August/September 2013 • Vol. 22, No. 8

A Publication of the American Physical Society We have a winner! See page 5 www.aps.org/publications/apsnews

APS Members Elect to Presidential Line APS Set to Launch Applied Physics Journal Following approval by the strong desire for an APS-run ap- In Society-wide elections in January of next year, succeed- Executive Board in June, APS is plied physics journal. The Forum June, APS members cast their ing Sam Aronson of Brookhaven gearing up to launch a new jour- on Industrial and Applied Phys- ballots for Homer Neal of the National Lab, who will become nal of applied physics. Physical ics in particular showed great to be the President-elect. This year’s Pres- Review Applied is slated to debut interest in such a journal. In addi- next vice-President. As the newest ident-elect, of early in 2014, and will feature tion, the Society’s editors found member of the Presidential Line, , will become high quality applied research ar- that the new journal would likely Neal will become APS President President, while current President ticles from all areas of physics. benefit from about a thousand pa- in 2016. Michael Turner will remain on the “APS built its reputation on pers a year that are now submit- The members also voted for APS Council and Executive Board pure physics and it’s important ted to APS journals but have to Kiyoshi Ueda of Tohoku Uni- as past-President. for us to reach out to the applied be rejected because they are out- versity to be a new International Neal is currently the interim physics community and say that side the current scope of research Councilor, Nadya Mason of the president emeritus and vice-pres- Homer Neal there is a home for applied phys- covered by the Physical Review. University of Illinois at Urbana- ident for research emeritus at the ics here,” said Gene Sprouse, “We’re constantly looking at Champaign to be a General Coun- University of Michigan. He spe- ian Institution, served on both the APS Editor in Chief. how we should be growing our cilor, and Patricia McBride of Fer- cializes in , and National Research Council and The Society conducted sur- journals and it was clear that milab to be the Chair-elect of the is a member of the ATLAS col- the governing board of the Na- veys of a cross section of its applied physics was a bur- tional Science Foundation, and is Nominating Committee. laboration at CERN. He has also membership, which showed a JOURNAL continued on page 7 Neal will assume his office in served as Regent of the Smithson- NEAL continued on page 4

Phys Rev X Debuts with Top-Ten “Impact Factor” Ranking APS to Participate in Multi-Publisher APS’s newest journal is having Two other measures, in which Open Access Research Clearinghouse a noticeable impact on physicists PRX also ranks in the top ten around the world, according to among broad-scope physics jour- Following the June meeting existing infrastructure to comply Journal Citation Reports (JCR). nals, reinforce the fact that PRX of the Executive Board, APS an- with recent federal open access Physical Review X received an is having an impact throughout nounced that it would be working mandates. initial “impact factor” of 6.711, the physics community. JCR gave with the federal government and In February, the administra- putting it alongside two other APS PRX a high score of 2.225 in its journal publishers to help develop tion’s Office of Science and Tech- publications among the ten most “immediacy index,” which indi- a system for scientists to access nology Policy issued a memo that influential multidisciplinary phys- cates how quickly work published publications resulting from feder- would ultimately require all scien- ics journals. in a journal is disseminated and ally funded research. tific papers stemming from feder- JCR, published annually by cited. The Clearinghouse for the ally funded research to be avail- Thomson Reuters, seeks to ob- Jorge Pullin In addition, another organiza- Open Research of the United able for free to anyone after an jectively measure an academic tion that tracks academic journal States, or CHORUS, would be an embargo period. The specific form journal’s importance to the re- the number of citations in a given influence, Eigenfactor, gave PRX online platform that links to open of the policy was not spelled out search community by tracking the year to articles published in the high marks for a journal of its size. access journal articles stored on in the memo, and one of the big- number of citations each article journal in the previous two years, Their “article influence” metric is publishers’ servers. Developed by gest open questions was whether receives. The impact factor of a divided by the total number of similar to an impact factor, but at- the American Association of Pub- the papers would be hosted on those articles. journal is essentially calculated as PHYS REV X continued on page 7 lishers, it would use publishers’ OPEN ACCESS continued on page 7

Meeting Helps Bridge Programs Interact Executive Officer Kate Kirby Plans Strategically for 2nd Term

By Bushraa Khatib versity (see the report in the July In April, the APS Council voted getting the APS Presidential Line to extend Executive Officer Kate and my fellow operating officers The APS Bridge Program APS News). Each site was also on board. , who was (APS-BP) is committed to increas- able to admit one student directly Kirby’s term at the helm of the So- APS President in 2011, was very ing the number of underrepresent- into their graduate programs. Stu- ciety for another five years. Com- supportive of devoting consider- ed minority students who receive dents who applied to APS-BP were menting on the vote, APS President able time to discussions between PhDs in physics. In late June, considered by other graduate pro- Michael Turner said “She’s been a the Executive Board and the APS APS-BP hosted a meeting that grams as well, with sixteen offers terrific leader of APS. One of the staff, which formed the basis of the involved a variety of programs of admission made to ten students. most important things that she’s and organizations with similar Five of these students accepted of- done is to represent us to the out- Strategic Plan. interests. More than 60 people at- fers, and at press time five students side world, whether it is working tended the conference, which took have offers pending, leaving the with other societies, or at meetings What ultimately did you pro- place at the American Center for potential of APS assisting possibly of young women physicists, or at duce? Physics in College Park, MD. At- up to 19 students to enter gradu- a National Academy committee. We produced a ten-page docu- tendees included representatives ate programs in physics during the She’s done a tremendous job of be- Kate Kirby ment with four broad goals, which from APS, the American Associa- first year of the bridge program. ing the face of the American Physi- are: serving our members better, your first term at APS? tion of Physics Teachers (AAPT), The meeting was the first op- cal Society.” serving the physics community bet- I gave myself a year in the Ex- the American Institute of Physics portunity for newly selected APS Much of Kirby’s first term was ter, serving society better, and then ecutive Officer position before lay- (AIP), bridge programs, and col- Bridge Fellows to meet each other devoted to developing APS’s re- an inwardly focused goal, which is leges and universities across the and site leaders at their respective cently unveiled five-year strategic