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December 2017 • Vol. 26, No. 11 A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY Robert Bragg, Jr. 1919-2017 APS.ORG/APSNEWS Page 4 What You Need to Know: APS Inventories Its Carbon Footprint APS and SCOAP3 By Tawanda W. Johnson After issuing its Statement on Following extensive discussions Earth’s Changing Climate, APS and a vote by the APS Board of has conducted a greenhouse gas Directors at its meeting in April, (GHG) inventory—often referred APS recently signed an agreement to as a carbon footprint—of its daily operations. The results were with CERN, which represents the Adapted from epa.gov Sponsoring Consortium for Open audited by an independent firm Access Publishing in Particle and posted online, making APS Physics (SCOAP3), to publish the first scientific society in the high-energy physics (HEP) papers United States to broadly assess open access. APS leadership took and publish its emissions. APS is this step in support of the high- now exploring ways to reduce the energy physics community to GHG emissions from its day-to- offer researchers a convenient • HEP papers covered by day operations and is evaluating 3 route to publish their HEP work SCOAP are all those posted emissions attributable to various open access in Physical Review on arXiv.org prior to publica- activities of the Society, which journals. Starting January 1, 2018, tion in any of the primary ‘hep’ include APS member travel to and The APS greenhouse gas inventory follows established standards: Scope HEP papers published in Physical categories: hep-ex, hep-lat, from its national meetings. 1 - direct emissions from APS activities; Scope 2 - indirect emissions from hep-ph, hep-th, and irrespec- “Having issued a statement purchased energy; Scope 3 - indirect emissions from commuting, business Review Letters, Physical Review travel, and outsourced activities C, and Physical Review D will be tive of the authors’ institution on Earth’s changing climate, we open access, paid for centrally by or country affiliation. thought it important for the Society APS selected Anthesis—a global continue its own GHG inventory SCOAP3. Library subscriptions • HEP papers published in the to understand its own carbon foot- specialist consultancy skilled in going forward. will be modified accordingly. This three participating APS jour- print,” said APS Chief Executive GHG inventory development— The committee used the well arrangement will initially last for nals on or after January 1, Officer Kate Kirby. to support the committee and established and industry-recog- two years, up to the end of 2019. 2018, will be open access, The GHG Inventory Advisory assist the Society in determining nized standards of The Climate Authors: Authors of HEP even if the manuscript was Committee, which is overseen by its inventory. Anthesis was also Registry (TCR) to develop APS’s papers submitted to these journals originally submitted prior to the APS Panel on Public Affairs, charged with helping APS develop GHG inventory. TCR is a non- will notice very little change in this date. has managed the inventory proj- the tools and institutional knowl- procedures. SCOAP3 continued on page 4 ect since last year. Additionally, edge necessary for the Society to FOOTPRINT continued on page 4 Charting a Future for U.S. Physics International News Physics in Africa: An APS Project Poised for Impact By James Gubernatis, Brian Masara, Joseph Niemela, and Tajinder Panesor As physicists, we routinely seek unifying ideas from complex situ- ations about which we often have only limited information. In many respects, the APS Committee on Gettyimages.com International Scientific Affairs is trying to do the same, in co-oper- APS President Laura Greene, APS President-Elect Roger Falcone, and APS Director of Public Affairs Francis Slakey ation with the U.K. Institute of Physics (IOP), European Physical Editor’s Note: The following by science and technology. branch. That said, we have great Society (EPS), International Centre roundtable discussion with 2017 Roger Falcone: We live in communications with the execu- for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), APS President Laura Greene, 2018 interesting times politically but tive branch agencies responsible and South African Institute of APS President Roger Falcone, and there’s a broader debate over the for providing resources to scientists Physics (SAIP), in what is called institutions, population sizes, and APS Director of Public Affairs importance of science and technol- and engineers, such as the National the Physics in Africa project. The geographical areas vary widely. Francis Slakey is reprinted from ogy to innovation, which translates Science Foundation (NSF) and the objective of this project is quite When we say “African,” it is a special report on physics in the into jobs and other benefits to peo- Department of Energy (DOE). different from