Aug./Sept. 2012 • Vol. 21, No. 8 A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY Focus on Advocacy see page 6 WWW.APS.ORG/PUBLICATIONS/APSNEWS Sam Aronson of Brookhaven Elected APS VP Permanent Jobs Elusive APS members elected Sam APS Council and Executive Board become its associate chair in 1987 Aronson of Brookhaven National as past-President. and its deputy chair in 1988. In for Recent Physics PhDs Laboratory to be the next vice- Aronson is currently the director 1991 he served as senior physicist Recent physics graduates with tion,” up from 7 percent for the president of the Society in elec- of Brookhaven National Labora- on the PHENIX detector while the PhDs have had a hard time find- graduating classes of 2007 and tions that concluded on June 29. tory and President of Brookhaven RHIC particle accelerator was be- ing potentially permanent jobs, 2008. As the newest member of the pres- Science Associates, the organiza- ing built. He later returned to the and have been increasingly likely The unemployment rate for idential line, Aronson will become tion in charge of running the lab. leadership of the physics division to take a post-doc position during graduates with a physics PhD has APS President in 2015. He was named director in 2006, af- and became its chairman in 2001. the recession. hovered at around 2 percent since The members also voted for He was elected an APS Fellow in This is the conclusion of two as far back as 1979, well below Marcia Barbosa of the Federal 2001 and a Fellow of the American studies released in July by the the national average, even in eco- University of Rio Grande do Sul, Association for the Advancement statistical research center at the nomic boom times. The reports, Brazil to be International Council- of Science in 2005. American Institute of Physics. however, caution that the unem- or, Marcelo Gleiser of Dartmouth In a statement on the Brookhav- Taken together, the reports painted ployment rate tends not to reflect College to be General Councilor, en website, Aronson wrote, a gloomy picture of the job market the overall job market. and Paul McEuen of Cornell as “I am much honored to have for the classes of 2009 and 2010. “Because the unemployment Chair-elect of the Nominating been given the opportunity to lead The studies found that fewer rate of new physics PhDs is con- Committee. the APS. I hope to work with the than 30 percent of newly minted sistently low, it is not a particularly Aronson will assume his office rest of the leadership team over the PhDs are accepting potentially useful indicator of job market de- in January of next year, replac- next few years to leverage APS’[s] permanent positions, down from mand,” the report reads. “Instead, ing Malcolm Beasley of Stanford considerable influence in advocat- an eight-year high of 34 percent trends in the proportions of new University, who will become Pres- ing on behalf of the U.S. physics in 2008, while more than 60 per- PhDs accepting post-docs versus ident-elect. This year’s President- community,” cent are taking post-doc positions, potentially permanent positions Sam Aronson elect, Michael Turner of the Kavli In his candidate statement, Ar- up from a low in 2008 of about 55 better reflect job market strength.” Institute for Cosmological Physics ter serving as associate lab director onson further explained his vision percent. The majority of these poten- at the University of Chicago, will since 2005. Aronson first came to as part of the presidential line. According to this most recent tially permanent positions were assume the role of President, while Brookhaven in 1978 as an associ- “The APS has been a strong survey, 13 percent took post-doc in the private sector, about 57 per- the current President, Robert Byer ate physicist, and worked his way voice in support of science literacy, positions because they “could not cent, while academic institutions of Stanford, will remain on the up through the physics division to ARONSON continued on page 7 obtain a suitable permanent posi- JOBS continued on page 5 APS Honors Thirty-nine Minority Scholars New Federal Limits on Travel The APS Committee on Mi- of excellent applications, COM of undergraduates have received Could Decimate Some Meetings norities in physics (COM) has created an honorable mention cat- the scholarship, many of whom Organizers of scientific meet- would be needed from the dep- selected 39 students, comprised egory this year for students who have gone on to receive PhDs in ings are concerned that new uty secretary, while more than of 21 new recipients and 18 re- had very good applications, but physics and are now working as regulations issued by the Of- $500,000 would require the sec- newal students, for the 2012-2013 for whom funding was not avail- physics faculty members in uni- fice of Management and Budget retary of the agency to sign off. Scholarship