February 2014 • Vol. 23, No. 2 Profiles in Versatility: A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY Olympics Special Edition WWW.APS.ORG/PUBLICATIONS/APSNEWS See Page 3 APS Membership Boosted by Student Sign-ups The American Physical Society up for a free year of student mem- Physics Newsmakers of 2013 hit a new membership record in bership in the Society. APS Membership 2011-2014 2013 with students making up the In addition, the Society added 50,578 50,600 bulk of the growth. After complet- nearly 100 new early-career mem- Total ing its annual count, the APS mem- bers after a change in policy that Members The Envelope Please . bership department announced that extended membership discounts for 49,950 By Michael Lucibella the Society had reached 50,578 early-career members from three 49,300 members, an increase of 925 over to five years. “The change to five- Each year, APS News looks back last year, following a general five- year eligibility in the early career 48,650 at the headlines around the world year trend. “When we were able to category definitely helped.” Lettieri to see which physics news stories get up over 50,000 again, that was said. “That’s where a lot of our fo- 48,000 grabbed the most attention. They’re good news. That keeps us moving cus is going to be now, with stu- stories that the wider public paid in the right direction,” said Trish dents and early-career members.” 15,747 attention to and news that made a 16,000 Total Lettieri, the director of APS Mem- Student big splash. In roughly chronological 15,400 Members bership. “That’s where a lot of our focus order, the Top Ten Physics News- Students were one reason: The is going to be now, with students 14,800 makers of 2013 are: total number of student members and early-career members.” Exoplanets increased by 1,075 over last year. 14,200 2013 was another banner year Lettieri credited much of that 13,600 for the search for another Earth. In Courtesy of PHL@UPR Arecibo, NASA growth to enrollment stemming At the same time, the regular February astronomers announced from the annual Conferences for membership declined by 273 mem- 13,000 "Habitable world?" the discovery of Kepler-37b: With later, astronomers discovered the Undergraduate Women in Physics. bers, dropping from 23,138 in the Graphs are on dierent scales and a diameter just slightly larger than twin worlds of Kepler-62e and Undergraduate students who at- beginning of 2013 to 22,865 this show totals from January 2014 Earth’s moon, it’s the smallest exo- tended the conferences could sign MEMBERSHIP continued on page 6 planet discovered yet. Two months ENVELOPE continued on page 6 Bouchet Award Winner Followed a Parental Path to Science New APS Education Fellow Goes to Washington Luz Martinez-Miranda, this tion and reflection of light. The American Physical Society nounced the formation of the new policies. year’s recipient of the Edward A. “He actually went into the optics has selected its first fellow to send fellowship in September 2013. The “It’s exciting,” said Tyler Glem- Bouchet Award, always knew she part of physics,” Martinez-Miranda to the Department of Education as goal is to bring a PhD scientist into bo, the APS government relations wanted to go into science. She was said. “I think that…optics, which part of the new Science, Technol- specialist who helped set up the new born in Maryland, moved to Puer- is more visual and more associated ogy, Engineering, and Math program. “The Department of Edu- to Rico when she was five, and is with physical phenomena…made (STEM) Education Policy Fellow- cation is really the place to make now a professor of materials science it more attractive to me.” ship. Julia Mundy, who recently important systemic changes.” at the University of Maryland. When she went to college she defended her PhD thesis in applied Mundy will work with the de- The APS Bouchet Award recog- combined her parents’ love of physics, will go to the Department partment’s STEM lead, Camsie nizes a distinguished minority chemistry with her own love of of Education to work on science McAdams. Though specific plans physicist who has made significant physics. At the University of Puer- and math education policies. are still being finalized, she’ll like- contributions to physics research. to Rico she majored in physics and “I think it’s a great opportunity,” ly be working on new STEM initia- Martinez-Miranda will receive a minored in chemistry, which turned Mundy said. “There hasn’t been a tives at the department including stipend and travel out to be a pre- strong presence of scientists in the the STEM Innovation Network, Julia Mundy support