July 2009 Volume 18, No. 7 TM www.aps.org/publications/apsnews APS NEWS APS Election Preview A PublicAtion of the AmericAn PhysicAl society • www.aps.org/PublicAtions/apsnews Pages 6 & 7 Women’s Progress Tracked in Reports by APS, National Academies The National Academies re- being selected at proportionally enrolled in physics and did not Canizares of MIT, co-chair of the pers, grant funding, award nomi- leased a study in early June that similar rates as men. In physics delve into the underlying cause of committee that assembled the re- nations, promotions and other job found female scientists at major departments approximately 20 the disparities at the undergradu- port, “[T]he good news is that the opportunities all showed near par- research institutions have made percent of tenure track positions ate level. discrepancies between the number ity with men’s reported rates. The significant progress in overcom- are being filled by women. The “I think you can see even in of PhDs produced and those ap- study did show that women pro- ing many of the professional bar- study found that the main reason the numbers that I showed that plying for faculty jobs and enter- fessors on average earned about 8 riers they have historically faced for this continuing disparity is the physics is still one of the fields ing the faculty is very slight.” percent less than men; however at in academia. Despite these gains small number of women applying that has an unfortunately quite Other encouraging findings the assistant and associate level, however, women continue to re- for such positions. Overall wom- low representation of women at showed that generally once wom- salaries were equivalent. main underrepresented in science en make up only 14 percent of the the higher ranks. It’s certainly en became members of faculties, The study looked specifically faculties overall. PhDs in physics, and 12 percent been improving, at other ranks, they reported few measurable dif- at the full time faculties of the top The congressionally mandated of the applicant pool for univer- but even in the PhD production ferences between them and their 89 Carnegie research universi- study found that women seeking sity positions. The study focused you can see there that the num- male coworkers. Indicators such ties, using data collected through faculty positions and tenure are primarily on women already bers are still too low,” said Claude as the number of published pa- Women continued on page 5 LaserFest Booth Pulls Them In Members Urged to Apply for LaserFest Outreach Grants Calling all physics per- lish outreach initiatives and yearlong celebration Laser- formers! APS and the Opti- travelling physics demonstra- Fest to highlight the impor- cal Society of America are tions in communities and in- tance of lasers and to illus- seeking grant proposals from stitutions across the country. trate how basic scientific re- their members for outreach APS and OSA are especially search can impact the modern events as part of LaserFest looking to support groups 2010. The two organizations with new and innovative ap- world. plan to jointly award several proaches for these outreach The funding is available to grants of up to $10,000 each activities, particularly if they groups with members in ei- to sponsor activities aimed at could potentially be continued ther APS or OSA, and all pro- reaching and informing the past the lifetime of the grant. posals must be submitted by public about the science of 2010 is the 50th anniver- September 30th 2009. Contact lasers for LaserFest on the sary of Theodore Maiman’s information and a complete Road. construction of the first work- Photo by Michael Lucibella This sponsorship, avail- ing laser. To coincide with proposal application can be crowds of interested attendees flock to the laserfest booth that was unveiled able to either individuals or this milestone, APS and OSA found on the website at www. at the cleo/iQec meeting in baltimore in early June, while comics super-hero groups, is designed to estab- have partnered to sponsor the LaserFest.org. spectra (left) takes a break from saving the world from the evil miss Alignment. see story on page 5. APS Announces PhysicsQuest Winners Physics is Olympians’ Idea of a Good Time The winners of the APS-spon- school’s name listed there in or- an original comic book, recount- In a small sored 2008 PhysicsQuest contest der to believe that we had really ing the story of young Tesla and classroom at the have been selected. Jason Hol- won,” Holstege said, “[I]t also his adventures to illuminate the University of stege’s 7th Grade Science class at feels good, because the students 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Maryland, nine- the Heritage Christian School in worked hard at understanding the “The goals are to give kids teen pairs of eyes