for Minority Under- able. In this first year, 16 students versities, as well as research sci- (OMB), limiting travel for feder- Conference organizers fear that it graduate Physics Majors. received honorable mentions and entists at corporations and nation- al employees, could dramatically would be difficult to secure this Each new minority scholar re- received a letter of recognition al labs. Some past scholars have reduce meeting attendance. authorization. ceives $2,000, and the scholarship along with an offer of mentoring. also become high school physics In a memo dated May 11, the “That’s a disaster for our may be renewed once, for $3,000. The scholarship, which began and math teachers. OMB issued regulations aimed meeting,” said Cary Forest, Chair The scholarship funds may be in 1980, is open to any African- Minority Scholar Carlos del- at cutting travel spending by of APS’s Division of Plasma used for tuition, room and board, American, Hispanic, or Native Castillo-Negrete attends Yale 30 percent through 2016. If an Physics. “Thirty percent of our and educational materials. In ad- American US citizen or perma- University. Prior to matriculating agency, such as the Department attendees are from national labs.” dition, each minority scholar is nent resident who is majoring or at Yale, he spent a year intern- of Energy, wants to spend more The DPP meeting has one of paired with a mentor at his or her planning to major in physics, and ing with the Spallation Neutron than $100,000 to send people to a the highest proportions of federal university, and a mentor from the who is a high school senior, col- Source at the Oak Ridge National single conference, authorization LIMITS continued on page 4 APS Committee on Minorities in lege freshman, or sophomore. Laboratory. His project focused physics. Due to the large number Since its inception, hundreds SCHOLARS continued on page 7 Read Comics You Must US Students among the Best at International Physics Competition By Brian Jacobsmeyer theoretical and experimental ex- to launch projectiles onto spheri- Just before the Olympic Games ams. Students could also earn a cal buildings, evaluate magnetic started in London, young teams of number of special prizes for out- superconducting drinking straws students from around the world standing individual performances. and analyze condensation on air- converged in Estonia for the Almost 400 students represent- craft wings in the first problem 43rd annual International Physics ing over 80 countries competed alone. Olympiad. All five members of the between July 15th and 24th. US Only about 30 students earned US Physics traveling team earned team member Eric Schneider’s more than 50 percent credit on at least a silver medal at the com- strong individual performance this “most difficult” theoretical petition, and the team’s combined ranked third overall and earned question, according to Stanley. three gold medals and two silver him a special prize for the most Although many students struggled creative solution to a theoretical with this problem, Schneider fol- medals garnered a 4th place finish Photo by Nick Hammer problem. lowed unique paths to his solu- in the unofficial medal count. Chi- Even Jedi Masters love to read Spectra Comics, as the APS outreach team na and Taiwan tied for first place, “Without a doubt, these [prob- tions, achieving almost full marks discovered at Comic-Con in San Diego in July, where they exhibited for the Singapore took the next spot, and lems] were harder than any theo- that led to his special prize. third year in a row. There are now four comics in the Spectra series, cre- ated by APS Head of Public Outreach Rebecca Thompson and Art Director the US tied for 4th with South Ko- retical questions we’ve had in “He was able to find an elegant about a decade,” said head coach approach instead of brute forcing Kerry Johnson. In addition to forming an important part of the PhysicsQuest rea and Russia. kit that goes out annually to about 13,000 middle-school classrooms, the com- Paul Stanley. like a lot of people might have,” Medals and honorable men- ics featuring laser super-hero Spectra and her friends are also distributed on tions were awarded in tiers based The rigorous theoretical section said team coach Andrew Lin. a stand-alone basis, at venues such as Comic-Con. In the photo, Thompson required students to calculate how (left) signs the latest issue as Yoda (right) looks on. on a student’s percentile score on STUDENTS continued on page 5 2 • August/September 2012 Members This Month in Physics History in the Media August 10, 1915: Henry G.J. Moseley Killed in Action cience students everywhere are familiar with So the atomic numbers of the elements weren’t “This is what physicists look “We, scientists, speak math- Sthe modern periodic table, which organizes as arbitrary as physical chemists originally thought.