could talk about out to students and faculty at really interesting to meet people Johnson and her peers used was awesome,” he said, “having their research and also about their schools across the country. Xiao who actually do.” blind admissions and an applica- both men and women made for lives,” said Becker. has since reached out to faculty at This year, the Colorado School tion that promoted a diverse and some really interesting discus- Glavin and her co-organizers Bryn Mawr and at the University of Mines hosted the conference engaged conference attendance sions and I met some really great at UIUC shared this goal: “There of Pennsylvania for more research keynote address by University of at Mines. Applicants wrote a per- people.” are very strong male science role opportunities. “The conference Colorado Boulder physicist Mar- sonal statement of their goals for As reported in last month’s models,” she said, noting scien- solidified my determination to garet Murnane. The keynote was attending the conference. “We APS News, this year for the first tists like Carl Sagan and Bill Nye. pursue graduate work in physics,” webcast to the other five sites, of- wanted to look for people who re- time the Conference received “These conferences are a great she said. fering an opportunity for confer- ally understood the mission of the sponsorship, and administrative way to share female role models Also emphasized in this ence attendees across the country conference and we were looking support, from APS. 8 • March 2013 The Back Page

he untold riches of a career on Wall Street the option expires, the market price of the un- Thave loomed large in the physics com- derlying security (a stock, say) will exceed the munity these last few decades. Most physi- strike price by more than the premium, which is cists know someone–a friend from graduate the amount you paid for the option. If the price school; a former student–who left academia Fisics and Phynance of the stock does exceed the strike price plus the to pursue a career in finance. And we have premium, then you win the bet, since you can buy heard quite a bit, too, about the damage By James Owen Weatherall the stock at the strike price and then turn around wrought by the so-called “quants” that these and sell it at market value and pocket the differ- physicists morph into when they take invest- ence. Meanwhile, if the market price is below the ment jobs. Quants, along with the mathemati- strike price, you lose the premium, but no more. cal models and algorithmic trading strategies they helped (There’s a third regime as well, where the market price at to develop, have been blamed for three decades of market expiration is higher than the strike price, but less than the crashes, from the 1987 Black Monday crash, to the 1998 strike price plus the premium. Then you lose somewhat less crisis at Long-Term Capital Management, to the 2007-08 than the full premium.) worldwide financial collapse. From this point of view, a “fair” price for an option is Many commentators have argued that these crashes and precisely the premium at which the expected value of the crises reveal the hubris of physicists on Wall Street. They bet is zero. (I am glossing over a subtlety here regarding are outsiders convinced they are smarter than everyone else, the value of money over time.) This observation allows one using models that are doomed to fail. After all, markets rise to write down an equation with the fair premium as an un- and fall on the whims of human beings. People are not as known quantity, for which you can then solve–so long as predictable as quarks or pulleys. It was Isaac Newton him- you know the probability distribution governing the price of self who, after losing his shirt in the South Sea Bubble, al- the stock at the future time. legedly fretted “I can calculate the motions of the heavenly But how can one ever know what the probability is that a bodies, but not the madness of men.” What could methods stock will take a certain price in the future? Answering this developed to understand inclined planes ever tell us about was the second piece in the puzzle. As a first approximation, something so complex as the economy? one might just assume that markets undergo some sort of Quite a bit, as it turns out. Wall Street became a viable stochastic process. Here Thorp built on ideas developed by option for physics PhDs during the mid-to-late 1970s, and a physicist named M.F.M. Osborne, who in a 1959 paper they arrived en masse during the 1980s. But physicists have called “Brownian Motion in the Stock Market” showed that played a significant and influential role in the development under reasonably generic assumptions one should expect the Photo courtesy of University of California , Irvine of economics and financial theory since the beginning of the returns on a stock to follow a random walk. This suggests twentieth century, and even before. studied extensively by string theorists. Simons’ firm only returns should be normally distributed with variance pro- For instance, Jan Tinbergen, co-recipient of the first No- hires people with backgrounds in fields like physics, math- portional to the square root of time, and that prices should bel Memorial Prize in Economic Science, was trained as a ematics, and computer science–and not economics or finan- be log-normally distributed. (Bachelier developed a simi- physicist under Paul Ehrenfest. Irving Fisher, perhaps the cial engineering. lar thesis, that prices, not returns, should undergo a random first great American economist, was a doctoral student of The reason physicists are especially good, or at least can walk. This is mistaken because it implies that prices have a J. Willard Gibbs, the pioneering statistical mechanist. Paul be especially good, at financial modeling is not that mar- non-zero chance of falling below zero.) Samuelson, winner of the second Nobel and the first Ameri- kets are somehow subject to physical laws. Nor is it that Putting these two pieces together gives a solution to the can to receive the prize, was also a descendent of Gibbs, physicists have developed some detailed theory of investor problem. But it bears reflecting on what this solution looks trained by Gibbs’ protege Edmund Bidwell Wilson. In his behavior. The connection is at a higher level than that. Phys- like. For one, it does not depend on a “theory” of investors or wildly influential book, Foundations of Economic Analysis, icists have a distinctive way of thinking about mathematical of markets. It is much more modest than that: it is a limited published in 1947, Samuelson explicitly acknowledged his problems. They are experts in approximative thinking, in solution to a particular problem. More importantly, it rests Gibbsian roots, developing a mathematical theory of eco- building toy models and effective theories. This sort of rea- on some strong simplifying assumptions–most significant of nomic equilibrium with significant debts to thermodynam- soning is just what is needed to take a problem that appears which