to present a scient decision. By Department of Education so I’m STEM Innovation Hubs, the STEM lecture at the APS her sophomore really excited for the opportunity.” the Department of Education for Teachers Pathway Initiative, and March Meeting. year she knew she The APS and AIP jointly an- two years to consult on STEM FELLOW continued on page 7 Growing up, she wanted to explore assumed she would the experimental follow in her par- side of physics. ent’s footsteps. “I In addition, got interested in Martinez-Miranda In Memoriam: Fred Kavli (1927–2013) physics because I always had an eye By Alaina G. Levine passed away due to complications oil was discovered off the coast of was originally in- for the artistic, or from cancer. He was 86 years old. Norway and the country became terested in chemis- Photo courtesy of University of Maryland rather an ear. As an The story goes that Fred Kavli, rich with petrol. But his real pas- try,” Martinez-Mi- Luz Martinez-Miranda undergraduate, she industrialist, philanthropist and sion, says his colleagues, was sci- randa said. “My also studied piano physicist, would look up at the night ence and support of discovery. “He parents were chemists.” and graduated with a bachelor’s of in his native Norway as a child and said ‘if I ever get wealthy, I want She also credits her grandmoth- music from the Conservatorio de gaze at the stars that salted the skies. to leave it all to science to help pro- er with inspiring her career in sci- Música in Puerto Rico. Being so far north, he had unique duce a better future for mankind,’” ence. Her grandmother’s formal Once she finished her master’s visual access to the universe, with recalls Conn. education stopped at the third grade, in physics, also at the University of long, dark nights that included the And that’s just what he did. Af- but she always insisted Martinez- Puerto Rico, she left for the Mas- Northern Lights, which signifi- ter receiving a degree in applied Miranda’s mother go to college. sachusetts Institute of Technology cantly influenced his decision to physics from the Norwegian Insti- “This is something that I consider for her PhD. Upon arriving, she both study and support science. tute of Technology, Kavli emigrat- very important,” Martinez-Miranda found a number of researchers there “Physics meant everything to ed first to Canada and, after a year, said. “It’s because of that my moth- working with liquid crystals. Again, Fred,” says Robert W. Conn, Pres- Fred Kavli to the United States. Three years er went and studied chemistry.” her artistic side came out: she was ident and CEO of the Kavli Founda- later, in 1958, he launched Kavlico Her high school teacher’s some- taken by the intricate beauty of liq- tion and an APS Fellow. “It was his Kavli was probably already Corporation, which designed and what unorthodox way of teaching uid crystals she saw under a micro- love growing up. It was the under- hooked on innovation and entrepre- sold sensors for myriad industries physics first got her thinking about scope. pinning for everything he did.” neurship when as boy, he and his including the automobile, aero- physics as a career. Instead of focus- “Liquid crystals are very inter- On November 21, 2013, science, brother started selling wood bri- space, and home appliance sectors. ing on inclined planes or free-fall- and more specifically physics, lost quettes as car fuel. This was before ing balls, he delved into the refrac- BOUCHET continued on page 7 a great champion, when Kavli KAVLI continued on page 6 2 • February 2014 Members This Month in Physics History in the February 1932: James Chadwick’s Letter to Nature on the Neutron Media mong the many scientists who witnessed the severe conditions of his internment meant that for Afamous Trinity test on July 16, 1945, was a years afterward, he had difficulty digesting fats. He “My wife Naomi and I enjoy ton Post, January 2, 2014. modest British physicist named James Chadwick. was also broke. Rutherford found a part-time teach- spending as much time as possible While many physicists contributed to this remark- ing position for him, and when Rutherford suc- in the mountains, hiking and fly “To be clear, there was essen- able achievement, it was Chadwick’s discovery of ceeded J. J. Thomson as head of Cambridge’s famed the neutron in 1932 that made atom-splitting–and Cavendish Laboratory, Chadwick opted to follow fishing, so hanging out with Inte- tially zero reason to believe that the nuclear bomb–a very real prospect in the first his mentor, working on experiments on artificial rior Secretary Sally Jewell, an avid they were going to find any evi- place.