6 8 Myriam Sarachik Elected APS Vice President
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November 2000 NEWS Volume 9, No. 10 A Publication of The American Physical Society http://www.aps.org/apsnews Myriam Sarachik Elected APS Vice President Members of the APS have chosen Sciences Research at Lucent. Only and government labs, and to pro- Myriam Sarachik, a distinguished two new general councillors were vide the next generation of professor of physics at City College elected, compared to the four educators at our universities,” she of New York’s City University of New elected in previous years, to reflect says. One of her goals as President York, to be the Society’s next vice recent changes in the APS Consti- will be to strengthen the society’s president. Sarachik is the third tution, designed to reduce the size efforts to make a career in physics woman to be elected to the presi- of the APS Council. These changes attractive. “We need to be more ef- dential line in the Society’s 101-year were published in the March 2000 fective in explaining the pleasures history, following C.S. Wu of Colum- issue of APS News. that a career in physics can bring, bia in 1975, and Mildred the satisfaction garnered from VICE PRESIDENT CHAIR-ELECT OF THE Dresselhaus of MIT (who became VICE PRESIDENT teaching, and the excitement of re- Myriam Sarachik NOMINATING COMMITTEE Director of the Department of MYRIAM SARACHIK search and discovery; we must also Susan Coppersmith Energy’s Office of Science in August) City College of New York/CUNY have salaries competitive with other in 1984. Sarachik’s term begins Born in Antwerp, Belgium, professional options,” she says. “At January 1, 2001, when she will suc- Sarachik earned her PhD in 1960 the same time, we must continue ceed William Brinkman of Bell from Columbia University. Follow- to make as strong a case as possible Laboratories/Lucent Technologies, ing a year as a research associate at to our legislators and the public who will advance to become presi- the Watson Laboratories of IBM that it is essential to the health and dent-elect. Sarachik will become while teaching at City College in the future of the nation to invest in the APS president in 2003, following evening, she became a postdoctoral science that produces major dis- George Trilling of Lawrence Berke- member of the technical staff at Bell coveries which seed the technology ley National Laboratory in 2001 Laboratories. She joined the faculty of the future.” GENERAL COUNCILLOR GENERAL COUNCILLOR and William Brinkman in 2002. of City College in 1964 and has re- In her candidate’s statement, Jonathan Bagger Cherry Murray mained there ever since. Sarachik’s Sarachik emphasized the need for research interests have ranged from the APS to play an ever-expanding “It is important that we superconductivity, disordered metal- role in a much broader arena: po- reassert and promote lic alloys, and metal-insulator litical, social, educational, and unity and a sense of transitions in 3-D doped semicon- international. She praised recent ef- ductors, to hopping transport in shared vision.” forts to organize a consortium with INSIDE THE BELTWAY solids and properties of single-mol- other science and engineering soci- ecule magnets. Her extensive APS eties to make a strong case for public A Washington Analysis In other election results, Susan experience has included service on investment in physical science R&D, Coppersmith, a professor of phys- the executive committees of the as well as its development of success- ics at the University of Chicago, APS Forum for International Phys- ful programs in educational outreach Spending Floodgates Open as becomes chair-elect of the APS ics, and the Division of Condensed and science teacher preparation. Nominating Committee, which will Matter Physics, and on the Com- Sarachik also called on the APS Election Nears be chaired by Curtis C. Callan of mittee on the Status of Women in to play a leading role in the interna- By Michael S. Lubell, APS Director of Public Affairs Princeton University in 2001. The Physics, and the APS Council, tionalization of physics, facilitating Nominating Committee selects the among others. the participation of American physi- Under the gun all summer, termed it an election-year docu- slate of candidates for vice presi- Of the many very important is- cists in multinational endeavors. DOE’s science accounts finally re- ment, worth little more than the dent, general councillors, and its sues that the APS is currently Finally, she expressed concern over ceived major boosts when the ink with which it was printed. It own chair-elect. The choices are dealing with, Sarachik believes one how the APS divisions have grown House-Senate conference report called for more than $623 billion then voted on by the APS