Hudsonville, Michigan won this concepts.” an experience with physics. The stare attentively at year’s grand prize. The class was Each year APS sends out main idea is to teach them some- a blackboard full awarded with a $500 certificate thousands of PhysicsQuest kits thing without them realizing it,” of a complex ar- to the educational supplier Edu- containing simple physics experi- Rebecca Thompson-Flagg, head ray of quadratic cational Innovations, and each ments to teachers and students of outreach for APS said. “The equations. Though student won an iPod Shuffle en- across the country. Each kit in- comic book was a big hit. It was the physics on graved with “PhysicsQuest Supe- cludes four classroom experi- something they hadn’t seen be- the chalkboard is hero.” ments and an activity book aimed fore.” distinctly college “I was pretty shocked when I at middle school students. This In keeping with this year’s Tes- level, the class is Photo by Michael Lucibella got the call on a Friday afternoon, year’s theme focused on the life la theme, most of the experiments composed entire- olympian yunfan Zhang (right) takes a break from the and I had to check the website and work of Nicola Tesla. These incorporated the physics of elec- ly of high school rigors of the training camp to enjoy a moment of conver- sation with coach Paul stanley. out a couple times just to see the kits were also the first to include WINNERS continued on page 7 students. This is the training camp physics problems during the nine- DAMOP Meets in Charlottesville for the 2009 International Physics day competition in mid July. Or- The APS Division of Atomic, about how quantum optic technolo- Long term quantum memory could Olympiad’s US Team. At the end ganizers of both the international Molecular and Optical Physics gy is being used in fields as diverse play an important role in future of the ten-day preparatory camp, event and the training camp strive held its annual meeting in Charlot- as atomic physics, nanotechnology, quantum computer developments, five of the nineteen students were to advance physics education and tesville, Virginia in May. Featuring many body physics, and quantum matter-light entanglement, and mat- selected to travel to Mexico for reward students that have distin- more than seventy sessions, the information science. ter qubit rotations. this year’s international competi- guished themselves in the field. meeting attracted over a thousand Other highlighted talks included Ultracold molecules in opti- tion in July. Though only the five The Olympiad began in 1967 physicists from across the country. Alex Kuzmich of Georgia Tech cal lattices continue to be a major students were selected to go, all in Eastern Europe and expanded The annual award presentations who announced his method for focus of research, with over one nineteen kids in the classroom rep- during the 1970s to include the and plenary talks kicked off the greatly improving the lifetime of hundred papers devoted to the tech- resent some of the brightest scien- rest of Europe and later the rest of meeting. The recipient of the Her- quantum memory. By minimizing nique. One novel use is a method tific minds in the country. the world. The United States first bert P. Broida prize, Gustav Gerber, the sensitivity to magnetic fields, described by Andrew Ludlow of The International Physics participated in 1986 when its team discussed his method to manipulate Kuzmich has been able to store in- NIST Colorado to use strontium Olympiad is the global zenith for brought back three bronze medals quantum systems with femto-sec- formation on atomic coherences atoms suspended in an optical lat- high school physicists. Each year from London, the best any team ond laser pulses shaped by a liquid- that lasts up to several milliseconds, tice to create the next generation teams of high school students from had done on its first outing. The crystal display. Mikhail Lukin, re- rather than the few hundreds of mi- of highly accurate atomic clocks. over sixty different countries vie American Association of Physics cipient of the I.I. Rabi prize, spoke croseconds previously achieved. DAMOP continued on page 7 for the gold by unraveling complex OLYMPIANS continued on page 5 2 • July 2009 APS NEWS Members This Month in Physics History in the Media “I always say that what Dan most valuable resource we have.” July 1654: Pascal’s Letters to Fermat on the “Problem of Points” Brown did for the Roman Catholic Ralph Nobles, hoping that a Games of chance are as ancient as human history, Intrigued, Pascal realized he would need to in- Church in ‘The Da Vinci Code,’ tract of land in California slated with archaeologists unearthing evidence of them on vent a new method of analysis to solve the puzzle, he did for me and my research for development will be bought by prehistory digs.