APS Election Results

July 2015 • Vol. 24, No. 7

Physicists Improving Lives A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY Pages 3 & 5 WWW.APS.ORG/PUBLICATIONS/APSNEWS

Newly-Elected IUPAP Officers Meet in Trieste, Italy APS Election Results By Aihua Xie and Kennedy Reed The 2015 Executive Council and As this issue of APS News goes to press, Commission Chairs (C&CC) Meet- votes in the APS general election are still ing of the International Union of being counted. Members are voting for Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) was held April 24-26 at the Inter- Vice President, Chair-Elect of the APS national Center for Theoretical Nominating Committee, and International and General Physics in Trieste, Italy. Counselors. For the first time, members are also elect- IUPAP promotes international cooperation in physics and spon- ing an APS Treasurer, a position on the Board of sors four types of international Directors created as part of recent changes in APS and regional conferences. These governance. All those elected will take office on Janu- include (1) general conferences, (2) topical conferences, (3) special ary 1, 2016, when the current Vice President becomes conferences, and (4) workshops APS President-Elect, and the President-Elect in developing countries. In addi- becomes President. tion, IUPAP Commissions sponsor From left to right: Beverly Berger, Aihua Xie, Kennedy Reed and Heidi Schell- IUPAP Young Scientist Prizes to man near the International Center of Theoretical Physics (ICTP). recognize outstanding early-career Voting ended on June 30, 2015 and the results can be physicists, and also sponsor other Four APS members attended the designate; Heidi Schellman, Oregon found at www.aps.org/about/governance/election/ awards to recognize excellence in IUPAP C&CC meeting: Kennedy State University, Vice Chair of the the subfields of physics represented Reed, Lawrence Livermore National IUPAP Commission on Particles by the Commissions. Laboratory, the IUPAP President- IUPAP continued on page 6

Senate Bill Provides 5-year Roadmap Thinking Big and Outside the Box for Energy Research Funding by Michael S. Lubell, it might work, and how it might ply easier for American companies By Tawanda W. Johnson, sustained, reliable funding under a APS Director of Public Affairs be just what scientists, politicos, to find and buy the rights to new APS Office of Public Affairs bipartisan, partial reauthorization The science advocacy industry wonks, and business leaders are discoveries wherever they are made. APS has given its support to of the America COMPETES Act. that APS helped start in Washington looking for. But there is another motiva- the newly-introduced Senate bill “The Senate bill is notable for First a few facts: Today, the fed- tion for American companies to 20 years ago is no longer deliv- “Energy Title of the America COM- making science a priority, even in eral government spends about $50 shed their research laboratories, times of constrained budgets,” said ering the high returns it once did. PETES (Creating Opportunities to billion per year on basic research, eviscerate their research budgets, Michael S. Lubell, APS director of Rising above the noise of hyper- Meaningfully Promote Excellence in accounting for 55 percent of the and disband their research teams. public affairs. partisanship, political sniping, and Technology, Education, and Science U.S total expenditure. Academic Changes in how corporate execu- The legislation would bol- electoral campaigns that never end Act) Reauthorization Act of 2015” and other nonprofit institutions, tives receive their compensation ster energy research programs has become a daunting task, even (S. 1398). Co-sponsored by U.S. combined with state and local and how Wall Street conducts its in the Department of Energy’s for the best messengers delivering Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) governments, account for slightly business have removed almost all Office of Science (DOE-SC) and the best messages. Couple that chal- and Chris Coons (D-Del.), and less than 25 percent, while industry the incentives for long-term indus- the Advanced Research Projects lenge with science’s almost total five other senators, S. 1398 would contributes about 20 percent. trial commitments. reliance on a dwindling discretion- put energy research on a path of BILL continued on page 3 It wasn’t always that way. Half In 1960, stockholders held ary slice of the federal spending pie a century ago industry was a major an average stock for eight years. — projected to shrink to 25 percent player in the research game. Think Today, with the reduced costs of of total spending by 2040, from 62 of Bell Labs, Xerox, IBM, GE, electronic trading and the prolif- percent in 1970 and 36 percent GTE, GM, Kodak — the list is eration of hedge funds, the average United States Traveling Team Selected today — and you have gloom if long. But with each passing decade, holding time is a mere four months. not doom in your future. one American industrial giant after Today, in response to stockholder David Voss travel to Mumbai, India, in July to We have come to a critical another bailed out of long-term demands, companies compensate In a ceremony on May 27, 2015 participate in the 46th International juncture: Either we develop new research, basic or applied. executives mainly with bonuses at the American Center for Physics in Physics Olympiad. arguments and new strategies to It’s not that they believed they based on stock performance, and College Park, Maryland, the Ameri- Started in 1967, the Olympiad is persuade Congress and the White no longer needed the benefits of with options that allow them to buy can Association of Physics Teachers an international competition among House that current budget policies research. They well knew, and they their company’s stock at a future (AAPT) announced the group of five high school students from more will knock the United States off its still know, that research is funda- date at a fixed “strike” price, often U.S. high school students who will OLYMPIAD continued on page 6 high perch on the innovation pyra- mental to the future of any high-tech only a year or two after they receive mid, or we look beyond the annual enterprise. So, why did they aban- the options. The more the share appropriations process to fund long- don their commitment to their price rises, the more the option is term research. If you spend just a powerhouse in-house laboratories? worth. David Voss few days suffering in the fetid polit- Thomas Friedman has written The result of such incentives ical climate in Washington as I do, extensively about one of the moti- is that American corporations use you will quickly concede that we vations: the IT revolution that has fully 80 percent of their annual prof- need a dramatically new approach driven globalization. Two of his its to buy back their stock with the to funding research. bestsellers, “The World Is Flat,” explicit goal of boosting the price We must become innovators first published in 2005, and “Hot, of a share. For a Fortune 500 CEO ourselves. And we must think big. Flat, and Crowded,” published in with an average tenure of only 4.6 An American Research Invest- 2008, are must-reads for anyone years, spending money on research ment Fund, run as a private-public looking for a window onto the 21st that doesn’t contribute to the bottom partnership, could be the answer. century high-tech landscape. In The 2015 U.S. Physics Olympiad traveling team (l to r): Saranesh Prembabu, Here is how it might happen, how such a brave new world, it is sim- BELTWAY continued on page 5 Adam Busis, Jason Lu, Kevin Li, and Zachary Bogorad.