ing the groundwork for starting to increase our organizational ex- US. bridge sites. Students are begin- plan. Over her next term, she, along strategic planning. It was internally cellence. Under each of these goals Although just getting under- ning classes, research, and other with the other operating officers, initiated. I really feel that it’s essen- are a number of specific objectives. way, the APS Bridge Program has programmatic activities this sum- will oversee the implementation of tial for any organization to have a The plan was drafted in early been able to facilitate the place- mer. the goals laid out in the plan. APS strategic plan that lays out a vision 2012, the Executive Board adopt- ment of at least 14 students into “The conference was a great News sat down with Kirby to talk and a roadmap. It helps shape pri- ed it, and Bob Byer, who was the physics bridge programs or direct- opportunity for collaborations– about how the plan came to be, and orities for the organization and also President, was a fantastic advocate ly into graduate programs. Seven especially for students to network what it will mean for the Society in serves as a guide for assessing the and worked tirelessly to get it out to students were named Bridge Fel- with each other and faculty as they the coming years. importance and relevance of op- members and to discuss it with unit lows at two newly selected APS begin their bridge programs,” said portunities that we take advantage executive committees. I enjoyed Bridge sites, University of South Brian Beckford, APS Bridge How did the development of in the future. very much working with him. Florida and The Ohio State Uni- BRIDGE continued on page 6 of the strategic plan help shape Laying the groundwork meant KIRBY continued on page 6 2 • August/September 2013

Members This Month in Physics History in the Lord Rayleigh and the Discovery of Argon: August 13, 1894 Media “A searcher obedient to truth,” he found a truth he was not searching for. “This was conceptually unthink- guerreotypes, The Chicago Tribune, Ed. Note: This column has been contributed by he had to conclude that nitrogen of chemical ori- able for cosmic rays.… There is no July 15, 2013. guest author Richard Williams. gin was always about 0.5% less dense than that cosmic ray physicist I know who Lord Rayleigh was the title borne by John Wil- obtained from air, well beyond experimental er- “If the four-quark explanation is ever expected that they would not liam Strutt, 1842-1919, who succeeded to the Bar- ror. He was unable to explain it. His first report confirmed, our particle physics zoo all be coming equally from all direc- ony of Rayleigh in 1873. He served as Professor of it in Nature, 46, 512 [1892], began “I am much will need to be enlarged to include tions.” of Experimental Physics at Cambridge University puzzled by some recent results as to the density of new species.… And our understand- Stamatios Krimigis, Johns Hop- from 1879 to 1884, as the successor to Maxwell, nitrogen, and shall be obliged if any of your read- ing of quark taxonomy will have ex- kins University, on recent unexpect- and served from 1887 to1905 at the Royal Institu- ers can offer suggestions as to the cause.” None panded into a new realm.” ed readings from the Voyager 1, The tion, London. Much of his research was done in was forthcoming. Eric Swanson, University of Los Angeles Times, June 27, 2013. his private laboratory at his home in Terling. Finally, William Ramsay, a chemist from Uni- Pittsburgh, on an unusual particle His work covered much of physics. Among versity College, London, learned of Rayleigh’s seen at the Belle experiment in Ja- “We’re all sitting at the edge of the things named for him are Rayleigh Scatter- results. He proposed that air might contain a pre- pan, and BESIII in China, FoxNews. our seats with what’s going to hap- ing, the Rayleigh-Jeans Equation, viously unknown heavy gas that com, June 19, 2013. pen there…. We expect discovery, the Rayleigh Refractometer, and the was not removed by the chemical but it doesn’t always work out the “This is a process that particle Rayleigh Criterion for Resolution. methods used to remove the other way you expect.” physicists have been trying to find His two-volume book The Theory of constituents. Around this time Nigel Lockyer, ’s new for 25 years…. [it’s a] rare process Sound, 1042 pages in all, published Rayleigh learned of an experiment director, on the science coming out involving a particle with a mass that in 1877, was definitive at the time by physicist Henry Cavendish in of the LHC, The Chicago Tribune, is roughly 1,000 times smaller than and is still in print. He was among 1795 that hinted at an unknown June 29, 2013. the masses of the heaviest particles the most eminent physicists of his constituent of air. Cavendish had we are searching for now.” era. What ultimately brought him mixed air with additional oxygen “We see a little bump in the data, Joe Incandela, CERN, after the Nobel Prize was the discovery and passed electric sparks from an so we take more data. The bump gets measuring the decay time of the BS of argon. How this happened is one electrostatic generator through the bigger and bigger, until we know meson, The Associated Press, July of the most remarkable stories in the gas, in contact with an alkali so- that it could no longer be attributed 19, 2013. annals of science. lution. This removed the nitrogen to random chance.” As a physicist, Rayleigh tended John William Strutt, and oxygen. At the end of a long “By my read, the idea of a Paul Tipton, Yale University, de- to be direct and decisive, with a 3rd Baron Rayleigh experiment a tiny bubble of gas functioning warp drive remains scribing how the Higgs Boson was clear goal in mind. In the argon dis- remained. He suggested that the far-fetched, but the real take-away discovered, ABCNews.com, July 4, covery, however, things were quite the opposite. bubble was a non-reactive gaseous constituent of is that people are thinking about 2013. His experiments were not aimed at the final result. the atmosphere. The experiment was never repeat- it–reminding us all that the urge to He began by working to test Prout’s Hypothesis ed and was forgotten for nearly a hundred years. explore continues to run deep in our “What they have done is a major from 1815, that the atomic weights of many ele- Rayleigh repeated the experiment with equipment species.” step, because they have been able to ments were integral multiples of the atomic weight that produced a stronger electrical discharge. This Neil deGrasse Tyson, American provide a much more complete de- of hydrogen taken as unity. worked, and about a cubic centimeter of gas was Museum of Natural History, com- scription of what really happens near The unusually difficult experiments are de- accumulated. It did not show the slightest trace of menting on theories for building a the black hole singularity using loop scribed in the biography, Life of John William the nitrogen spectrum nor did it show any chemi- faster-than-light warp drive, The quantum gravity…. We still don’t Strutt, Third Baron Rayleigh, by his son Robert cal reaction. New York Times, July 22, 2013. have a clear picture of the details of John Strutt. Rayleigh began by weighing hydro- Meanwhile Ramsay showed that red-hot mag- what happens. So it is opening a new gen and oxygen gases to determine their densities. nesium removed both nitrogen and oxygen from “So you have vanilla ice cream, door that other people will follow.” A 2-liter flask was evacuated, weighed, and