March 2018 • Vol. 27, No. 3 A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY New Members of the PhysTEC 5+ Club APS.ORG/APSNEWS Page 3 2018 APS April Meeting: “Hello, Columbus” Physical Review B: Condensed Attendees in fields from Matter, Then and Now “Quarks to the Cosmos,” includ- ing particle physics, nuclear phys- ics, astrophysics, and gravitation, Getty Images will gather in Columbus, Ohio, April 14–17, at the Columbus Convention Center for the 2018 APS April Meeting. The meeting theme this year is “A Feynman Century,” marking the 100th By Sarma Kancharla and Laurens lished by APS offers a chance to anniversary of the Nobel-winning Molenkamp look back at some of the landmark physicist’s birth with a Kavli The late Peter Adams, found- publications that have led to PRB Foundation Plenary Session and ing editor of Physical Review B becoming not only the largest an invited session on his legacy. (PRB), impishly used to say that journal in all of physics but also a venue for excellence. The Kavli session will be held the journal was created in 1970 on Saturday, April 14 (8:30 a.m.) because The Physical Review and will feature a presentation by had reached its binding limit. Joan Feynman (Jet Propulsion Lab, Forum on the History of Physics Professional Skills Development Apocryphal as that sounds, the retired) on life with her brother invited session on Monday, April Workshop for Women on persua- birth of PRB couldn't have hap- Richard and her concerns about cli- 16 (room B130) at 1:30 p.m., with sive communication, negotiation, mate change. Christopher Monroe Paul Halperin (University of the and leadership (Friday, April 13, pened sooner because solid state (University of Maryland and IonQ) Sciences), John Preskill (California 8 a.m.–4 p.m.). The second is a physics, the core charge of the will discuss Richard Feynman’s Institute of Technology), and Professional Skills Seminar specif- journal, would soon morph into involvement in the origins of quan- Virginia Trimble (University of ically for undergraduate and grad- the broader arena of condensed tum computing. Roxanne Springer California at Irvine). uate women in physics (Sunday, matter physics (CMP) and then There is no better place to start (Duke University) will talk about Two skill-building events for April 15 4-6 p.m.). The seminar materials physics. than the Nobel Prize–winning pair Feynman’s contributions to quan- women will take place at the will focus on professional skills The 125th anniversary of the of papers in 1971 by Wilson which tum field theory. Discussions about meeting. The first, for postdocs founding of The Physical Review Feynman will continue at an APS and early career researchers, is a MEETING continued on page 6 and the family of journals pub- PRB continued on page 4 APS Strategic Planning: Get Involved! Staying on Pointe: Physicist Twirls Her Way to Successful Ballet Career By Alaina G. Levine APS leadership is developing a new Strategic Plan for the Society and member input is vital for the success of Merritt Moore’s scientific resume is impressive: She recently this effort. Please attend one of the Town Hall meetings received her Ph.D. in quantum and submit comments via the website. physics from the University of Town Hall: 2018 APS March Meeting in Los Angeles, Oxford, and she graduated with her Thursday, March 8, 1:00-2:30 bachelor’s in physics from Harvard p.m., in room 305 of the Los with honors. Angeles Convention Center. But there is much more—she’s been a dancer since she was 13 Town Hall: 2018 APS April years old. Moore is an interna- Meeting in Columbus, Ohio, tionally known ballerina, and has Monday, April 16, 3:30-5:00 danced professionally with compa- p.m., in room B-130 of the Co- nies all over the world, including lumbus Convention Center. the Zürich Ballet Company, Boston Ballet, English National Ballet, Strategic planning will also be on the agenda of the an- and London Contemporary Ballet Theatre. She has performed at a nual APS Business Meeting in Columbus: Friday, April special exhibition at the Victoria Physicist Merritt Moore combines a career in science and acclaim as a performing artist. 