Revised 7/7/15 2 • July 2015

This Month in Physics History

“The prize has been sitting on “People point that out to me and a shelf somewhere for the last 20 say, ‘You know, Newton was reli- July 2, 1591: Death of Vincenzo Galilei years. … I made a decision to sell it. gious.’ The point is — well, first of usic, math, and science have long enjoyed the Pythagorean doctrine favored by theorists, It seems like a logical thing to do.” all, in that time the church was the a symbiotic relationship, which led to the which specified precise ratios for the intervals. Mei Leon Lederman, retired from National Science Foundation. It was M Renaissance notion that the motion of celestial encouraged Vincenzo to test this for himself, tuning Fermilab, after putting his Nobel the only place to get an education; it bodies gave rise to the “music of the spheres.” two different lutes, one to the requirements of equal Prize medal up for auction, The was the only place to fund research. Galileo Galilei’s scientific accomplishments may temperament, and the other per the dictates of the Washington Post, May 27, 2015. But that’s fine. It is okay to have well have been influenced by his love of music, theoreticians. Vincenzo did so, which convinced a relationship, but you grow up. instilled in him by his father, Vincenzo, a musi- him that Mei was right. “Doing things the same way is Parents are useful for children, but cian and composer who brought an experimental The prevailing assumption at the time was not going to lead us to the break- the whole point is children grow up sensibility to his study of music theory. that, just as the ratio of lengths of two identical throughs we need.” and move beyond their parents — Very little is known about Vincenzo’s early strings with the same tension and mass per unit Catherine Foley, Common- we certainly hope that’s the case.” life. Most accounts peg his birth around 1520, in length, tuned an octave apart, would be 2:1, the wealth Science and Industrial Lawrence Krauss, Arizona State a small Tuscan village, Santa Maria a Monte, near ratio of the tensions of two identical strings of Research Organisation, Canberra, University, on whether the Bible modern-day Florence. He showed a marked talent equal length, tuned an octave apart, would be 2:1 on the need for diverse teams to should be included among books for music – the lute in particular – at a very young as well. Vincenzo decided to test this assumption produce great innovation and bet- essential to sustain or rebuild civi- age and became an accom- with a simple experiment ter involvement of talented females, lization, salon.com, May 29, 2015. plished and well-regarded involving hanging weights The Sydney Morning Herald, May musician. At some point, from strings. He found that, 29, 2015. “That means that the total energy prior to 1562, he moved to in fact, the ratio of tensions involved had to be at least 6.4 x 1016 Pisa, and married the daugh- was 4:1. This provided “I quit doing physics and got an joules = about 18 billion kilowatt ter of a Pisan noble family, convincing evidence that, apartment in Hollywood and started hours, and that’s only one part of a Giulia Ammannati. His first indeed, consonant sounds writing and got a really crappy job big storm system. This is why engi- child, the future astronomer were not determined solely for a really crappy show, but I lived neering the weather is a nonstarter!” Galileo, was born in 1564, by abstract mathematical off writing for that show for a while, Douglas Natelson, Rice Univer- followed by six siblings. ratios. and it got better and I got an agent sity, on the energy in a thunderstorm Vincenzo’s musical talent Vincenzo was arguably and a better show and just climbed that passed the city of Houston, hous- attracted the attention of a one of the first to adopt an my way up.” tonchronicle.com, May 26, 2015. wealthy Florentine patron, empirical approach to what Leonard Mlodinow, California Giovanni de Bardi, who is now modern acoustics Institute of Technology, on becom- “I don’t think that because I have established a regular salon research. His pursuit of ing a screenwriter for “Star Trek: a Ph.D., I’m in some upper echelon for intellectual discussions these new ideas, so counter The Next Generation,” businessin- of society. I actually have a major at his palace, dubbed the to those of his first men- sider.com, June 4, 2015. problem with the elitism and the “Camerata de Bardi.” The tor, led to a bitter falling classism that goes on in academia. subjects included music out with Zarlino, particu- “This is truly a great honor. I just I think everyone has something to theory, then considered part larly with the publication turned 80 and this is a wonderful, contribute. Everyone is precious of the mathematical sciences, in 1581 of Vincenzo’s most if unexpected, birthday present.” in their own way. But I think it’s along with arithmetic, geom- Cover page of "Dialogo della Musica Antica influential book, Dialogo Claudio Pellegrini, University obvious that, structurally, American etry, and astronomy. The e Moderna. della musica antica et della of California, Los Angeles, on society has a persistent problem Camerata’s interest in new moderna, which explicitly receiving the Enrico Fermi Award with recognizing not just Black musical directions would eventually lead to the attacked Zarlino’s ideas. from the U.S. government, gazzett- people, but Black people as human early development of opera. The late science historian Stillman Drake argued adelsud.it, June 11, 2015. beings who are just as deserving of Music theory during this period relied on theo- persuasively that the elder Galilei conducted these the opportunity to think about big rems drawn from geometry. This was at odds with experiments in 1588, at a time when his eldest son “The physics has been very care- picture questions.” a separate school of thought based on the work of was living at home and tutoring local students in fully reviewed by experts and found Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, the ancient Greek music theorist Aristoxenus, who mathematics. He believes it likely that Galileo may to be accurate. The publication will Massachusetts Institute of Tech- insisted math had little to do with music, and one have helped his father with the experiments, and encourage physics teachers to show nology, in an interview on being should rely on one’s senses to decide what music hence Vincenzo influenced his son to pursue prag- the film in their classes to get across the 63rd Black woman in Ameri- was most aesthetically pleasing. At the center of the matic experimentation in his science as a means of ideas about general relativity.” can history to obtain a Ph.D. in a conflict was a debate over the best mathematical testing hypotheses. He certainly taught Galileo to David Jackson, Dickinson physics-related field, huffington- ratios of the lengths of strings producing “conso- play the lute, and Drake also suggested that Gali- College, on research papers that post.com, June 24, 2015. nances,” those sounds (like the octave) deemed leo’s love of music may have led to the astronomer’s resulted from black hole cal- most pleasing to the ear. formulation of the law of falling bodies. culations done for the movie “There are lots of people with Since Vincenzo, despite his proficiency on the Drake’s evidence stems from a page in Galileo’s “Interstellar,” geeksnack.com, resolutions to the paradox. Whether lute, had little theoretical training, Bardi sent him to laboratory notebooks detailing his experiments roll- June 23, 2015. it’s the way physics actually works Padua to study with one of the leading music theo- ing balls of various masses down inclined planes. in our universe remains to be seen.” rists of the day, Gioseffo Zarlino. Zarlino embraced Some historical accounts report he measured the “The sensors that guard DOD’s Donald Marolf, University the Pythagorean tradition of diatonic tuning, and speed at which the balls rolled by timing his own unclassified networks detected Rus- of California Santa Barbara, on taught Vincenzo accordingly. But when the lutenist pulse. But it is possible, according to Drake, that sian hackers accessing one of our recent proposals to view black returned to Florence, he found a second teacher, a the idea to add moveable frets to his inclined plane networks … [but a] crack team of holes as ‘fuzzballs’ to get around philologist named Girolamo Mei. as a ruler — thereby breaking up the balls’ continu- incident responders quickly kicked the ‘information paradox’,” quan- Mei introduced Vincenzo to the work of ous motion into discrete intervals of time — may them off the network.” tamagazine.org, June 23, 2015. Aristoxenus, pointing out that the “equal tempera- have been inspired by the fret intervals on his lute’s Ashton Carter, U.S. Secretary of ment” approach adopted by practicing musicians Defense, on recent network break-ins, to tune their instruments wasn’t consistent with GALILEI continued on page 3 The New York Times, April 23, 2015. MEMBERS continued on page 3

Series II, Vol. 24, No. 7 APS COUNCIL OF REPRESENTATIVES 2015 International Councilors Director of International Affairs; Terri Gaier, Director Marcia Barbosa, Eliezer Rabinovici, Annick Suzor- of Meetings; Christine Giaccone, Director, Journal July 2015 President © 2015 The American Physical Society Weiner*, Kiyoshi Ueda Operations; Barbara Hicks, Associate Publisher/ Samuel H. Aronson*, Brookhaven National Laboratory Director of Business Initiatives; Ted Hodapp, Director (retired) Chair, Nominating Committee of Education and Diversity; Dan Kulp, Editorial Patricia McBride Director; Trish Lettieri, Director of Membership; Editor•...... David Voss President-Elect Darlene Logan, Director of Development; Michael Staff Science Writer...... Emily Conover Homer A. Neal*, University of Michigan Chair, Panel on Public Affairs William Barletta Lubell; Director, Public Affairs; Michael Stephens, Contributing Correspondent ...... Alaina G. Levine Director of Finance/Controller and Assistant Treasurer; Vice President Division, Forum and Section Councilors James W. Taylor, Deputy Executive Officer/Chief Art Director and Special Publications Manager...... Kerry G. Johnson Laura H. Greene*, University of Illinois, Champagne- Miriam Forman (Astrophysics), Timothy Gay Operating Officer Urbana Design and Production...... Nancy Bennett-Karasik (Atomic, Molecular & Optical Physics), Jose Onuchic Proofreader...... Edward Lee Past-President (Biological), Amy Mullin* (Chemical), Frances * Members of the APS Board of Directors Malcolm R. Beasley*, Stanford University Hellman* (Condensed Matter Physics), Steven Gottlieb APS News (ISSN: 1058-8132) is published 11X yearly, Subscriptions: APS News is an on-membership publica- (Computational), Ann Karagozian (Fluid Dynamics), monthly, except the August/September issue, by the tion delivered by Periodical Mail Postage Paid at Col- Chief Executive Officer Gay Stewart* (Forum on Education), Eric Sorte, American Physical Society, One Physics Ellipse, Col- lege Park, MD and at additional mailing offices. Kate P. Kirby*, Harvard Smithsonian (retired) (Forum on Graduate Student Affairs), Dan Kleppner* lege Park, MD 20740-3844, (301) 209-3200. It contains (Forum on History of Physics), Gregory Meisner* news of the Society and of its Divisions, Topical Groups, For address changes, please send both the old and new Speaker of the Council (Forum on Industrial and Applied Physics), Young-Kee Sections, and Forums; advance information on meetings addresses, and, if possible, include a mailing label from Nan Phinney*, Stanford University Kim* (Forum on International Physics), Lowell Brown of the Society; and reports to the Society by its commit- a recent issue. Changes can be emailed to membership@ (Forum on Physics and Society), Nicholas Bigelow tees and task forces, as well as opinions. aps.org. Postmaster: Send address changes to APS Treasurer (Laser Science), James Chelikowsky (Materials), Wick News, Membership Department, American Physical Malcolm R. Beasley*, Stanford University (emeritus) Haxton* (Nuclear), Philip Michael Tuts (Particles & Letters to the editor are welcomed from the member- Society, One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740- Fields), John Galayda (Physics of Beams), Cary Forest ship. Letters must be signed and should include an ad- 3844. Corporate Secretary Ken Cole, APS (Plasma), Mark Ediger (Polymer Physics), Nan Phinney dress and daytime telephone number. The APS reserves (California Section), Carlos Wexler (Prairie Section) the right to select and to edit for length or clarity. All cor- Coden: ANWSEN ISSN: 1058-8132 General Councilors respondence regarding APS News should be directed to: Marcelo Gleiser, Nadya Mason, Gail McGlaughlin, Staff Representatives Editor, APS News, One Physics Ellipse, College Park, Keivan G. Stassun* Mark Doyle, Chief Information Officer; Amy Flatten, MD 20740-3844, Email: [email protected]. July 2015 • 3