then the air. He accumulated enough of the residual gas you throw it into space—some time Abhay Ashtekar, Pennsylvania weighed again after being filled with the gas. Buoy- to measure the spectrum, specific heat and other later, it turns into chocolate ice State University, commenting on ancy of the room air affected the observed weight, properties. Rayleigh and Ramsay combined their cream, or strawberry ice cream…. new developments using loop quan- and in turn was affected by the room temperature efforts and confirmed the existence of a new, in- This is a very, very weird phenom- tum gravity. NBCNews.com, July and barometric pressure. The experiments were ert, monatomic constituent of the atmosphere. enon.” 12, 2013. done by a trusted assistant, closely supervised by Lord Kelvin called this the greatest discovery of Chang Kee Jung, State Univer- the year. They announced their discovery at the “We don’t often connect what sity of New York at Stony Brook, Rayleigh himself, and went on for several years. August, 1894, meeting of the British Association goes on in giant particle physics describing how neutrinos change His result for the ratio of the density of oxygen to for Science. These meetings were similar to APS laboratories to what goes on in our flavors, Los Angeles Times, July 24, hydrogen was 15.882, which appeared to Rayleigh meetings, with many contributions, all with ab- everyday lives.… But that connec- 2013. to contradict the weight of 16 for oxygen. tion is there, and the story I try to To complete the study he then turned to what stracts of a hundred words or so. The Association’s report of their research was curiously brief for tell in my book is a very human one, “[W]e need different people in seemed like an easier problem, weighing nitrogen. of people doing their best, working Congress… Congress is a place The easiest way of obtaining the “pure” gas was such an important discovery. It read, in its entirety: their hardest, taking risks and dis- that’s filled with lawyers. Now the to remove the other then-known constituents of Monday, August 13 “1. A joint meeting with covering something really amazing.” law is an honorable profession, but air, oxygen, carbon dioxide and water vapor, by Section A was held, at which Lord Rayleigh, Sec. Sean Carroll, Caltech, The To- lawyers are trained to argue and chemical means. His result was in good agreement R.S., and Professor W. Ramsay, F.R.S., gave a pre- ronto Star, July 13, 2013. trained to dispute facts. What we with a measurement published several years earli- liminary account of a New Gaseous Constituent need are people who work with er. At this point, he made the decision that changed of Air.” “Cultural heritage, even by itself, facts.” the entire course of the investigation. “With char- Ramsay went on to discover He [known from is important.… It’s something that George Gollin, University of Illi- acteristic caution he wished to confirm the result the solar spectrum, but not previously known on we have to preserve for our children nois at Urbana-Champaign, declar- by a different method of preparing the gas.” He Earth], Ne, Kr, and Xe. and the generations that will follow.” ing his candidacy for the House of obtained the nitrogen by chemical reactions of am- This discovery brings to mind Alexander Pope’s Volker Rose, Argonne National Representatives, The Champaign/ monia or other nitrogen-containing compounds. epitaph for Isaac Newton: “Nature and Nature’s The result was a surprise. After two years of work Laboratory, on using his lab’s par- Urbana News-Gazette, July 23, RAYLEIGH continued on page 7 ticle accelerator to save old da- 2013.

Series II, Vol. 22, No. 8 both the old and new addresses, and, if possible, include Past-President (Particles & Fields), John Galayda (Physics of Beams), August/September 2013 a mailing label from a recent issue. Requests from sub- Robert L. Byer*, Stanford University Vincent Chan* (Plasma), Mark Ediger (Polymer Phys- scribers for missing issues will be honored without charge ics), Nan Phiney (California Section) © 2013 The American Physical Society only if received within 6 months of the issue’s actual date General Councillors of publication. Periodical Postage Paid at College Park, Haiyan Gao*, Marcelo Gleiser, Marta Dark McNeese, ADVISORS (Non-Voting) Coden: ANWSEN ISSN: 1058-8132 MD and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send Pierre Meystre*, Warren Mori, Keivan G. Stassun Representatives from other Societies Editor•...... Alan Chodos address changes to APS News, Membership Department, Fred Dylla, AIP; Gay Stewart, AAPT American Physical Society, One Physics Ellipse, College International Councillors Staff Science Writer ...... Michael Lucibella Park, MD 20740-3844. Marcia Barbosa, Annick Suzor-Weiner International Advisor Art Director and Special Publications Manager...... Kerry G. Johnson Gabor Kunstatter, Canadian Association of Physicists APS COUNCIL 2013 Chair, Nominating Committee Design and Production...... Nancy Bennett-Karasik Sally Dawson Staff Representatives President Tracy Alinger, Director, Information Services (College Proofreader...... Edward Lee Michael S. Turner*, University of Chicago Chair, Panel on Public Affairs Park); Alan Chodos, Associate Executive Officer; Mark APS News (ISSN: 1058-8132) is published 11X yearly, Subscriptions: APS News is an on-membership publi- Robert Rosner Doyle, Director, Journal Information Systems; Amy President-Elect monthly, except the August/September issue, by the cation delivered by Periodical Mail. Members residing Flatten, Director of International Affairs; Terri Gaier, Di- Malcolm R. Beasley*, Stanford University American Physical Society, One Physics Ellipse, Col- abroad may receive airfreight delivery for a fee of $15. Division, Forum and Section Councilors rector of Meetings; Barbara Hicks, Associate Publisher; lege Park, MD 20740-3844, (301) 209-3200. It contains Nonmembers: Subscription rates are available at http:// Neil Cornish* (Astrophysics), Thomas Gallagher Ted Hodapp, Director of Education and Diversity; Trish Vice President news of the Society and of its Divisions, Topical Groups, librarians.aps.org/institutional.html. (Atomic, Molecular & Optical Physics), Jose Onuchic Lettieri, Director of Membership; Darlene Logan, Direc- Samuel Aronson*, Brookhaven National Laboratory Sections, and Forums; advance information on meetings (Biological), Amy Mullin (Chemical), Frances Hellman tor of Development; Michael Lubell, Director, Public (retired) of the Society; and reports to the Society by its commit- Subscription orders, renewals and address changes (Condensed Matter Physics), Steven Gottlieb (Compu- Affairs; Dan Kulp, Editorial Director; Christine Gi- tees and task forces, as well as opinions. should be addressed as follows: For APS Members– tational), James Wallace (Fluid Dynamics), Gay Stewart accone, Director, Journal Operations; Michael Stephens, Executive Officer Membership Department, American Physical Society, (Forum on Education), Eric Sorte, (Forum on Graduate Controller and Assistant Treasurer Kate P. Kirby*, Harvard Smithsonian (retired) Letters to the editor are welcomed from the member- One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3844, Student Affairs), Michael Riordan (Forum on History Administrator for Governing Committees ship. Letters must be signed and should include an ad- [email protected]. of Physics), Gregory Meisner (Forum on Industrial and Treasurer/Publisher Ken Cole dress and daytime telephone number. The APS reserves Applied Physics), Herman Winick* (Forum on Inter- Joseph W. Serene*, Georgetown University (Emeritus) * Members of the APS Executive Board the right to select and to edit for length or clarity. All cor- For Nonmembers–Circulation and Fulfillment Division, national Physics), Lowell Brown (Forum on Physics respondence regarding APS News should be directed to: American Institute of Physics, Suite 1NO1, 2 Huntington and Society), Anthony Johnson* (Laser Science), James Editor-in-Chief Editor, APS News, One Physics Ellipse, College Park, Quadrangle, Melville, NY 11747-4502. Allow at least 6 Chelikowsky (Materials), David McIntyre (Northwest Gene D. Sprouse*, (on leave) MD 20740-3844, Email: [email protected]. weeks advance notice. For address changes, please send Section), Wick Haxton* (Nuclear), Marjorie Corcoran* August/September 2013 • 3

