October 2009 Volume 18, No. 9 TM www.aps.org/publications/apsnews APS NEWS A Whole Page of Announcements! See Page 7 A PublicAtion of the AmericAn PhysicAl society • www.aps.org/PublicAtions/apsnews APS-Led Project Receives $6.5M NSF Grant Members Elect Robert Byer to By Gabriel Popkin APS Presidential Line The APS recently received its By Lauren Schenkman the Q-switched unstable resonator largest single grant award to date. APS members have elected Nd:YAG laser, remote sensing us- The society will receive $6.5 mil- Robert Byer, the William R. Ke- ing tunable infrared sources, and lion dollars from the National nan, Jr. Professor of Applied Phys- precision spectroscopy using Co- Science Foundation (NSF) to ics at Stanford, as the Society’s herent Anti Stokes Raman Scatter- support PhysTEC, APS’s flagship next vice-President. Byer will ing (CARS). His current research education program since 2001. assume the office on January 1, includes developing nonlinear The project, which APS leads in 2010. At that time, Barry Barish optical materials and laser diode collaboration with the American of Caltech will become President- pumped solid state laser sources Association of Physics Teach- elect, and Curtis Callan of Princ- for laser particle acceleration and ers (AAPT), aims to improve eton will become President, suc- gravitational wave detection for and promote the education of fu- ceeding 2009 President Cherry projects such as the Laser Interfer- ture physics and physical science Photo courtesy of Laird Kramer Murray of Harvard. Byer will be ometer Gravitational-Wave Obser- teachers. laird Kramer, Phystec site leader at florida international university, works President-elect in 2011, and serve vatory and the Laser Interferom- with prospective teachers on an electricity and magnetism demonstration. The main goal of the project is as APS President in 2012. eter Space Antenna. to demonstrate successful mod- of all US physics teachers have a ticular—as a critical threat to US In other election results, Steve Currently the co-director of els for increasing the number of degree in the subject, and many educational and economic com- Girvin of Yale University was se- the Stanford Photonics Research highly qualified high school phys- recent reports have identified petitiveness. lected as the new chair-elect of Center, Byer has directed several ics teachers around the country. science teacher shortages—and PhysTEC’s primary activity is the APS Nominating Commit- centers and laboratories at Stan- Currently, only about one-third physics teacher shortages in par- GRANT continued on page 3 tee, which has the responsibility ford, most recently the Hansen of selecting a slate of candidates Experimental Physics Labora- each year to run for APS offices. tory and the Edward L. Gintzon Climate Statement Gets Renewed Scrutiny Marta Dark McNeese, professor Laboratory, and has served as vice APS President Cherry Mur- ment. The APS Panel on Public mer members of APS who have of physics at Spelman College, provost and dean of research, as- ray has appointed an ad hoc com- Affairs produced a draft which signed an open letter to the APS and Warren B. Mori, professor of sociate dean of the School of Hu- mittee to study whether the APS was passed after some modifica- Council this month, calling for a physics at UCLA and director of manities and Sciences, and chair statement on climate change, tion by Council on November 18, reconsideration of its November the UCLA Institute for Digital Re- of the physics department. Outside passed in 2007, needs to be re- 2007, with one dissenting vote. 2007 policy statement on climate search and Education, were elected of Stanford, he has played a wide visited. This action comes in the The text of this statement accom- change. The letter proposes an al- general councilors. Belita Koiller, variety of leadership roles. He has wake of a motion by councilor panies the present article. ternative statement, which the sig- professor of physics at the Federal served on the American Institute Robert Austin at the May 1 Coun- The next opportunity for natories believe to be a more ac- University of Rio de Janeiro, Bra- of Physics Governing Board, has cil meeting, asking that the state- Council to consider the climate curate representation of the current zil, was elected international coun- been President of the Optical So- ment be reviewed and possibly change issue will be at its No- scientific evidence.” They go on to cilor. ciety of America and of the Laser changed. The motion, which was vember 8 meeting. It is expected decry the “subversion of the sci- Byer earned his PhD in Applied and Electro-optics Society of the introduced at the very end of the that the ad hoc committee will entific process and the intolerance Physics from Stanford in 1969. IEEE, and has been chair of the meeting, was tabled to allow time have submitted its recommenda- towards scientific