The University of Michigan Honors APS Vice President Homer Neal In April 2014, colleagues and Become a Mentor in the APS National Mentoring friends from around the world Community gathered at the University of Michigan (UM) in Ann Arbor In an effort to increase the number of underrepresented minority for a symposium to honor Homer (URM) undergraduates obtaining physics degrees, APS and the Neal. Neal was elected in 2013 APS Committee on Minorities have launched the National Mentor- to the APS presidential line and ing Community (NMC), an initiative to provide mentoring to URM will take office as APS president physics undergrads. We encourage committed faculty mentors to in 2016. register for free as NMC mentors and to nominate their URM The first three sessions of the Photo by Okunawa and S. Lemons undergraduate physics mentees to membership in the NMC (as symposium focused on Neal’s their mentees). For more information and to register as a mentor, experiments at Brookhaven, Homer Neal (right) with Alan Krisch, UM physics professor emeritus, after visit www.nationalmentoringcommunity.org Argonne, SLAC, Fermilab, presentation of a sculpture by Jens Zorn showing collisions of protons and CERN. The fourth session at the D0 and ATLAS experiments at CERN. Save the Date! October 9 - 11, 2015 focused on his contributions to presentations are available at Registered NMC mentors and mentees are eligible for discounted the U.S. government as a member Note: Adapted with permission from of the National Science Board, lecb.physics.lsa.umich.edu/ registration and travel funding to our inaugural NMC Conference the January/February 2015 issue of and to the Smithsonian Institu- CWIS/SPT--BrowseResources. the CERN Courier (cerncourier.com/ (October 9 - 11, 2015), held jointly with the APS Bridge Program tion as a regent. The symposium php?ParentId=707 cws/download/Jan-Feb15). Conference (October 10 - 11, 2015) at Florida International Uni- versity in Miami, FL. For more information and to register for the conference, visit www.apsbridgeprogram.org/conferences/2015/

Women in Physics Email Group (Part 1) The Committee on the Status of Women in Physics welcomes you to join WIPHYS, its electronic mailing list. WIPHYS is sent weekly and includes funding, job, and professional development oppor- Improving Lives with Physics tunities for women. WIPHYS started officially in January 1993, and By Gabriel Popkin now has over 1000 subscribers. Join here: www.aps.org/programs/ In spring 2006, Susan Amrose women/email-lists/wiphys.cfm was almost ready to leave physics. She had come to the University Network with other physicists on LinkedIn

of California, Berkeley in 2000 Shyamasree Das Gupta Join the LinkedIn groups for Minorities in Physics (http://go.aps. to get a Ph.D. in astrophysics, but org/minoritiesinphysics) and Women in Physics (http://go.aps.org/ more and more she felt her career womeninphysics). Start networking today! was not helping people in the way she wanted. That changed when GALILEI continued from page 2 she walked into Ashok Gadgil’s fingerboards. The balls would bump called monody is often cited as Design for Sustainable Communi- ties course. up as they rolled over the frets, and leading to the use of recitative in Gadgil — a professor of civil click audibly when they hit the sur- opera, and he also wrote a two-part and environmental engineering at face again, lending sound as well treatise on counterpoint, which he Berkeley — had 25 to 30 students as sight to Galileo’s observations. finished in 1589. He died on July work in teams to design and build Vincenzo was first and foremost 2, 1591 in his beloved Florence. products to solve real public health a musician and a composer, despite Susan Amrose and Ashok Gadgil in June 2015 inspect the ECAR reactor, a References or environmental problems in the his scientific dabblings. In his life- 1. Crease, Robert. The Prism and the Pendu- component of the 10,000-liter-per-day water treatment system being tested lum: The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments in developing world. Gadgil is a physi- time, he composed two books of at Dhapdhapi High School in West Bengal State, India. Science. New York: Random House, 2004. cist by training; he is also deputy madrigals, along with music for 2. Drake, Stillman. “The role of music in Galileo’s director of the Energy Technolo- both voice and lute, much of which experiments,” Scientific American, June 1975. gies Area at the Lawrence Berkeley anticipated early Baroque music 3. Pachetti, Marina Baldissera. “Turning music into sound: Vincenzo Galilei’s contributions to National Laboratory, up the hill from and very little of which survived. the history of acoustics,” The Journal of the the university. He’s spent a career His co-invention of a musical style Acoustical Society of America 135(4): (2014). solving problems in some of the world’s poorest places. He created MEMBERS continued from page 2 the design course to give students an opportunity to use their physics and Amrose Photo courtesy of Susan “The hybrid monster in the movie June 23, 2015. engineering knowledge to improve is no Godzilla, but an intentionally lives and living conditions. designed beast from hell. As often “We want to reboot physics — That opportunity was just what happens in sci-fi, the story turns globally.” Amrose had been looking for. “I cautionary tale. How far are we Neil Turok, Perimeter Institute, wanted to do rigorous science prepared to push our technologies Toronto, on the Institute’s Conver- and engineering, and I wanted to without, at the same time, weighing gence conference, designed to keep use that immediately to actually their moral consequences?” physics from stalling in the after- create social impacts,” she said. Marcelo Gleiser, Dartmouth math of experimental discovery of Susan Amrose gets users' impressions of an early version of the Berkeley- Amrose joined Gadgil’s lab, earned Darfur stove. College, on the recently released the Higgs boson, The Globe and her Ph.D. in physics, and is now a movie “Jurassic World,” npr.org, Mail, June 23, 2015. project scientist at Berkeley, focus- After earning his bachelor’s the U.S. and elsewhere. Seeking ing on developing technologies and degree from the University of a way to use his physics back- moving them to market. Mumbai and his master’s from ground to have such direct social BILL continued from page 1 Since 2010, she has taught the the Indian Institute of Technology, impacts, Gadgil joined Rosen- Agency for Energy (ARPA-E). reauthorization that failed to get course that initially inspired her. both in physics, he headed to U.C. feld’s research group. Moreover, the bill would nearly any support from scientific orga- Together, Gadgil, Amrose, and Berkeley for a Ph.D. Gadgil worked After getting his Ph.D. in phys- triple funding for DOE-SC’s Early nizations. This bill strips funding other colleagues have developed on general relativity problems, but ics, Gadgil moved immediately to Career and Distinguished Scientist from research in energy efficiency technology that has improved the he began to feel something was Lawrence Berkeley Lab, where he Awards, which help scientists begin (including work supported by lives of millions of people. missing. “All along it bothered me has worked ever since. He applied their research careers and be recog- ARPA-E), as well as in biological, “He’s very inspiring,” Amrose at some level that the place I came his computational fluid dynamics nized for outstanding work in their environmental, and geological sci- says. “There are a huge number from, India, [might not] make it in background to indoor air quality fields, respectively. ences, and social, behavioral, and of students, especially women, in terms of transitioning to a reason- problems, like how to manage radon The Alexander-Coons bill is a economic sciences. engineering … [who are] look- ably modern standard of living,” and other toxic gases that can seep partial reauthorization of the 2007 Many scientific groups, including for some way to apply it more he says. “It seemed that it would into houses. He developed leasing and 2010 versions of the America ing APS, sent letters to U.S. House immediately to some of the social be a lost opportunity to not try to arrangements that made compact COMPETES bill, bipartisan legisla- Science Chairman Lamar Smith problems that are happening now. see what I could do.” -fluorescent light bulbs affordable in tion that called for the doubling of (R-Texas) and Ranking Member They flock to Ashok’s lab.” Fortunately for Gadgil, Berke- the developing world. He also began research funding supported by the Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), An opportunity not lost ley was home to Arthur Rosenfeld, working on issues related to drinking National Science Foundation, the expressing their disapproval of the Born in 1950 in Mumbai, Gadgil a former particle physicist who water. In the 1990s he developed a National Institute of Standards and House bill supported by Smith and has always loved the self-correcting went on to develop some of the battery-powered technology to Technology, and DOE. opposed by Johnson. It is unclear nature of science, he says, and was first computer models for energy cheaply disinfect drinking water On the other side of the Capitol, whether the House and Senate will especially drawn to physics because use in buildings. His work led using ultraviolet radiation. The the U.S. House of Representatives be able to reconcile the two versions it could explain so many phenom- to tremendous energy efficiency recently passed a full COMPETES of the COMPETES Act. ena with relatively few rules. improvements in buildings in IMPROVING continued on page 7 4 • July 2015