Washington Dispatch Updates from the APS Office of Public Affairs International News ...from the APS Office of International Affairs Brazil: I taught, I learned, I lived! POLICY UPDATE By Kathleen Foote Fiscal Year 2014 Appropriations The House and Senate are proceeding with consideration of the As a physics PhD candidate at Fiscal Year 2014 (FY14) appropriations bills. The Commerce, North Carolina State University Justice, Science appropriations have just been voted on by the full specializing in physics education, Senate. For NASA, appropriations committees in the House and I love to see how people teach the House appropriated $16.6B, a decrease of $943M, and the and learn science, especially in Senate appropriated $18.0B, an increase of $458M. For NIST, the House appropriated $784M, a decrease of $25M, and the other countries and cultures. The Senate appropriated $948M, an increase of $140M. For NSF, the US-Brazil student exchange pro- House appropriated $7.0B, a decrease of $259M, and the Senate gram—sponsored by APS and the appropriated $7.4B, an increase of $148M. Details of NASA, NIST, Sociedade Brasileira de Física— and NSF subaccounts are forthcoming. All comparisons are to FY13 immersed me in an exploration of pre-sequester appropriations. Brazilian education at the second- The next step in appropriations is for the bills to come up for a ary and university level, while I full floor vote. After that, however, the most likely scenario is that shared information about Ameri- drastically different spending numbers stemming from ideological can educational innovations. divides between Democrats and Republicans will stall any attempt to In May of 2011, another APS pass full appropriations and that FY14 will operate under yet another travel grant sponsored my trip Continuing Resolution (CR). to India to survey and interview Photo courtesy of Katie Foote Disagreement over the Budget Resolution, which by law Congress women about studying and work- Katie Foote and host, Dr. André Vieira at the SCALE-UP classroom during his must pass, highlights the ideological divides. The Resolution is ing in science. I enjoyed talking to visit to North Carolina State University supposed to establish spending priorities by government function students, women and high school with unique, modern architecture. members, compiling a collection and provide a top-line overall budget number that dictates total teachers so much that I sought out Reva Garg, a physics profes- of remarkable stories from wom- appropriations for the coming year. Unable to agree on a common the opportunity to collect simi- sor at the University of Brasilia en whose participation in phys- Resolution this year, the House and Senate have adopted lar data upon my return to North (UnB) was my primary host and ics spanned a half a century. Just The House Resolution provides dramatically different budget plans. Carolina. There were remarkable she welcomed me into her home as in the US, Brazilian women a total of $966B for discretionary spending, consistent with the 2010 similarities in the stories I heard, as a long-lost daughter. Her pri- are dramatically outnumbered in Budget Control Act (BCA), assuming continuation of across-the- board sequestrations for FY14. But the House Resolution provides but the differences were intrigu- mary research is in non-linear the natural sciences. Recently, a more money for Defense ($552B) and less for Non-Defense ($414B) ing. I decided to go to Brazil to optics, but she has also published couple of professors have been than the BCA stipulates. By contrast, the Senate Resolution does add a South American perspec- and presented work on women in volunteering to develop program- not assume continuation of sequestration and provides a total of tive to these findings. While I was physics. Her Indian background ming to interest women in these $1,058B for discretionary spending, $552B for Defense and $506B there, I gave three colloquia on made her a perfect host for this fields, despite minimal outside for Non-Defense, both slightly above the BCA caps. SCALE-UP [Student-Centered cross-cultural project. After work, support. The debate over federal spending is about both top-line numbers and Active Learning with Upside- she and her husband would take At UnB, I also met with the how those numbers are distributed. For example, President Obama down Pedagogies] to share my me on cultural excursions to the relatively new physics educa- requested and Senate appropriators have proposed $5,152M for dissertation work. Along the way, national theatre and the famous tion group. They develop teach- the Department of Energy Office of Science. The full House has I traveled to four cities and talk- Metropolitan cathedral, and make er-training programs, connect approved only $4,653M, a difference of almost $500M, which alone ed to representatives from five me the most delicious local foods schools to community resources would make it difficult to conference the bills. But House spending for schools and universities. and juices. Banana pizza with a and engage students in research Fusion is $50M higher than the Senate plan, while the Senate plan My trip began with ten days in side of freshly squeezed pineap- projects, mostly at the secondary includes $300M more for Basic Energy Sciences than the House Brasilia, the capital of the coun- ple juice was probably my favor- level. They have also compiled has approved. Furthermore, the House would eviscerate ARPA-E, try that was built in the middle ite, but it was a tough call! over a hundred hand-made ex- reducing it to only $50M as compared to the Senate which would fund ARPA-E at $379M. The House would also reduce funding of nowhere in 1960. It was care- While at UnB, I interviewed periments and demonstrations as significantly to Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), fully planned to look like an air- and surveyed dozens of under- a physics-learning lab for visitors. paring it back to $982M whereas the Senate would fund EERE at plane from above and is filled graduate students and faculty BRAZIL continued on page 6 $2,280M. Congress pushes back against STEM-Ed realignment The President’s request included a massive realignment of STEM-Ed All Five US Physics Olympians Come Home with Medals programs. Both chambers of Congress have included language in appropriations that severely limits the STEM-Ed realignment, and in By Michael Lucibella some cases outright forbids parts of it. The Senate explained, “The The United States placed high President’s budget was based on the administration’s proposal to in the standings at the annual in- reauthorize the ESEA [Elementary and Secondary Education Act, ternational