disagreement Since then he has been a faculty California Council on Science and for further consideration. tions by then. that pervades the climate issue.” In member at Stanford, conducting Technology. He has served on nu- The APS statement on climate The motivation for request- addition to Austin, those signing research and teaching classes in merous advisory and review com- change had originally been adopt- ing this review was expressed by the communication were S. Fred lasers and nonlinear optics. He mittees over the years, completing ed after the American Geophysi- Austin and five other physicists Singer, Hal Lewis, Will Happer, has made numerous contributions a four year term on the Air Force cal Union requested that APS sign in the “Correspondence” section Larry Gould, and Roger Cohen. to laser science and technology, Scientific Advisory Board in 2006, on to their statement about global of the July 23 issue of Nature. In The open letter, and list of including the demonstration of and currently advises the SLAC warming. The Council opted in- part they state: “We are among signers (which in fact includes the first tunable visible paramet- Linac Coherent Light Source, the ric oscillator, the development of ELECT continued on page 6 stead to compose its own state- more than 50 current and for- CLIMATE continued on page 5 Air Force Restrictions Impact Apker Finalists Meet in Chicago Adaptive Optics Every year the APS presents Apker Awards to undergraduate students for Restrictions imposed by the kilometer-high layer of sodium at- outstanding research. the selection Air Force on the use of lasers are oms to create a reference point in committee first chooses a set of final- significantly diminishing the util- the sky. By tracking this reference ists from among the nominees, and then picks the recipients, usually two in num- ity of adaptive optics for studying point, known as an artificial guide ber, after a day of interviews with the fi- the cosmos, according to a num- star, astronomers can cancel out nalists. each finalist receives $2000 and ber of astronomers. much of the atmospheric interfer- a certificate, and the finalists' institutions “At one time, four or five years ence. Currently four telescopes in each receive $1000. the recipients, who are chosen by the APS Executive ago, we were getting very few re- the US use these lasers, with more board following the selection commit- strictions, but more recently that in development. tee's recommendation, each receive an has increased,” said Julian Chris- Air Force Space Command additional $5000, and their institutions tou, the adaptive optics technician regulates their use to protect pass- $5000. for the Gemini North Observatory ing satellites. All uses of the lasers this year the finalists met on August 31 in Hawaii. “The impact is we are must be approved days ahead of in downtown Chicago to be interviewed by the committee, which was chaired losing time to do long integra- time by the Laser Clearing House by former APs President leo Kadanoff. tions…It’s an accumulated time at Vandenberg Air Force base to Photo by shelly Johnston shown here at the reception following loss.” prevent the beam from crossing the day of interviews are (l to r) final- Laser guide star adaptive op- paths with an approaching space- ists barry bradlyn (mit), emma wollman (swarthmore), bilin Zhuang (wellesley), Kathryn greenberg (mount holy- oke) and Andrew higginbotham (harvey mudd). the recipients will be announced on the web following the executive tics involves shining powerful craft. The lasers cannot damage board vote, and also in a subsequent issue of APS News. lasers into the lower atmosphere a craft’s hull, but they could po- nominations for the Award are encouraged from physics departments at both four-year colleges and universities, for to correct for atmospheric distor- tentially burn out sensitive optical undergraduates who have performed outstanding research in physics. Although nominations are now closed, they will tions. The most common type equipment. re-open early next year, with a deadline in late June. more information about the Apker Award can be found at http:// www.aps.org/programs/honors/awards/apker.cfm . refracts an orange beam off a 90 AIR FORCE continued on page 5 2 • October 2009 APS NEWS Members This Month in Physics History in the Media “These are baby problems,” “[Jennifer Mass] is one of an October 22, 2004: Discovery of Graphene Peter Limon, Fermilab, describ- emerging, growing group of sci- cientists often find ingenious ways to attain their nature by first making a three-dimensional material, ing the initial problems most accel- entists who have a foot planted in research objectives, even if that objective is a tru- which is graphite, and then pulling an individual lay- erators, including CERN, experi- both worlds,” S ly two-dimensional material that many physicists felt er out of it,” said Geim.