Letters IEEE Awards Medal of Honor to APS Members may submit letters to [email protected]. APS reserves the right to select letters and edit for length and clarity. Past President Mildred Dresselhaus By David Voss editorial board of Physical Review Mildred Dresselhaus, a profes- Applied, published by the APS. Politicizing Ukraine sor at the Massachusetts Institute During her career, Dresselhaus has also served as president of In the April 2015 issue of APS Maidan’ protests” directly blames In addition, the statement that of Technology and past president the American Association for the News, George Gamota wrote a letter Berkut as a major force that resulted “Donetsk State University, one of the American Physical Society, Advancement of Science and direc- to support scientists in Ukraine. I in more than hundreds of deaths. of several universities evacuated has become the first woman to tor of the Department of Energy completely support this. However This never was proved. On June from Donbas, has been reorga- receive the IEEE Medal of Honor, Office of Science. I would like to express complete 11, 2015, U.S. Ambassador to the nized in Vinnitsa, some 300 miles in recognition of She is a member of disagreement with the highly politi- United Nations Samantha Power from Donetsk, where faculty, their her “leadership the National Acad- cized form of his comment. In my expressed dissatisfaction with the families and over 1,000 students and contributions emy of Sciences, the opinion, APS News is the wrong investigation results. In particular, are temporarily living” is not across many fields National Academy place to express politicized state- she said “Investigations into serious accurate. In reality the university of science and of Engineering, and ments and therefore I will point crimes such as the violence in the was split into two parts — one engineering.” has served on many out only two of the most obvious Maidan and in Odesa have been moved to Vinnitsa while another The medal is factual errors. sluggish, opaque, and marred by has stayed in Donetsk. I actually the most presti- advisory committees The sentence “Soon the peace- serious errors — suggesting not believe that professors and students gious award of the and councils. ful protests turned ugly and violent only a lack of competence, but also left in Donetsk need help as well as IEEE (formerly the In 2012 she when the president’s Special Forces a lack of will to hold the perpetra- their colleagues in the government- Institute of Electri- received the U.S. ‘Berkut’ contingent kidnapped, tor- tors accountable.” It clearly states controlled Ukraine. cal and Electronic Department of tured, and killed over 100 innocent that we do not know who is behind Valeri Lebedev Engineers) and was Energy Enrico Mildred Dresselhaus bystanders during the Kyiv ‘Euro- this crime. Batavia, Illinois created in 1917 to Fermi Award, fol- honor individu- lowed quickly by als who have made “a particular the 2012 Kavli Prize. In 2014, Dres- Homeland Security Theater contribution that forms a clearly selhaus was awarded the National exceptional addition to the sci- Medal of Honor, the United States’ It was with a mixture of amuse- airplane, and every boat and private diverts attention and funding from ence and technology of concern to highest civilian honor, at a White ment, sadness, and dismay that I yacht coming into the U.S. And let much more honest attempts to IEEE.” Previous recipients have House ceremony. Dresselhaus has read the May 2015 APS News front us not forget those tunnels under the understand and deal with this issue. included physicists such as Nobel also won the APS Dwight Nich- page article “Nuclear Needles in U.S.-Mexican border, which pro- Those interested in a carefully laureates Charles Townes, John olson Medal for Outreach and the Cargo Haystacks,” describing vide such a reliable supply route thought-out examination of the Bardeen, and Norman Ramsey. APS Oliver E. Buckley Condensed equipment being developed to for drug smugglers. nuclear weapons problem might Dresselhaus, Emerita Institute Matter Physics Prize. detect nuclear weapons in cargo This approach is one example of consult a recent book [1] which Professor of Electrical Engineering IEEE will present the award to containers at U.S. ports. Unfor- a much larger problem which might focuses on controlling or eliminat- and Physics at MIT, has focused Dresselhaus on June 20, 2015 at its tunately, cargo containers are but be characterized as “homeland secu- ing fissile materials themselves to her research on the properties and annual honors ceremony in New one — and perhaps the least likely rity theater.” Such efforts serve to eliminate the threat of nuclear war applications of carbon, including York City. — of numerous means for smug- deceive people into thinking they and terrorism. fullerenes, nanotubes, and gra- For more information, see www. ieee.org/about/awards/bios/moh_ gling nuclear materials. To be really are being protected, while their Alfred Cavallo phene. She was president of APS recipients.html effective the system described in the main function is to enrich weap- Princeton, New Jersey in 1984 and currently serves on the article would need to scan every car, ons contractors and their political 1. Unmaking the Bomb: A Fissile Material bus, truck, motorcycle, and bicycle supporters and allies from the many Approach to Nuclear Disarmament and crossing the Mexican or Canadian billions that it would cost to build Nonproliferation, H. Feiveson, A. Glaser, PUBLISHING border, every railroad car, every and operate such systems. It also Z. Mian, F. von Hippel, (MIT Press, 2015). Is Double-Blind Review Better? By Shannon Palus open and collegial way and rely Referees reviewing a paper are extensively on arXiv,” Taroni wrote always anonymous. But have you in an email. APS Bridge Program Expects to Increase Minority Ph.D. Numbers ever wished you, an author of a We can also turn to history for paper, could remain anonymous to one scenario of how it will work By Bushraa Khatib a peer reviewer? out. The APS Physical Review Maybe you have one or a few journals ran their own two-decade In 2012, APS Director of Edu- experiment in double-blind review. cation and Diversity Theodore people who can’t stand you for personal reasons. Maybe you’re an It did not go well. Hodapp looked at graduation Double-Blind Peer Review in APS Bridge Program up-and-comer in your research area rates of underrepresented minori- Physics ties (URMs) who earned degrees — and want to be on a level playing field, with just as much opportunity The impetus came in 1980 from in physics. He was struck by the the APS Committee on the Status of disparity between the graduation as someone with a famous name. Women in Physics (CSWP), recalls rates of URMs earning Ph.D.s and Maybe you are in the minority — Physical Review Letters (PRL) Edi- URMs earning bachelor’s degrees. i.e., not a white male — and want to tor Emeritus Stanley Brown. “They “There was obviously a break in the buffer yourself against implicit bias. thought that there was a possibility pipeline somewhere, and we were With those benefits in mind, that papers written by women were losing many students who probably Nature Geoscience and Nature subject to more critical review than had the potential to succeed at the Climate Change decided to offer papers written by men.” graduate level.” a double-blind option to authors: Hodapp defines the national Take out all identifying materials Indeed, recent studies confirm achievement gap as the difference from your paper, and the editors what the committee then suspected. between the percentage of physics The red bars show the number of URM students beginning graduate physics will not tell your paper’s reviewer A 2012 study in the Proceedings of study per year in the APS Bridge Program. The goal is to increase annual the National Academy of Sciences Ph.D.s awarded to URMs (~10%) URM physics Ph.D. degree production by 30, indicated by the horizontal your name. After 21 months, fewer and the corresponding percentage people had used the option than showed that identical application purple line at the top of the graph. The blue bars show the enrollments an- materials for a lab position were of bachelor’s degrees (~4%). Seen ticipated at the beginning of the project. expected, and there was no notable from this perspective, only about 30 difference in the quality of reviews. more favorably read when the name at the top of the resume was “John,” more URM physics Ph.D.s per year placing students, and is providing not apply to doctoral programs in But the response from authors was rather than “Jennifer.” would close this gap (see graph). opportunities for students to pursue physics, or were not admitted to positive, so as of March of this year, So the CSWP suggested that Three years after its incep- doctoral degrees in physics,” said any of the programs to which they Nature started offering authors a double-blind review should be tion, according to staff members, Brian Beckford, the Bridge Program applied. With mentoring, support, double-blind peer review process the standard. But, according to the APS Bridge Program expects manager. “We hope to continue to research experience, and additional across all its journals. Brown, the editors felt that trying to effectively erase that gap — be an avenue for students who are coursework, the program aims to But double-blind peer review to hide every single author identity an accomplishment far beyond being overlooked and for depart- make these students competitive isn’t a one-size-fits-all-fields would probably be unsuccessful, what the organizers had originally ments that are aiming for a more candidates for doctoral programs proposition. Many factors affect and authors too recognizable, to be planned — by placing more than 30 diverse representation in their grad- in physics, either at their bridge site the viability of the option. effective. Even in the days before students into graduate programs in uate student population.” or elsewhere. Nature Physics is offering the researchers routinely uploaded 2015. What’s more, none of these The program received 56 appli- The program recently announced option, as part of the Nature deci- their papers to the arXiv, a cul- students would be studying for their cants in the most recent application that it would fund two new sites sion. To our knowledge, it’s the only ture of openness and connections Ph.D.s today without the APS inter- cycle (the program’s third). The beginning in July 2015. The Uni- physics journal to do so currently. made authors easily identifiable, vention, say program staff. application pool was made up of versity of Central Florida (UCF) The journal’s chief editor, Andrea says Brown. “Communities were “The Bridge Program contin- students who earned bachelor’s and and Indiana University (IU) Taroni, isn’t sure that it will be pop- ues to surpass our expectations in degrees in physics, but either did BRIDGE continued on page 6 ular. “Physicists work in a relatively REVIEW continued on page 6 July 2015 • 5