competition of high more recently known as The No Child Left Behind Act], but no such bill has passed the Senate. As a result, programs in this account are school physics students. The five- based generally on current law, as authorized under the ESEA.” person US team brought home three gold medals and two silver The result is significant confusion. Many programs slated for medals from the International cancellation or consolidation under the President’s Budget request stopped taking grant proposals at the direction of the administration. Physics Olympiad held this year Congress is now directing those programs to continue as before, in Copenhagen, Denmark. while giving some leeway to internal reorganization. An unfortunate “It was a good year,” said result may be that at year’s end, there will be a lot of unspent STEM- coach Paul Stanley of Beloit Col- Ed money that will be returned to federal coffers and applied to deficit lege in Wisconsin. “We probably reduction. did slightly better than we did last year.” Officially the Olympiad is an individual competition between WASHINGTON OFFICE ACTIVITIES students, and the national rank- Photo courtesy of Paul Stanley POPA ings are informal standings. This Proudly displaying their medals after the competition in Copenhagen are US The review processes for several POPA Reports are nearing year the United States tied with team members (l to r): Kevin Zhou (gold), Jeffrey Cai (silver), Jeffrey Yan (gold), conclusion. The final documents will be published in the upcoming Thailand and Taiwan in unoffi- Calvin Huang (gold) and Samuel Zbarsky (silver). months and will be posted on the POPA Reports website: cial medal count standings. China http://www.aps.org/policy/reports/popa-reports/index.cfm placed first overall with five gold the students were given a series Olympiad experience. All togeth- APS membership commentary regarding the proposed APS medals, while Russia and Singa- of theoretical and experimen- er, the students spend five hours Statement on K-12 physics education is currently being reviewed and pore tied for second each with tal physics problems to solve. on the experimental problems, the statement will be considered by POPA at its October meeting. four gold and one silver. They’re judged not just on wheth- and five hours on the theoreti- Discussions are underway to host a joint international workshop on Individually US students did er they wound up with the correct cal problems over the course of tactical nuclear weapons, with sister physics societies in Europe. The well, with one student placing answer, but the process they used the week. Much of the rest of the idea for an international workshop stemmed from a recent US fifth overall and another placing to derive it as well. time was spent seeing the city workshop on the subject, held jointly by APS and the Center for eighth overall out of the roughly “This is fun for them,” Stan- and meeting other students from Strategic and International Studies. That report is available on the 400 students attending. ley said. “It’s nice that they have around the world. POPA Reports website. “It’s been a while since we’ve an outlet for this form of enjoy- “The most exciting thing is had two students in the top ten ment.” definitely the people from other DISPATCH continued on page 5 like that,” Stanley said. The test itself makes up only countries,” said Kevin Zhou, Over the course of a week, a small portion of the student’s OLYMPIANS continued on page 7 4 • August/September 2013

Physics History and the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism Letters I was pleased to see the head- of nucleosynthesis. This is noted Development, which had the task Readers interested in submitting a letter to APS News should line “APS Honors Vera Rubin and by prominent historians of physics of bringing applied technology up email [email protected] Kent Ford at Carnegie Institution” including Helge Kragh and Ste- to the level of eventual adversaries in the July APS News. On more phen G. Brush, among others. Germany and Japan. More on Physicists and Their Shirts than one occasion, I have had the I urge anyone interested in There was not a moment to The letter by Tor Laankan in the many activities that are offered pleasure of meeting Vera Rubin, this history to read Turner’s short lose in this effort, and DTM, with the June APS News on how physi- to visitors. It was reported that one who represents astrophysics in a article, Alpher and Herman’s ac- its wartime development efforts cists lose their shirts reminds me pit boss said, “They came with a fashion all can aspire to. Michael counts, or one of my recent pub- headed by Merle Tuve, was the of a time when they didn’t. single twenty dollar bill and one Turner’s presence at a place where lications (e.g., V.S. Alpher, “Ralph epicenter not only of recruiting It was at the 1986 March APS shirt, and they changed neither.” the existence of dark matter got A. Alpher, Robert C. Herman, and and hiring the best scientific and Meeting in Las Vegas. The ca- an early nod makes perfect sense the Cosmic Microwave Back- technological minds from across sinos and locals were not happy Marvin L. Cohen both in his role as APS President ground Radiation,” Physics in the country under the cloak of se- about our lack of participation in Berkeley, CA and as a distinguished astrophysi- Perspective, 2012, 14, 300-334.) crecy, but also of the early devel- cist and cosmologist. Ralph Alpher published, along opment of new methods in naval Turner contributed some re- with colleagues at the Johns Hop- degaussing and the first “smart Sir Christopher Wren and His Prize marks on pp. 8-9 of the September kins University Applied Physics bomb” known as the proximity “This Month in Physics His- and Hooke. 2008 issue of Physics Today about Laboratory (JHUAPL), the first fuze, which made its debut in Janu- tory” for July, 2013 discusses sci- Only seven months later, in the work of my father, Ralph A. estimates of the temperature of ary, 1943 in the USS Helena’s anti- entific wagers, specifically those August, 1684, did Halley go to Alpher, together with Robert C. the Cosmic Microwave Blackbody aircraft guns. After deployment, it made by Stephen Hawking. The Cambridge to present the question Herman, and George A. Gamow Radiation (Nature, 1948, 162, 774; neutralized most kamikaze attack column discusses the reward of a to Newton, after the term of the in the 1940s. The article bore the Physical Review, 1949, 75, 1089). on naval vessels. Deployed finally book worth 40 shillings that Sir promise that Sir Christopher made catch title “From abg to Precision This work was done independent- by the Army in the Ardennes, the Christopher Wren offered in Janu- already had expired. Newton of Cosmology: The Amazing Legacy ly of Gamow, who opposed the proximity fuze helped turn back ary, 1684 to “the first person able course had the solution. Halley of a Wrong Paper,” but in fact it concept theoretically but did pub- Hitler’s last, desperate offensive. to demonstrate that Kepler's laws announced on December 10, 1684 recognized the beginning of mod- lish an estimate himself in 1953. The work at DTM made a decisive could be derived from the inverse- to the Royal Society that he saw ern precision cosmology on April JHUAPL had been the adminis- difference in the outcome of the square law.” Newton’s solution in his treatise 1, 1948 with the first publication trative arm of DTM from 1942 war as recognized by the plaudits However, in The Life of Sir “De Motu Corporum in gyrum,” emerging