understanding the merely a label for the people and U.S. published by Physics World ple. It’s a much larger discussion Francis Slakey: The admin- physical world; rather, it is the iden- nations in this continent as opposed (Institute of Physics, U.K.) with and we should focus on that rather istration is simply not staffed up tification of programs and activities to some other unifying characteris- kind permission. than any individual administration. to the extent that Obama’s was. to promote and enhance physics in tic about them. Consequently, the The current and future presidents How well have you com- The obvious example is the OSTP Africa. Thus, the project, while not nations of Africa are not candidates of APS—Laura Greene and Roger municated with the Trump where there’s a skeleton crew there, physics, is something about phys- for one-size-fits-all “African” pro- Falcone—along with public-affairs administration? just a couple of people. Under ics, something that we enjoy and grams. What set of programs do director Francis Slakey—talk RF: There are typically two Obama, it was a robust office and enjoy sharing. the various nations need? Which to Physics World about their hopes groups we want to talk to—one is you always found people to whom Africa however is a vast con- ones have the highest priority for a and fears for physicists under the the executive branch, such as the you had ready access. But those tinent of 54 nations whose econ- specific nation? Trump administration. Office of Science and Technology positions have not been filled—and omies, political and religious AFRICA continued on page 5 What’s been your over- Policy (OSTP), and the other is the may not be—so part of the trick has all impression of Trump’s legislative branch, or Congress. We been to find ways in to the hand- administration? still have great communication ful of people at the DOE or in the Laura Greene: There’s a tre- channels with the members and Office of Management and Budget. mendous divide in the U.S. and staffers in Congress, who are very What impact could this lack of what we’ll do as APS is to keep interested in hearing our stories. communication have? our lines open to the legislature— Our ability to advocate for science RF: I see two critical things for to members of our Congress and technology through Congress science and the country. First, we and senators—and ensure they has not diminished. But there are need science to inform anything understand that a big part of the fewer people to talk with in the our government is doing. We want American economy is supported administration, in the executive FUTURE continued on page 7 Revised 12/06/17 2 • December 2017 YouTube’s Physics Girl By Rachel Gaal This Month in Physics History During the 2017 APS March UCSD Meeting, APS News sat down with Dianna Cowern (aka Physics December 12, 1921: Death of Henrietta Swan Leavitt Girl) to find out what it takes to be a physics YouTube star. She he Harvard College Observatory is justly independent means—she became a volunteer “com- received a bachelor’s in physics Tproud of its Astronomical Photographic Plate puter” at the Harvard College Observatory a few from the Massachusetts Institute of Collection, consisting of more than 500,000 pho- years later, eventually joining Pickering’s perma- Technology, but now hosts a PBS tographs of the night sky taken between 1882 nent staff at the modest salary of 30 cents an hour. Digital Studios Channel, which and 1992. To take data from these images, the She was deemed “hard-working and serious minded features do-it-yourself experi- Observatory’s then-director Charles Pickering put … little given to frivolous pursuits and selflessly ments and presentations on space Dianna Cowern together a small cadre of women. Among them devoted to her family, her church, and her career.” and astronomy topics. This inter- a science video challenge, while I was Henrietta Swan Leavitt, who would go on to Pickering assigned Leavitt the task of studying view has been edited for length and was working at the University of study one of the most important class of stars—the the variable stars—those changing from bright to clarity. California, San Diego (USCD), Cepheid variables. dim to bright again at periodic How did you come up with the doing outreach with their phys- These women, known as intervals—in the Small and idea of Physics Girl? ics department. One of the board “computers,” performed the Large Magellanic Clouds. By I started my channel in 2012, members at PBS was a UCSD alum tedious and time-consuming overlaying one plate on top of but it took about two years to really and saw an article about my award, task of measuring and cata- another to see how the star had get it going and to actually put vid- and they wanted to put me in touch loguing the brightness of all the wikimedia commons changed its brightness between eos up.

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