BELTWAY continued from page 1

(Part 2) line in two years or less is simply tactics will become increasingly not rewarding. less attractive. Corporations want the benefits A 5 percent to 10 percent tax of research and the discoveries on repatriated money could gen- A Physicist Among the Angels that emanate from it, but unless erate a one-time capitalization of the rules change, they won’t pay $100 billion to $200 billion for a By Alaina G. Levine having a dedicated presence on the thousands of smallholder farmers for it — unless they’re forced to. self-sustaining research investment Matthew Davis acknowledges ground, managing an exceptional who supply grain to the company, And now could be the time to make fund, generating an annual usable what we are all thinking: that being local network, using innovative according to RENEW’s website. them do it. investment income of $4 billion to a physicist can generate major structures and investment instru- And soon, RENEW will be in the Members of both political par- $8 billion. Private directors, drawn superhero status, no matter the sec- ments, and providing hands-on tahini business too. Currently, the ties recognize that corporate tax from the science and technology tor. “[Having studied] physics sets consulting to our investments,” majority of tahini, which is eaten rules are patently unfair. They ben- community, the finance community, me apart [in business],” he says. says Davis. throughout the Middle East, Africa, efit global companies that can take industry, and labor, would largely “It checks the box that says ‘He’s Sectors range from high tech- and Asia, is processed in Israel from advantage of loopholes to reduce control the operation of the fund. smart. He can handle anything.’” nology to manufacture. A recent sesame that is grown in Ethiopia. their taxes dramatically, while But representatives of selected fed- So when it came time for this entre- success story showcases dVentus But Davis plans to process it in requiring most other companies eral science agencies would provide preneur and philanthropist to plan Technologies, a companybased in Ethiopia as well, by scaling up the and small businesses to pay the full a public nexus. his career, he easily saw the disci- Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, that pro- tahini processing plants in-coun- 35 percent federal rate. Compre- Describing in detail how the pline’s broad value. Davis majored vides clean energy solutions. This try: “We are adding value to the hensive corporate tax reform is in fund would operate requires more in the subject and received a profes- is especially timely and relevant sesame supply chain … So instead the Washington air. It would most space than this column permits. sional science master’s in science because “Ethiopia is trying to make of exporting the raw sesame, we likely reduce the tax rate and plug Suffice it to say, it would contain and business from the University of itself a power exporter,” says Davis, shorten the supply chain in Ethiopia loopholes, keeping the legislation safeguards to prevent appropriators Utah. Following his graduation in and its government is keen to invest and export a higher value of sesame revenue-neutral. from gaming the system; it could 2004 and a stint as a consultant for in energy-related enterprises. But its in the form of tahini itself.” This Part of a likely reform package provide matching funds to encour- the U.S. government, he launched way, the country retains more profit. would be a sweetener to repatriate age appropriators to boost science RENEW Strategies, a company that This seemingly simple change in the more than $2 trillion currently budgets; it would rely on agencies manages a global network of inves- RENEW how the business operates has the stashed overseas by global Ameri- to provide prioritized lists of peer- tors who seek to make both social potential to have a huge impact in can corporations — eight high-tech reviewed projects; it could provide impact and financial returns on their supporting higher-wage jobs and companies, among them Apple, seed money for major initiatives investments in Africa. “I wanted spurring growth in related busi- Google, and Microsoft, account for and projects; it could allocate funds to do something unique, and what nesses that are connected to this more than a fifth of the total — and to long-term applied research for better way to prepare me is there industry. not subject to federal taxation so which neither industry nor govern- than study physics. Davis’ foray into impact invest- long as the money remains offshore. ment has any appetite; and it could The investors who comprise his ing started with his hunger to go With interest rates low, American develop strategies to increase its network are known as “angels,” into commerce. “I just loved the companies such as Apple have been endowment. high-net-worth individuals whose idea of getting into business,” he happy to use their overseas hold- Will it be easy to establish a funding decisions tend to be driven says. “I wanted the top, corner ings as collateral for loans to buy research investment fund? No. by their hearts as well as their wal- office.” And he realized that his back stock or for other domestic Could it happen? Possibly. Do we lets. Angels often form investing physics degree could be a major purposes. But as rates rise, such need it? Absolutely yes. groups that are geographically Matthew Davis springboard to achieving his goals. focused and offer entrepreneurs the When he graduated, he headed to opportunity to pitch ideas that the national grid needs work, he admits. Washington, DC for a job at a angels can decide to support either dVentus used RENEW’s investment consulting firm that he had landed independently or in subgroups. to successfully develop a smart due to some clever networking Angels play a critical role in the meter customized for Ethiopia and with former schoolmates. “This is start-up pipeline because they often for other countries in the region, where having a science background invest in ventures that are relatively and “is now negotiating contracts can get you into trouble,” he notes Cultivate Your Career new or too tiny to attract traditional with a number of national and with a chuckle. His colleagues APS News contributing corre- Laureate Brian Schmidt says “Net- venture capital. regional governments across sub- would constantly pull him onto an spondent Alaina G. Levine is the working is an important part of the Recognizing how invaluable Saharan Africa and the Middle East assignment, echoing “‘Oh you’re a author of a new book, Network- scientific process and, therefore, angels are to entrepreneurial and — including Ethiopia — to mod- physics major? You’re hired. Can ing for Nerds, that draws upon her doing it well is an important part overall business growth, Davis ernize their power grids and save you go help NOAA with their proj- experience in science and commu- of being a successful scientist. and his team at RENEW decided billions of dollars from poor grid ect?’” he says. nication to advise and The innate skills each to harness this power for good. management,” he adds. Interest- The concept behind RENEW guide researchers in of us has in network- His company engages angels on ingly, the meter was designed and sprung out of a personal trip Davis the care and feeding of ing vary widely, but as a worldwide stage. These “accred- customized by Daniel Gizaw, an took to Africa in 2006. He noticed their careers as part of with other skills, most ited investors” (according to SEC engineer who worked in the U.S. that the common western approach scientific collaboration. of us can improve with rules), with at least $1 million in for many years before returning to development is “Here’s a prob- From graduate students training. This book is liquid assets, support companies to his home country, Ethiopia, to lem and how do we fix it?” But to senior researchers, in Africa in a “Goldilocks” zone: develop the energy industry. dVen- armed with his physics and business Networking for Nerds all about the basic skills you need to learn “We manage an angel network that tus is now working with prospective playbook, he looked at develop- offers tips for everyone. makes investments that are too investors to develop a smart-meter- ment differently, and asked “What Levine goes into detail to better communicate small for larger investment funds and-generator manufacturing plant are the opportunities and how can about myths surround- with your colleagues.” to be interested in and too big for in Ethiopia. we maximize them?” He started ing networking, how to Networking for microfinance,” he notes. RENEW has also provided cap- thinking about venture-building. articulate your skills and expertise, Nerds by Alaina G. RENEW’s financial analysts, ital to manufacturers in the food He consulted with potential inves- whom to network with, and how to Levine, published by John Wiley lawyers, and business consultants, industry. It has made investments tors who agreed to fund projects, make best use of social media. In & Sons, will be released on July with extensive experience in Africa, in an Ethiopian specialty coffee as long as Davis did the legwork his introduction to the book, Nobel 13, 2015. look for enterprises that have the farm, which ultimately helped to to ensure that they were legitimate potential to generate attractive create 500 jobs, as well as Mama and could provide both a solution returns and provide a major social Fresh Injera, Ethiopia’s largest to a development problem and a STEM SCHOLARSHIPS kickback to their communities. The commercial manufacturer and return on the investment. firm then funds these targeted busi- exporter of injera, a staple bread RENEW’s modus operandi “The Big Bang Theory” Team Supports STEM Students nesses (with, on average, $500,000) of Ethiopian cuisine. The invest- reflects a shift in how charitable The cast, crew, and one of the In a press release, UCLA Chan- and also provides other resources ment is financing the construction ventures typically operate, he creators of the hit television show cellor Gene Block said “We are to scale up. This can include busi- of a new export-focused factory explains. “Here, we are finding “The Big Bang Theory” announced grateful for The Big Bang Theory ness support, such as helping the that will enable Mama Fresh to good opportunities, scaling up in late May 2015 that together they Scholarship Endowment, whose enterprise establish a board of direc- triple daily production of injera, the companies and creating lots are endowing a new scholarship at contributors agree with us that tors, recruit senior management, and to hire 30 additional employ- of jobs in the process,” he says. the University of California, Los economic standing should not strengthen its finances, and ramp ees, primarily women, to staff the Angel investing is nothing new in Angeles for science, technology, hinder a deserving student’s shot up its sales and marketing. All the new facility. The investment is also the U.S., but applying this busi- engineering, and mathematics at a degree from a university of while, RENEW is keeping an eye allowing the company to explore ness model to development projects (STEM) undergraduates. UCLA’s caliber.” on the bottom line, especially as it new market opportunities for injera, abroad is innovative. “More tradi- According to the university, the During the coming 2015-2016 relates to creating jobs, improving including the growing gluten-free tional philanthropic endeavors are scholarship fund has raised more than academic year, 20 Big Bang Theory economic development outputs, and markets in the U.S. and Europe. utilizing private-sector mechanisms $4 million from nearly 50 people asso- scholars will be chosen from among developing new directions for busi- RENEW’s contribution is expected to improve and increase social ciated with the television program, those admitted to UCLA, and these ness expansion. to achieve significant social benefits impact,” he says. which is now in its eighth season. students will receive funding based “RENEW reduces the costs and for employees, smallholder farmers, The company focuses most of its The show’s science consultant, APS on financial need. In each of the risks of investing in developing and and the greater Ethiopian economy, resources on Ethiopia, where Davis Life Member David Saltzberg, is a following years, five additional emerging countries by partnering and will more than double the pur- physics professor at UCLA. students will be selected. with the development community, chases Mama Fresh makes from the ANGELS continued on page 6 6 • July 2015