is that returns follow a stationary stochastic process. ics. hopelessly complex and find the simplifying assumptions Of course, it is possible to test this assumption. Indeed, Much of modern economic theory rests on the founda- and idealizations necessary to make it tractable. And it is Osborne did test it, and found some evidence to support tions laid by these physicists. And surely economics has for this reason that physicists have made, and can continue it–though other researchers, most notably Benoît Mandel- provided some insight into the workings of the economy. to make, significant contributions to finance. In fact, if Wall brot, later argued that analysis of historical returns shows So if you want to reject the idea that physicists have any- Street banks want to use mathematical models more effec- that this assumption is flawed, and that returns actually ex- thing important to contribute to understanding markets, you tively, they would do well to learn to think of models the hibit excess kurtosis (fat tails). This distinction is extremely need to dismiss far more than the quant models behind high- way physicists do. important, but it should be kept in perspective. Thorp and frequency trading. This sort of engagement by physicists To take a concrete example, consider a model for pricing Bachelier developed a rough and ready model that, to first with core economic questions continues under the guise of options. Options are a class of derivative contract that give order–i.e., neglecting tail effects–provided an entirely nov- “econophysics”. Nowadays most economists take econo- the bearer the right to buy (or sometimes sell) some underly- el, clearly useful solution to an investment problem. And at physicists to be heterodox, but their work is part of a long ing security–a stock say, or a commodity like grain–at some least Thorp was aware of the limitations of the model, in the tradition that is tightly entwined with mainstream economic fixed time in the future, at a pre-determined price called the sense that he understood when the model could be expected theory. “strike price.” The million dollar question facing an options to fail (in the presence of tail effects), and what would hap- Still, Wall Street quants are not econophysicists in the pricing model is this: how much should you be willing to pen when it did. sense of Tinbergen, Fisher, or Samuelson–or contemporary pay now for the right to buy or sell something in the future, This last point is crucially important. Lots of fields use researchers such as H. Eugene Stanley, Joseph McCauley, at a price you decide today The standard model for pric- mathematical models to understand the world. But physi- or Eric Weinstein. Very few quants are trying to develop ing options is known as the Black-Scholes-Merton model, cists have a particular way of thinking about approximation economic theory. Instead, the physicists on Wall Street are for three economists who developed it in the early 1970s and idealization. To make progress on interesting problems, closer to the markets. They are trying to develop predic- But in fact, the model had essentially been discovered twice physicists always have to make assumptions and approxi- tive algorithms that can drive investment strategies, or to before, both times by mathematical physicists–though the mations. They work with the zero temperature limit, or the identify and control the risk associated with an investment physicists’ route to the model was different from the econo- thermodynamic limit, or the mean field approximation. portfolio, or construct models relating the prices of some mists’. They are trained to think these approximations through–to financial products to others–and especially, models for pric- The first of these physicists was a Frenchman named justify their assumptions with physical arguments. Most ing financial products known as “derivatives”, which are se- Louis Bachelier, whose dissertation, written in 1900 un- importantly, physicists are taught how to think about what curities that are built out of more traditional products such der the guidance of Henri Poincare, presented a “Theory of happens when their assumptions fail. They are taught to cal- as stocks or commodities. Speculation” on the French stock market. The second was culate, or at least estimate, the second order corrections to It is these projects that strike many–even many physi- an American named Edward Thorp, who independently dis- their first order equations. cists–as implausible. Physicists are good at predicting the covered a slightly modified version of the formula around This cautious, assumption-focused reasoning is what outcomes to experiments. But predicting markets? It seems 1964, and then went on to start the first modern quantita- guided Thorp during the 1970s and 1980s when he used the like a different business altogether–one where physics is of tive hedge fund. There is little evidence that Bachelier ever options model as the basis for a trading strategy at his hedge little help. traded on the basis of his research, but Thorp certainly fund, Princeton-Newport Partners. He, and a handful of oth- Until you delve deeper, that is, and look at just how phys- did–and with considerable success. (Thorp’s trading strat- ers, understood that the pricing model that Black, Scholes, icists have contributed to financial modeling and investment egy was based in part on the work of yet another physicist, and Merton introduced–and everyone in finance used–was practice. Because in addition to their contributions at the named John Kelly, who applied information theory to the not a Final Theory of options. It was at best an effective the- birth of modern mathematical economics, physicists have question of how one should bet when receiving unreliable, ory, an approximate model whose higher order corrections been responsible for several major developments in finance. but relevant, information. Thorp learned of Kelly’s work could come to dominate in certain market regimes. And in And at least some physicists have been phenomenally suc- from Claude Shannon, with whom Thorp successfully built October 1987, when the Black Monday stock market crash cessful as fund managers. Indeed, the fund that is widely a computer to beat roulette!) hit, many options traders were wiped out. But not the ones viewed as the most successful hedge fund of all time, the There are two basic ideas behind the Bachelier-Thorp who thought like physicists. Medallion Fund, was run for twenty years by mathemati- model. The first is that an option can be thought of as a kind James Owen Weatherall is Assistant Professor of Logic cal physicist James Simons–the same James Simons who of bet. Consider an option to buy a stock (this is known as and Philosophy of Science at the University of California, lent his name to Chern-Simons theory, which has been a “call option”). This sort of option is a bet that at the time Irvine, and author of the book The Physics of Wall Street.

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