13, 4:00-5:00 p.m. in room A-216 of the Columbus Con- & Albert Museum in which she vention Center. danced with robots, at a virtual intensely pursued dance, but as to be strong’.” It changed my reality and dance event at the she advanced she began to grow whole outlook.” And it reignited Please visit go.aps.org/strategicplan to learn more Barbican Centre in London, and tired of it. In fact, when she had Moore’s dancing fever. Pretty about the planning process and to upload comments. at the Imagine Science Film festi- the chance to study abroad in Italy soon, she traveled every weekend val, in which she collaborated with as a 15-year-old, she specifically from Viterbo, the little town she filmmakers to visualize scientific looked for a hamlet to live in that was studying in, to Rome, where principles through art. did not offer any dance classes. the teacher was based, where she A certified science junkie, But a chance encounter sent her would train by day, and sleep on Moore began her love affair with whirling back to ballet. her kitchen floor. The lessons were mathematics as a kid, and she One day in Italy Moore found so magnetic that even when Moore took her first physics class in high herself in a “dingy” gym and saw returned home, she continued train- school. “I knew I was going to a ballet class being taught with a ing with this teacher for six years, love it,” she says. “Then the more very different approach than she heading to Rome every chance she I learned about quantum mechanics was used to. “Many teachers want could get. and … new quantum technologies, you to look identical to the girl to “It’s different learning from the I was hooked.” So physics seemed your left and right, and there’s a top of the top. She was a prima bal- the logical career choice. perfect body type that everyone lerina,” adds Moore. “She would But first she had to balance is striving for, but this instruc- say if you want to be a ballet that with her love of ballet. In her tor … was like ‘no, be you, be dancer you can’t be a ballet dancer hometown of Los Angeles, she unique, and that will allow you BALLERINA continued on page 7 2 • March 2018 Spotlight on Development This Month in Physics History The Leo P. Kadanoff Prize March 22, 1895: Screening of the Lumière Brothers’ First Film APS is pleased to announce the establishment of the Leo P. illions flock to movie theaters every week- graph. Antoine snagged a sample of film from one Kadanoff Prize to honor the mem- Mend to view the latest Hollywood block- of the exhibitors there to show his sons. He thought ory and celebrate the legacy of one busters, and the multimillion-dollar film industry they could develop a better, cheaper alternative to of the giants in the field of statisti- dominates popular culture. Among the early pio- the kinetoscope and kinetograph, combining the cal and nonlinear physics. We have neers who made this revolution possible were viewing, developing, and recording functions into launched an effort to endow this two French brothers: Auguste and Louis Lumière. one device. Instead of the single-viewer kineto- Prize, and invite you to consider Auguste was the elder, born in 1862, while scope, he envisioned projecting films onto a large supporting it. Louis was born two years later. Their father, screen so that many people could watch all at once. The Kadanoff Prize was pro- Antoine, started out as a portrait painter before The brothers began experimenting at once, posed by the APS Topical Group on switching to photography, setting up his own small and by the following year they invented the Statistical and Nonlinear Physics business making photographic plates in Lyons. Cinematographe, which weighed just 11 pounds (GSNP) to recognize a scientist or Leo Kadanoff Both sons completed technical school, with a solid and could be operated with a simple hand crank scientists whose work (theoretical, Gifts of any amount will be grasp of organic chemistry, rather than relying on elec- experimental or computational) has greatly appreciated and recog- although Louis preferred trical power. Louis drew opened up new vistas for statistical nized on the Kadanoff website. physics and Auguste gravi- inspiration one sleepless and/or nonlinear physics. Moreover, gifts of $1,000 or more tated towards biochemistry night from how a sew- APS has launched a $300,000 will help us reach our goal for and medicine. They went to ing machine operates, and endowment campaign to allow the opening up the one-year nomina- work for their father. After invented a claw mechanism experimenting with his to pull the film through Kadanoff Prize to be given in per- tion process on-time and ensure wikimedia commons petuity. We are enormously grateful that the first Kadanoff Prize will father’s equipment, Louis in the camera. In contrast to to family members, friends, and be awarded at the 2019 APS March particular became fascinated the sprocket system used colleagues of Leo Kadanoff who Meeting in Boston. with the underlying science. by Edison, the Lumières’ have already raised commitments For more information on ways At just 17, he invented a device formed the basis totaling over $100,000 toward to make a gift in support of the new “dry plate” process for of subsequent early cin- the endowment goal, and are cur- Leo P.