from Alpher’s disserta- through 1945. DTM helped Alpher given the work done there by Sec- Isaac Newton by David Brewster and the rest is history. tion on nucleosynthesis. Few cit- get his start in applied physics. retary of the Navy James Forrestal, (J. & J. Harper, New York 1833), Incidentally, Mordechai Fein- ing the Alpher-Bethe-Gamow let- Herman joined JHUAPL in 1942. General George S. Patton, Admiral pp. 145-146, the author writes that gold in The Newtonian Moment ter to Physical Review recognize Gamow, a consultant to the Navy’s George Hussey, Jr. and others. Sir Christopher, at a January, 1684 (Oxford University Press, Oxford just what it is, or where it came Bureau of Ordnance during the The DTM has often been at the meeting with Halley and Hooke, 2004), pp. 29-30 writes that it was from. The addition of ’s war, as was Alpher, passed through forefront of scientific work, wheth- offered that book to “either of the “probably” Hooke's suggestion to name, in homage to the Greek al- the doors at DTM and JHUAPL er it be pure science, science in the two philosophers who should, in Halley to go to Cambridge to ask phabet, and the submission itself, many a time. public interest, or science applied the space of two months, bring Newton, as Newton had already were purely Gamowian. Alpher’s The Department of Terres- to national defense. The Depart- him a convincing demonstra- told Hooke some three years ear- first dissertation, involving theo- trial Magnetism (DTM) deserves ment itself maintains a finding aid tion of it.” I think this qualifies lier that he knew that the shape of retical work on galaxy formation, much broader recognition. In 1940 of more than a century of magnifi- more as a prize than as a wager, the orbit in an inverse-square force was “scooped” by E. Lifshitz in President Roosevelt authorized the cent achievements that would rival as both Halley (who was able to field was an ellipse. It appears that 1946 in the Journal of Physics establishment of the National De- any academic research university demonstrate it for circular orbits) Newton could have won Sir Chris- USSR (E. Lifshitz, 10, 116-129). fense Research Council (NDRC), (Department of Terrestrial Magne- and Hooke (who claimed he had topher's prize already over three Gamow likely wanted this not to headed by Vannevar Bush. Ralph tism General Files, 1904-Present, a general proof) believed it was years before it was proposed! happen again–hence the publica- A. Alpher was at the time work- carnegiescience.edu/legacy/find- true. Moreover, the prize was not tion even before Alpher’s disser- ing at the Carnegie Institution of ingaids/DTM-2005-07-General. generally announced: it was a pri- Lior Burko tation defense. This second dis- Washington (CIW) and assigned html ). I suggest we take note again vate competition between Halley Huntsville, AL sertation on nucleosynthesis work to the Department of Terrestrial of the singular role of the DTM in emerged from the “hot big bang” Magnetism under Scott Forbush. service to the nation, as well as a proposed by Gamow in 1946 (G. They were analyzing geomag- place where the existence of dark NEAL continued from page 1 Gamow, Physical Review, 1946, netic data gathered from around matter received a valuable lift. currently a board member of the from different fields, believing 70, 373-375). It took Alpher’s the globe. Suddenly, everyone was Ford Motor Company, chairing its that sharing different ways of mathematical genius to bring the working for the NDRC under the Victor S. Alpher committee on sustainability. thinking brings us breakthroughs idea to fruition as a precise theory Office of Scientific Research and Austin, TX “I hope to contribute relevant in science,” Ueda said. portions of my life experiences to Nadya Mason is a condensed the continued advancement of the matter experimentalist who has APS as it navigates the difficult focused on carbon nanotubes, times ahead,” Neal said. “For sev- graphene, topological insulators eral decades I have been actively and nano-scale superconductors. Zero Gravity working on many of the issues She has been a strong advocate the lighter side of science that now face the APS, including for diversity in the field. She is a improving funding for research, member of the APS Committee on addressing the competitive role of Minorities and chairs the Physics By Michael Lucibella the US in science, fostering cross- Diversity Committee at Illinois. communication between our sub- “The things that are important disciplines and with other science to me are increasing the pipeline fields...focusing concern about in physics, especially for women the state of our national laborato- and underrepresented minorities,” ries, addressing the challenges of Mason said. “And also just things outreach and science education, like making sure that the public, encouraging young people to con- especially policy makers, recog- sider careers in physics, helping nizes the importance of physics.” the public appreciate the enor- Patricia McBride has been mous contributions physics has at Fermilab for nearly 20 years. made to their quality of life, high- Her research focus is on the in- lighting the role of high school strumentation of particle physics physics teachers, and many other experiments, and she has been issues.” involved in the design of sev- Kiyoshi Ueda first arrived at eral experiments at Fermilab and Tohoku University in 1982. His CERN. In the past she has served research has been in areas of as chair of the Commission on atomic, molecular, and optical Particles and Fields under Interna- physics. He has helped organize tional Union of Pure and Applied multiple international conferences Physics, and was a vice-president in his and related fields. He said of the IUPAP Executive Council. in his candidate statement that sci- “It’s a job that I take seriously and ence is becoming more and more I understand that it’s important for borderless, and it’s important to the organization to have strong foster both international and inter- leadership,” McBride said. “I’m disciplinary collaborations. a firm believer that these kinds “I hope to make a bridge among of organizations have to reinvent scientists all over the world and themselves to stay current.” © Michael Lucibella, 2013 August/September 2013 • 5

...and the abstract was t-h-i-s long ... Education Corner In late July, 22 physicists convened at APS educational programs and publications APS headquarters in College Park to sort abstracts for the upcoming meeting of the Division of Plasma Physics. In the photo, 2013 Learning Assistant Program at the University of Colorado Nikolai Gorelenkov of Princeton Plasma The PhysTEC project will be co-sponsoring its fifth workshop Physics Laboratory (left) converses with focusing on the University of Colorado’s Learning Assistant program October 27-29, 2013. The Learning Assistant program Mark Koepke of West Virginia University is a highly supported peer teaching experience that has been (center) and colleague Igor Kaganovich of shown to improve students’ learning and attitudes toward science PPPL. The DPP meeting will take place in in undergraduate lecture classes and recruit talented science and math students into teaching careers. Denver, November 11-15.

Information on the 2013 program will be published as it becomes available at http://www.ptec.org/conferences/cula13/. For resources Photo by Michael Lucibella and more information on the CU LA Program, visit the Learning Assistant Alliance at http://www.learningassistantalliance.org/.