REVIEW continued from page 4 BRIDGE continued from page 4 frequently small enough that you and 1960s [1]. “Computer science Bloomington were chosen through qualities that indicated potential for new slots for Bridge students this could infer.” was a science, but also an experi- a competitive review process, excellence in Ph.D.-level research,” year. At press time, 25 students were Still, the editors thought offering mental discipline,” says Guerin. similar to the review process at he said. “It was a disappointment placed into APS Bridge sites and an option “would be an interest- Whether double-blind is the way the National Science Founda- that we were not able to offer admis- graduate programs. For students ing experiment.” So, in 1980, the to go over single-blind is an experi- tion, bringing the total number of sion to all of them.” that aren’t placed at APS Bridge Physical Review editors instituted ment with no clear conclusion. funded sites up to six. The two new The new Physics Transitional sites, the Bridge Program circu- the policy for their (then) five jour- “People on the double side sites will each receive $150,000 Master’s program at UCF will lated their applications to more nals. The upshot — only an update believe it leads to a more objec- over three years to support URM recruit four students per year and than 45 additional doctoral- and to the submissions guidelines and tive outcome,” says Guerin, who students who will transition to doc- prepare them to continue onto a master’s-granting institutions. a sentence in an editorial in PRL. has sat in on a lot of discussions toral programs in physics. Ph.D. program at UCF or elsewhere. These institutions, each com- And publication at the Physical debating the merits of each. “Other IU Bloomington will offer a two- These students will be placed into mitted to improving diversity in Review journals hummed along for people actually feel that knowing year M.S. degree program that will undergraduate and graduate courses physics, make offers based on 22 more years with no additional who the authors are provides addi- include a wide array of lab-based depending on their level of prepa- funding availability and matches note that Brown can recall, positive tional qualifications.” courses, exposure to research in tra- ration, following a knowledge in research interest. Bridge Program or negative, for the double-blind Important to the functioning of ditional as well as interdisciplinary assessment taken by all gradu- staff expect that the total numbers option. In 2002, he thought he the double-blind method, when it fields of physics, and individual ate students before classes begin. of students placed will effectively should check up on the results of is used, is that a computer science mentoring, advising, and profes- During their first summer in the erase the achievement gap. the trial. conference or journal that operates sional development in preparation program, students will participate in The program also recently Between 1993 and 2001, authors under double-blind peer review for doctoral studies. The program research and develop presentation expanded to include Partnership on 121 papers requested the double- does so across the board. It’s not aims to have four to five students and writing skills by participating Institutions — doctoral- and mas- blind option. (Brown doesn’t have an option, it’s a modus operandi. enrolled in the program every year. in the UCF Summer Research and ter’s-granting institutions that are data from before then.) And that might be crucial to its Jon Urheim, Director of the IU Writing Institute. committed to fostering a diverse and That’s 0.06% of the total manu- success. Bloomington program, advocated Talat Rahman, Site Leader at safe environment for all doctoral scripts submitted. Of those, only 7 Take the example of the Nature for his university to join the APS UCF, said “A national program can students, including Bridge students. were published. Compare that to the Geoscience trial, the one that effort because of his concern that be a real catalyst for change. If the The APS Bridge Program will acceptance rate for Physical Review spurred Nature to provide a dou- its graduate physics enrollments program does well, it affects every- hold its annual meeting October journals in general — which is 60%. ble-blind choice. A reader survey a were not representative of regional one.” Rahman is most excited that 9-11, 2015 at Florida International “It amounted to less than one paper couple years ago showed an “over- demographics, especially those of the Bridge Program will encourage University (another Bridge site). per year,” Brown says. whelmingly positive” response to the African American– and rapidly- diversity in thinking. She’s currently For more on the background of No editor APS News spoke to the idea of offering double-blind, growing-Hispanic segments of the entertaining the idea of engaging the program, see apsbridgeprogram. could spin that as a success. says Heike Langenberg, chief editor population. He sees the program Bridge students in some teaching, com/about/diversity.cfm “In a nutshell it did not add to of Nature Geoscience. as a “win-win-win” opportunity to as all graduate students do at UCF, For information on bridge pro- the efficacy of the process and had But when the trial went into contribute to the APS Bridge Pro- so that students can go through this grams in physics, please see this several other drawbacks,” recalls effect, only around 15% of the gram’s national goals, immediately experience together and learn from Physics Today article [1]. Jack Sandweiss, a former lead edi- submissions opted for double-blind enhance diversity, and provide a each other through the process. UCF The author is Outreach & Com- tor of Physics Review Letters. review, says Langenberg. The prob- natural avenue for URM students is committed to funding the program munications Specialist at the A.J. “It was difficult to manage. It lems, she speculates, is that people to transition from the Bridge Pro- for three years beyond APS funding, Drexel Autism Institute in Phila- was difficult to maintain,” says don’t know about the option before gram into IU Bloomington’s Ph.D. and hopes that heightened aware- delphia. Until a few months ago, Reinhardt B. Schumann, the cur- they start the submissions process program. Urheim and his team were ness will encourage more URM the author was the APS Bridge rent managing editor of PRL. and just want to get it done quickly impressed with the quality of the students to apply directly to UCF, Program Coordinator. Brown sums up having the (anonymizing a paper isn’t hard, but program’s first round of applicants. thereby further increasing diversity Reference J. Matthews, Physics Today (March 2011). option as “basically cosmetic”: a it does take a few minutes). “Every one of the applicants we in the applicant pool. 64 Note: The Bridge Program is supported in part by the way to answer anyone who asked Plus, many people think that interviewed was engaging, inter- With the addition of IU Bloom- about the journals’ efforts to prevent their identity can be guessed any- National Science Foundation, under award #1143070, esting to talk with, and displayed ington and UCF, there are now 12 and by the American Physical Society. discrimination in the peer review way. process, which no one ever really “People overestimate how well asked about anyway. they can guess identities,” says Lan- Ultimately, “It wasn’t practical genberg. Right now, her evidence IUPAP continued from page 1 in physics,” says Brown. “I know is just anecdotal, but she’s collect- and Fields; Aihua Xie, Oklahoma Affiliated Commission on General on IUPAP-sponsored conferences that in other fields other journals ing data to find out for sure. The State University, Chair of the IUPAP Relativity and Gravitation. and awards. The nomination dead- routinely use it.” journal has started asking referees Commission on Biological Physics; Please visit the IUPAP website lines vary from one commission to Peer Review in Other Fields if they can guess authors, though and Beverly Berger, representing the (iupap.org/) for further information another. Some of the major journals in results might not be available for philosophy use triple-blind review, a few years. in which even the editor is anony- As for the benefits for geosci- OLYMPIAD continued from page 1 mous. In art history, double-blind ence researchers whose data are less than 60 nations. The national teams High School, Silver Spring, MD), David Fallest (North Carolina State is used frequently. The American identifiable? According to Langen- compete to solve challenging theo- Kevin Li (West Windsor-Plains- University), Mikhail Kagan (Penn Economic Association used to berg, the double-blind process gets retical and experimental physics boro High School South, Princeton State Abington), Jeffrey Yan (Har- have a double-blind system for its to the point of what a good peer problems. U.S. participation began Junction, NJ), Jason Lu (Adlai vard University), and Kevin Zhou journals, but in 2011 switched to review should be, plain and simple. in 1986. Stevenson High School, Lincoln- (Massachusetts Institute of Tech- single-blind. The reason? Search “It just takes away anything but the This year, team selection began shire, IL), and Saranesh Prembabu nology). engines made it too easy to uncover science in the paper.” in January with 4,300 high school (Dougherty Valley High School, “It’s been a year’s worth of work an author’s identity. Is double-blind worth fight- students from around the country San Ramon, CA). by the students, and 10 hard-work- But in science, single-blind ing for? who took a rigorous physics test. Helping the students train are ing days for the coaches and the is the norm. The journal of the Today, double-blind peer review Eventually, 20 students cleared college students, postdocs, and pro- academic director to bring the team same name, Science, only offers isn’t a topic of discussion among the hurdles and arrived in College fessors who volunteer as coaches. to this point,” said Beth Cunning- single-blind. current APS Committee on the Sta- Park in early May for Physics Boot “This collection of junior coaches ham, Executive Officer of AAPT. It goes against the grain, then, tus of Women in Physics (CSWP) Camp, a two-week training and test- has been phenomenal this year The International Physics Olym- that the field of computer science members, or those of the APS Com- ing period. At the end of the boot in terms of their engagement and piad will be held July 5 - 12, 2015 is largely split between the two mittee on Minorities in Physics, camp, five students were selected for involvement with the students,” in Mumbai. systems. That’s according to Roch say the chairs of those committees. the traveling team headed to India. said Paul Stanley, academic direc- For more information on the Guerin, Chair of the Association for “I wouldn’t be surprised to hear The five are: Zachary Bogorad tor of the team. 2015 U.S. International Physics Computing Machinery’s Publica- there’s bias in the peer review (Solon High School, Solon, OH), In addition to Stanley, they are Olympiad team, visit www.aapt. tions Board Conference Committee, process,” says Ashley DaSilva, a Adam Busis (Montgomery Blair JiaJia Dong (Bucknell University), org/physicsteam/2015/ which was tasked with a review member of CSWP and postdoc at of the respective roles of ACM’s the University of Texas at Austin. conferences and journals. (Yes, con- “[G]ender differences in publica- ANGELS continued from page 5 ference abstracts are peer reviewed tion record start well before the peer currently spends 70% of his time. are also business-minded. “I would lab and those who invest,” he says. in computer science). review.” Computer science, like physics, Double-blind peer review may Next year, he expects to expand to love to see more physicists leading Alaina G. Levine can be con- enjoys a fair amount of sharing and strip a paper down to “just the another country in Africa. As he companies and potentially making tacted through www.alainalevine. openness (though there is no arXiv science” — and may well be an looks to grow his own business, he that interaction between the people com, or followed on twitter @ equivalent). So that throws out the effective and fairer option for some sees opportunities for scientists who on the floor of the factory and in the AlainaGLevine. argument of it being easy to infer fields. It may even prove to work the author. out nicely for Nature Physics. As The double-blind system might Taroni wrote in an email to me, talks, scientific meetings, and at the interactions within the community, is impossible to strip our identi- flourish simply because a different “obviously only time will tell!” water fountain — that determine as is the case in peer review within ties out. model is not as deeply ingrained in But, there are so many interac- who gets to publish science, and a field that relies on sharing, col- Reference the culture: The field is young, with tions between physicists — those therefore which science makes it laboration, and working with other 1. www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/com- its first journals born in the 1950s every day in labs, classrooms, job through the review process. In those human beings to move forward, it puter_journal/historypaper_mills1.html July 2015 • 7