member- of the most urgent is the substan- increasingly separate, and its jour- won approval early in October. It in discretionary spending, with ship. Elected as new general tial decline in the number of nals more specialized and narrowly was due in no small measure to the generous dollops of dollars for re- councillors were Jonathan Bagger, students who now choose to study focused. “It is important that we re- remarkable efforts of the research search. a professor of physics and as- physics. “A shortage is rapidly de- assert and promote unity and a community throughout the pre- The official White House line tronomy at Johns Hopkins veloping (abroad as well as in the US) sense of shared vision,” she said, ceding months. was that it didn’t break the budget University, and Cherry Murray, of bright young scientists and engi- pointing to the enormous success The budgetary end game also caps established in 1997. No small neers to meet the needs of industry Senior Vice President of Physical See ELECTION on page 7 drove a stake through the corpus feat, since those caps called for of The Contract With America. At $572 billion for Fiscal Year 2001. least that’s the read around this Republicans said that, in the Apker Finalists Meet in Washington town, where everyone is a card- end, a good deal of the presiden- carrying pundit. tial ink would disappear. Early On September 16, the six final- Six years ago, the House Repub- on, in April, to prove its point, ists in the Apker Award competition licans unveiled a blueprint for Congress passed a Budget Reso- met in Washington to present their reform that ultimately led to GOP lution that stripped away almost work in person to the selection com- control of Congress for the first See BELTWAY on page 2 mittee. The Apker Award is given time in 40 years. Cutting the size annually by the APS for physics re- of government, reducing federal search done by an undergraduate. spending and cutting taxes were HIGHLIGHTS The award was first given in 1978, prime among the Contract’s core and in recent years has been divided principles. into two categories, depending on One look at the spending bills whether the institution has a PhD that have emerged from the 106th granting program or not. Congress is enough to tell you that See FINALISTS on page 3 these principles have been blown away by the tried and true doctrine Previous Apker Winners of all political life, “Get reelected M. Tarlton/AIP Featured... On page 3 of this first.” ΣΠΣ Congress Zeros in issue we present a feature article by on Career Diversity and When President Clinton sent 6 Undergrad Education Richard M. Todaro about the 33 his budget up to Capitol Hill last Reform previous Apker Award recipients– February, Republican congres- The Back Page Ken Cole/APS where they are, what they’re sional leaders declared it dead on Creationism Versus Physical Front row (l to r): Christopher Lee, Heather Lynch, Edina Sarajlic. Back row (l to r): doing, and how they got there. 8 Science Jacob Krich, Andrei Bernevig, Steven Oliver. arrival. Even some Democrats 2 November 2000 NEWS This Month in Physics History November 17 – December 23, 1947: Invention of the First Transistor The story of the first transis- innovation: a third electrode, called of electrons at the surface of a semi- point contacts just fractions of tor begins well before Bell Labs a grid, consisting of a network of conductor, in hopes of discovering a millimeter apart. With that scientists first started working small wires surrounding the cath- what was causing electrons to block in mind, Brattain placed a rib- on developing such a device in ode, with a negative potential that amplification, but condensation bon of gold foil around a the 1930s. It was scientists in the controlled the flow of electrons kept forming on the silicon. To plastic triangle, and sliced it 1800s — including Maxwell, from the cathode to the anode, pro- cope, Brattain immersed the entire through one of the points. Hertz, and Faraday— who ducing an amplifying current. experiment in water, inadvertently When the point of the triangle made the dramatic scientific dis- The amplifying vacuum tube creating the largest amplification was placed onto the germa- coveries that made it possible to was not only an essential compo- thus far observed. Informed of the nium, the signal came in harness electricity for human nent in the development of radio, result, Bardeen suggested making through one gold contact and uses, while inventors applied but also in early telephone equip- an amplifier in which a metal point increased as it raced out the this knowledge in the develop- ment, television sets, and was pushed into the silicon and other: it was the first point- ment of useful electrical devices computers. But the technology was surrounded by distilled water.