APS releases new poster on Quantum Information Winners Selected in APS Middle-School Science Program “Quantum Information” is an attractive and informative introduction APS has announced the win- tains the materials for four experi- uses for the kits and experiments.” to cutting-edge quantum physics technology for high school and ners of this year’s PhysicsQuest ments and a comic book starring The experiments are designed undergraduate students. The poster highlights how quantum mechanics could revolutionize computing, communication and competition for middle school the original APS superhero Spec- to teach physics, and get students cryptography. A copy of the poster will be sent to every physics students. Taking the grand prize tra. Classes perform the experi- interested in learning how science department chair in August. Additional copies can be ordered is Robert Capanna’s fourth-period ments and send in their answers works at the same time. online at: http://www.aps.org/programs/education/highschool/ class at the Kiski Area Intermedi- for a chance at winning the ran- “Kids open the kits and get teachers/quantum.cfm ate School in Vandergrift, Penn- domized drawing. excited about the toys inside,” sylvania. The class won an assort- This year’s theme was fluid Thompson said. “It’s also teach- Physics and Instructional Resources (PAIR) Project Update ment of physics gear from APS, dynamics and granular materi- ing not just fluid dynamics but 20 teams consisting of a high school physics teacher and a physicist and a $500 gift certificate to be re- als. The kits featured experiments also broader ideas like how to de- are concluding their participation in the Physics and Instructional deemed at the school science sup- about how cornstarch in water is sign an experiment, the scientific Resources (PAIR) project. A private donation enabled APS staff to pliers Educational Innovations. In a shear thickening non-Newtonian method and investigation.” run this teacher/scientist alliance project in schools across the United addition, each student received an fluid while ketchup is shear thin- Second place this year went States. Teams received funds to purchase classroom equipment iPod Touch. ning. Other experiments included to the 2013 Henry Owen Science for the high school teacher, and the pair worked collaboratively “This year the class that won investigating the “Brazil nut ef- Students from the Shore Educa- to integrate that equipment into the classroom. Projects included building large-scale classroom demonstrations, purchasing iPads had been doing it for several years fect,” building a vortex cannon, tional Collaborative in Chelsea, for computer data collection, and building a bicycle-powered electric and were excited to get iPods for and testing the hydrodynamics of Massachusetts. They received as- generator. Participating teachers reported increased confidence in the whole class,” said Rebecca different shapes. sorted physics gear and a $300 gift their ability to teach physics concepts as well as enthusiasm on the Thompson, head of the APS Pub- “One of the things that we did certificate. part of their students. lic Outreach Department. that was new this year was the Third place went to Linda De- Each year, APS sends out Facebook group,” Thompson said. Carlo’s eighth grade physical sci- Topical Group on Education Research: New APS unit for 13,000 free kits, one per class- “The discussion between teachers ence class at the Sawgrass Springs advancing the learning and teaching of physics room, to more than 3,500 teachers was extremely valuable.… It al- The objective of the Topical Group on Physics Education Research across the country. Each kit con- lowed everyone to see interesting WINNERS continued on page 6 (GPER) is the advancement and diffusion of knowledge concerning the learning and teaching of physics. This knowledge is based on studies ranging from individuals to institutional practices, from neural and cognitive processes to social and contextual components of APS Committee Endorses Next Generation Standards education, from basic research to educational practices in physics. The objectives of this research include the integration of scientific By Michael Lucibella The National Research Coun- Society can help states adopt the knowledge and analysis methods across disciplines to address the cil, the National Science Teachers standards. “Adoption is one step; dynamical complexities and uncertainties of learning and teaching The APS Committee on Edu- physics. Learn more at: http://www.aps.org/units/gper/index.cfm cation voted to endorse a set of Association, the American As- implementation doesn’t happen science standards aimed at bring- sociation for the Advancement of overnight.” ing some uniformity to the patch- Science and the educational non- Education standards have his- DISPATCH continued from page 3 work of standards adopted by state profit Achieve worked together to torically been a controversial idea. boards of education across the develop the standards along with Oftentimes state boards of edu- A Climate Change Statement Review Subcommittee has been representatives of 26 state boards formed. The Subcommittee will be reviewing the current APS country. The committee signed off cation object to the idea of hav- Statement on Climate Change to determine if revisions are on the physics content of the Next of education. The Carnegie Insti- ing national standards imposed necessary, based in part on the report of Working Group 1 of the Generation Science Standards tute of New York helped fund the on them, which is why the Next Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) due for release (NGSS), and voted to encourage effort. Generation standards are volun- this fall. states to adopt them. The standards are composed tary and have been organized with POPA considered and approved a proposal, suggested by the APS The standards were in part in- of a number of “performance ex- much input from states. Committee on Education, for a Society-endorsed statement on spired by the Common Core set of pectations” that students should In addition, some boards find undergraduate research. The proposed statement will now move standards for math and language be able to achieve. Such expecta- the content of some of the stan- to the APS Council for comment, and then on to the APS Executive arts which have been adopted by tions emphasize teaching how sci- Board for review. dards objectionable. more than forty states. The science ence works and what scientists do “There’s always the issue of A template for study proposals can be found online, along with a standards were first released in rather than a list of scientific facts suggestion box for future POPA studies: evolution, and there are people April and so far three states have and equations. who aren’t happy that there’s the http://www.aps.org/policy/reports/popa-reports/suggestions/index. “It’s a whole shift in thinking cfm. adopted them while others are in issue of anthropogenic effect on about what standards are and what the process of considering them. climate,” said Ramon Lopez, a Media Update they are not,” Quinn said. “My guess is more than half of professor at the University of Tex- The push for the passage of the Helium Stewardship Act was The aim of the standards is to bolstered by two op-eds recently published in Politico and Roll Call, the states will have adopted the as at Arlington. “We’re not trying set a minimum bar for students to two leading Capitol Hill newspapers. standards in a couple of years,” to preach to students, we’re asking understand the scientific process said of SLAC, who them to evaluate the evidence.” APS President Michael S. Turner and Moses Chan, physics after graduating from high school. professor at Penn State University, authored the Politico piece chaired the National Research Though the physics commu- Council’s Board on Science Edu- The standards are not for students on June 18, stating the bill is necessary to support cutting-edge nity has been generally positive cation which helped author the who have taken a physics-specific research for scientists and high-tech products developed by the towards the standards, some con- nation’s advanced manufacturing sectors. Chan also wrote a standards. course, as many states don’t re- have been raised within that commentary in support of the bill on July 9 in Roll Call. Authors of the standards point quire more than two years of basic the standards aren’t expansive To read the op-eds, click on the following links: out that though many state boards science. http://www.aps.org/policy/upload/Helium-op-ed-Politico-6-18-2013. of