ANNOUNCEMENTS

IMPROVING continued from page 3 microwave oven-sized device skills he would need to produce became known as UV Water- one that would burn less wood. works, and Gadgil says this has He spent a year raising funds to Lévy walks improved the lives of more than travel to Sudan, along with sev- V. Zaburdaev, S. Denisov, and J. Klafter five million people. eral colleagues. They brought four In 2000, Gadgil took on a new fuel-efficient cookstoves that other Lévy walks are random walks in which the distribution of step length does not decay exponentially and drinking water challenge: remov- groups had developed, and asked the velocity of the moving particle is finite. Building on earlier concepts, they reconcile anomalously fast ing arsenic from groundwater. In women in the refugee camps to try diffusion with a finite propagation speed and have applications that range from basic statistical mechanics India and Bangladesh, surface them out. None proved to be accept- and transport theory to optics, cold atom dynamics, and biophysics. This review gives an introduction to water is often contaminated with able, and often the women rejected this important class of models and discusses applications in both physics and biology. fecal matter, and municipal water them for reasons that would have treatment facilities do not exist in been impossible to know without http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.87.483 many places. Governments have visiting in person. For instance, the responded by encouraging people to women insisted that they be able to drill millions of rudimentary wells see the flame, so they could know journals.aps.org/rmp to tap groundwater. But this has when to add wood. “All the time we created another problem: Much of paid attention to what the women the groundwater has natural levels cooks wanted,” Gadgil says. of the toxic element arsenic that can Amrose and other students in National Mentoring Community be more than 100 times the con- Gadgil’s Design for Sustainable centration that the World Health Communities course chose to take & Bridge Program Organization considers safe. on the challenge and design a stove Here again, technology had been that met multiple criteria: cheap, CONFERENCE tried and failed. Gadgil himself made out of readily available mate- developed a new kind of absorbent rials, and culturally acceptable. The that could remove arsenic, and that researchers returned to Darfur sev- success to + could be manufactured with read- eral times to field-test prototypes th Me pa n ily available materials. But he had and improve the design. When they to a r trouble getting anyone interested couldn’t find a nonprofit interested s in a g October 9 - 11, 2015 in producing the absorbent at scale, in manufacturing the stove (Gadgil g a n because there was no clear way to notes that many nonprofits work- i s Florida International University r a o Miami, Florida recoup costs in a country where ing in the developing world can be t p

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r i s n a project in 2006, and they discov- and produces far less black carbon g ered that they could create the rust and carbon dioxide emissions than on demand, as it were, by apply- the traditional fires the women were ing a small voltage to steel plates using, thereby improving women’s submerged in arsenic-laced water. health in multiple ways. In other words, the absorbent was Potential Energy has distributed “manufactured” directly in the more than 46,000 stoves, with plans Call For Nominations water where it was needed. Amrose to distribute another 5,000 by year’s named the process electrochemical end, and Berkeley researchers are Inaugural awarding of the APS Medal for Exceptional arsenic remediation, or ECAR. modifying the design for use in Achievement in Research/ Deadline August 1, 2015 In the lab, they tested a version other countries. The ultimate goal of their device that could process is to distribute millions of stoves To recognize contributions of the highest level that advance our knowledge up to three liters of water at a time. around the world, Gadgil says, and and understanding of the physical universe in all its facets. It is also intended They found an Indian company, make a dent in the commonly-cited to celebrate the human value of open and free inquiry in the pursuit of Luminous Water Technologies, to figure of four million people who knowledge. The Medal carries with it a prize of $50,000, a certificate citing TM license the technology and develop die every year from indoor air pol- the contribution made by the recipient, and an allowance for travel to the it further; they have field-tested a lution. A study that measured stove ceremony at which the Medal will be presented. 100-liter prototype. Amrose and use in a refugee camp with sensors Gadgil recently traveled to West and cell phone surveys found that Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize/ Deadline July 1, 2015 Bengal, India to launch the demon- among people given stoves, around To recognize a most outstanding contribution to physics. The Prize consists of $10,000, a certificate stration of a device that can process three-quarters used the stoves to citing the contributions made by the recipient, plus expenses for the three lectures by the recipient 10,000 liters of water per day. If the cook at least some of the time. device succeeds (a complete field A growing community given at an APS meeting, a research university, and a predominantly undergraduate institution. test can take up to a year or more), The development engineering they hope to move to large-scale community that Gadgil has seeded LeRoy Apker Award/ Deadline June 20, 2015 manufacturing and distribution. at U.C. Berkeley and Lawrence To recognize outstanding achievements in physics by undergraduate students, and thereby provide Stove science Berkeley Lab continues to grow. encouragement to young physicists who have demonstrated great potential for future scientific Sometimes Gadgil finds projects More than 200 students have now accomplishment. The Award consists of a $5,000 stipend for the recipients and a separate $5,000 that need his expertise, and some- been through the design course; it unrestricted grant to their institution, a certificate citing the recipient’s work, and travel allowance times projects come to him. In 2004, has been fully subscribed every to the meeting where the award is being presented. In addition, finalists receive an honorarium of someone from the U.S. Agency for semester it has been offered. Course $2,000 and a separate $1,000 grant to their institution as well as a certificate citing their work. International Development called instructors bring in representatives Gadgil and told him about the dire from Bay Area firms to advise situation of women in refugee camps students and help them take on www.aps.org/programs/honors in Darfur. These women, displaced real-world engineering challenges. from their villages by war, needed When Amrose tallied up the statis- large amounts of firewood to cook tics on students who had taken the supports dozens of engineering APS Forum on Physics and Society this award,” says Valerie Thomas, on their traditional stone fireplaces. course from 2006 through 2014, she projects for the developing world, gave Gadgil its Leo Szilard Lec- an industrial engineering professor But wood is scarce in the semi-arid found that 55 percent were women. including ECAR, further stove tureship Award, which his mentor at Georgia Institute of Technology Sahel region, so the women had to By comparison, women make up design projects, and ReMaterials, a Rosenfeld won 29 years ago. “In who chaired the prize committee. look for it far beyond the camps’ only around 14 percent of the work- my mind, Ashok is the best heir She commends Gadgil for “really borders, where they were exposed ing engineers in the U.S. company Amrose collaborates with to increasingly frequent sexual vio- The university is now scaling that produces modular, recycled apparent to Arthur Rosenfeld,” says going out there and understanding lence and kidnappings. up its efforts, offering both an roofing materials for use in low- Ramamoorthy Ramesh, who heads the needs of people … . He really has Gadgil says he never intended undergraduate and a Ph.D. minor income urban neighborhoods. the Lawrence Berkeley Lab divi- a comprehensive approach, and he’s to make a better cookstove, but in development engineering. Gadgil In 2014 Gadgil was inducted sion where Gadgil works. able to do that over and over again.” he recognized that his years spent co-directs Berkeley’s three-year-old into the National Inventors Hall “We didn’t have any difficulty The author is a freelance writer modeling airflow gave him the Development Impact Lab, which of Fame. And earlier this year, the deciding that he deserved to win based in Mount Rainier, MD. 8 • July 2015

educing CO2 emissions to address global warm- generated by renewable sources for load-shifting Ring is a high priority for many policymakers in and load-leveling and for reducing both carbon Washington and in capitals throughout the world. emissions and the capital cost of electricity genera- One of the most obvious targets for achieving such Nature Does Not Always Give tion. Of course a battery for stationary use does an objective is the transportation sector that cur- not have to be light in weight nor fit in a small rently relies heavily on the use of fossil fuels. Several Us What We Want volume. Scalability, long life, and especially low approaches immediately come to mind, although each cost are the dominant concerns. But here too we are has its own set of challenges. By Fred Schlachter awaiting a breakthrough that will allow low-cost For example, we could adopt new social patterns to energy storage on a utility scale. At present, only reduce our transportation needs. But that would take pumped-hydro provides such a capability, and it

time and almost certainly disrupt the way we live. Alterna- Google is practical in relatively few geographic areas. tively we could substitute hydrogen made from a renewable Electricity storage in residential and commercial buildings energy feedstock (water or biofuels) for gasoline, diesel fuel is in the news now that Solar City is selling Tesla batteries or natural gas. But we don’t yet have the technologies needed for home use. Lithium-ion batteries are not required for to produce or store hydrogen efficiently. building energy storage, and, although they are efficient, they Or we could substitute electricity obtained from a green are expensive. A new chemistry might make home energy grid. At present, an electric car probably offers the most storage cost effective. promising path. Hybrid-electrics, plug-in hybrids, and all- If reducing the use of fossil fuels for transportation is electric cars already exist. Unfortunately, most of us don’t a primary goal, powering cars with electricity (i.e., using drive all-electric cars because they have limited range and electricity produced in a power plant as an energy-transfer often create “range anxiety” for their drivers. And of course medium) is not the only possible means. We can power a they cost more. car with hydrogen, but as I already noted, using hydrogen is Many of us would be delighted to drive an electric car fraught with difficulties. Producing it is inefficient, presently powered by renewable energy, such as solar and wind, as requiring a platinum catalyst; it has a low mass density and long as it costs the same as a car with an internal combustion must be stored onboard as a liquid or a high-pressure gas; engine (ICE), has a range comparable to an ICE car, and can and it is generally produced from natural gas, so emission be charged in the several minutes it takes to refuel an ICE of CO2 takes place in the hydrogen production process. car. None of that is possible at the present time. Nonetheless, Toyota is introducing the Mirai, a hydrogen Moreover, a widespread infrastructure for charging cars fuel-cell car, for sale in Japan and soon in the U.S. is an imperative, and it does not yet exist. Today only 10,000 Social means of reducing the use of fossil fuels for trans- public-access charging stations are available in the entire portation also exist, but they too face significant adoption

country, compared with approximately 120,000 gasoline Steve Jurvetson hurdles. Encouraging the use of public transportation, car- fueling stations, and charging time is generally too long to and ride-sharing services, and someday perhaps self-driving be truly useful. Even though electric car owners can charge electric cars could all reduce fossil-fuel consumption. But them at home or in some cases at work, it will be many years mass transit does not exist in most parts of the United States, before a charging infrastructure will be able to satisfy the and, until the “last-mile” problem is solved or Americans nation’s needs if every American is driving an electric car. move to communities with higher population density, it will At the moment the closest thing to a widely useful electric not be able to compete with the personal automobile. car is the Tesla, which has a range of a few hundred kilo- So, for the foreseeable future the passenger car will be meters. But it comes at a price that is out of reach of most with us. But information technology could make the personal Americans, and with the exception of rapid charging at Tesla vehicle an unnecessary luxury. Imagine the following: Using Supercharger Stations, it generally takes hours to fully charge. a smart-phone app (think Uber/Lyft) you would summon a Batteries lie at the heart of the limitations of electric self-driving car. The car would fetch you, deposit you at your cars. The best chemistry for portable applications today is destination, and then proceed by itself to its next pickup. Of lithium-ion technology, which American-born physicist John course, such a service would still consume fossil fuel unless Goodenough developed at Oxford in the 1970s and SONY it used an electric car that ran on a green grid. Nonetheless, first commercialized in the 1990s. it could reduce personal car ownership and achieve efficien- Lithium-ion batteries have a relatively high specific energy (Top) Self-driving cars might eventually lessen the need for cies by transporting multiple passengers and collapsing (energy stored per unit weight and volume). But they are personal car ownership, while improvements in electric car such disparate services as car pools, rental cars, taxis, and charging infrastructure (bottom) could reduce "range anxiety" expensive. And despite a major concerted worldwide research among drivers. ride-on-demand. It would alleviate traffic congestion and effort, their specific energy has increased only marginally, reduce parking demand. still leaving them far below that of gasoline. performance in furthering the sale and use of electric cars. The A self-driving electric car could also minimize range Halting the use of fossil fuels for transportation will Tesla model S is widely seen — Consumer Reports recently anxiety and the inconvenience of recharging. It would take require either major improvements in hydrogen fuel-cell called the Tesla Model S the best car it ever tested — as a itself to a recharging station when it was low on charge and technology and hydrogen-production energy efficiency or very successful technological demonstration of what is pos- resume service when charging was complete. It even could building much-improved batteries to power electric cars, or sible with an electric car, were it not for the very high price. accomplish the recharging task without human intervention, finding a means to use electric cars with batteries at their Lithium/air, which seemed so promising in 2009, now provided the station used induction technology. present state of development by changing the relationship appears to be extremely difficult to implement. Lithium/ A self-driving car or van could fetch groceries or goods of private ownership of a car to providing transportation. sulfur has become a leading candidate, although its chem- for delivery to customers and make scheduled rounds of a I recently attended a conference at Oak Ridge National istry is extremely complex. Even though a small company neighborhood, picking up passengers to take them to the Laboratory focused on new and better chemistry to bring us has begun to market a lithium/sulfur battery, experts believe nearest public transportation. Range and charging times closer to an all-electric-car goal. “Beyond Lithium Ion (BLI) that we are many years from a practical product suitable for would be inputs to a business model rather than sources of VIII,” was the latest in an annual series of such meetings. mobile applications. Indeed, it is not clear that any chemistry frustration for drivers. Google’s experience with self-driving Compared with the irrational exuberance of the 2009 BLI beyond lithium-ion will be practical in the foreseeable future. cars suggests they may be in our future well before batteries conference, when lithium/air chemistry seemed to be feasible, If and when researchers find a suitable chemistry, we should that require new chemistry. and the gloom which permeated the 2012 gathering, when recall that it took more than 20 years after their invention for Whatever the future holds — all-electric vehicles, hydro- researchers had little to show for their endeavors — see lithium-ion batteries to be commercially produced. gen cars and trucks, or self-driving cars — there is no doubt my report, “Has the Battery Bubble Burst?,” in APS News, Toyota, which uses lithium-ion batteries in its plug-in we are on the cusp of a transportation revolution. We can only August/September 2012 — the mood at the 2015 convoca- Prius — the standard Prius presently uses nickel-metal- hope we will be able to develop better battery chemistries and tion was cautious optimism. hydride batteries —is studying a magnesium-ion battery. new energy-efficient technologies rapidly enough to address There has been an explosion of interest in alternative This chemistry shows promise because magnesium has two the challenges of global warming. But in the meantime, we chemistries, with the periodic table being explored for new valence electrons, it does not form dendrites (which can need to better deploy the technologies we already have. options. For example, lithium/sulfur is a major topic of cause a short in a battery), and it is plentiful and inexpensive. Fred Schlachter recently retired research today. Researchers are studying lithium/air and Although it is unlikely a magnesium-ion battery will have as a physicist at the Advanced many other chemistries involving sodium, magnesium, tin, an energy density better than that of lithium-ion batteries, Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley potassium, nickel, and iron, many both as intercalation and it might cost significantly less. National Laboratory. He is a Fel- as metal/air cells, as well as aqueous lithium/air. The objec- It appears at present that nature is not giving us what we low of the APS and co-author of the tive is to find a new chemistry to greatly improve battery want: greatly improved battery chemistry. It almost certainly 2008 APS report Energy Future: performance. won’t, anytime soon, and maybe it never will. But we can Think Efficiency, for which he Improving specific weight and volumetric energy density always hope that the intense research currently underway wrote the chapter on transporta- are primary objectives, but lowering cost, improving calendar will bring about the battery breakthrough we so desire some tion. He has worked temporarily as and cycle life, and using widely distributed and readily avail- time in the future. a Policy Analyst in the Washington able resources are also high on the agenda. Indeed, reducing Cars are not the only important application for batteries. If DC office of the American Physical Society and is an occasional cost may be even more important than increasing battery the price is right, utilities could use batteries to store energy consultant to APS on transportation issues.

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