education have expressed an Textbook manufacturers in par- enough. pdf and http://www.aps.org/policy/upload/Helium-commentary- interest in the NGSS, it is neither ticular have been supportive of the “Breadth versus depth has been RollCall-6-2013.pdf a national set of standards nor effort because it is easier to print the ongoing tension in the pro- mandatory. States can voluntarily textbooks that conform to a broad- cess,” Cottle said. “As physicists In other news, Michael S. Lubell, director of public affairs for APS, we naturally favor a much deeper wrote an op-ed in Roll Call on July 25 titled “Why Social Science adopt or reject the standards. ly adopted set of standards than Matters.” In the piece, Lubell states that social science has become “The Next Generation Science to the amalgam of disparate state understanding.” a “punching bag for conservatives” even as they use the research Standards is a project to get states standards that exists today. Writers of the standards said for political purposes such as public polling. hooked together on their expecta- “There are many ways in that coming up with a final version tions for learning science,” said which scientists working with was a balancing act. For more information, log on to the APS Public Affairs website: Paul Cottle, chair of the APS Com- teachers could help the implemen- “They are by no means per- http://www.aps.org/policy/ mittee on Education. “They’re ap- tation phase,” Quinn said, add- fect,” said Lopez, ”but I think it propriate for setting topics that ing that the APS involement in would be very difficult to do a every student should know.” teacher training is one way that the whole lot better.” 6 • August/September 2013

KIRBY continued from page 1 Implementation ideas were not understand how better to serve this to start one. a community of opportunities for We will form a Task Force on part of the strategic plan document cohort and connect this community The Development Task Force, young physicists. International Engagement this fall because we wanted to involve with our early-career physicists. chaired by APS President-Elect APS is just in the process of to make recommendations on pro- more of our members in this phase As physics has become more of a Mac Beasley, has recently com- starting a new journal focusing on grams that will help us serve our of the planning process–through global enterprise, it is important for pleted its work. We had realized applied physics. It aligns with our international members better, iden- our units, APS committees, and ad APS to increase its international that we were going to have to ramp interest in terms of raising the pro- tify opportunities to partner with hoc task forces. Over the next sev- engagement. up our development efforts in order file of industrial and applied phys- other physical societies around the eral years we will continue to lay We want to continue to lead in to fund important new activities in ics. world, and will generally raise the out an implementation; we can’t do the dissemination of physics, both the future. This Task Force looked Another thing that I hope our level of our international engage- everything at once. through our journals and meetings, critically at our development ef- membership sees in the future is ment. as well as serving the physics com- forts and made some valuable rec- the fact that our website is going Finally, in each new endeavor, What are the broad aims of munity and society through our ommendations, which we will be to be undergoing considerable im- we will be looking at ways to as- the strategic plan? programs in education, diversity, starting to implement immediately. provement. We recently formulated sess impact and measure success. It is not an accident that goal outreach and advocacy for physics. a digital strategy, which should re- How will the membership see number one is serving our mem- sult in vast changes to our website What’s next? the strategic plan impact them in Are you excited for your sec- bers better. From what I understand in terms of searchability across all Perhaps it’s important to lay out the near future? ond term, and having the chance in the past, APS perhaps defined it- journal and meeting content, and what’s happened since we rolled I hope the early-career physi- to implement all this? self in terms of serving the physics an improved overall user experi- community broadly. So empha- the plan out to the members in May cists see that we are moving to Absolutely, I am very energized. ence. sizing serving our members was 2012. One of the first task forces serve them much more effectively I think it’s important to build on the a bit of a change. But I think our that we formed focused on early- and to provide a supportive com- What are some of the longer- commitment of all our members to members are our strongest asset. career physicists. Serving this com- munity within which they can re- term plans? this organization. I think we can We need to be thinking about how munity with more extensive career ally flourish. We’ve also hired an We’re very concerned about always improve our effectiveness, we communicate better with them, information and creating oppor- industrial physicist who will start making our meetings more inno- our member communications, and and how we engage them better in tunities for them to network with work in mid-September. He will vative. We’ve just formed a Task we need to be focusing constantly the activities and programs of the a diversity of people working in help to build our relationship to Force to look at the APS April on serving our members and the Society. physics and physics-related areas physicists working in the private Meeting and see if there are ways physics community in ways that In addition we have objectives is a top priority for APS. The Task sector, because I think we need to we can make that meeting more of are valued. We need to be sure that to increase diversity and foster Force, chaired by Brad Conrad raise the profile of industrial and a “must-attend” meeting. We’ve we are advancing physics, whether inclusiveness in our membership (Appalachian State University) en- applied physics within the APS, moved to increase the content it’s advocating for research fund- and in the physics community as thusiastically recommended mov- which will also serve our early ca- on the web from our meetings by ing from the federal government, a whole. We need to be serving ing forward to initiate a program reer physicists better. Most of our video-recording plenary talks at or whether it’s communicating to our early-career members (gradu- of early-career “chapters” and the students will ultimately not go into both the March and April Meetings the public the importance of the ate students, postdocs, and those Executive Board approved this in academia, but they will find -re and also posting invited talks from contributions of physics research moving into their first jobs) better. June. We expect that in a year’s warding work in the private sector. most of our meetings on the web in their daily lives. These are all We also need to be recognizing the time we will have started up 5 ear- Including that community more (with the speaker’s cooperation). opportunities that we are currently important contributions that physi- ly-career chapters located around within the APS membership and We will be continuing to look at pursuing, trying to make sure that cists in the private sector (industry/ the U.S., and hope that there will APS programs and activities is re- ways to bring innovative changes we do things that have the greatest high-tech companies) make and to be interest from many more groups ally important in terms of creating into our meetings. impact.

BRAZIL continued from page 3 BRIDGE PROGRAM continued from page 1 Program Manager. being involved in the community, below ability in high-stakes mea- What I saw at UnB made me re- Brazil and one of the most di- Newly selected Bridge Fellows among others. sures when seeing oneself through alize the ingenuity of individuals verse, blending indigenous, Af- also had the opportunity to inter- Leaders from bridge programs the lens of a negative stereotype. who wanted to share their love of rican, European and Asian heri- act with students from existing from around the country presented She presented values-affirmation science without many resources or tages. Sao Paulo actually contains bridge programs at MIT, Colum- the nuts and bolts of their pro- as a way of reducing stereotype much financial support, since im- the largest population of Japanese bia, Michigan, and Fisk-Vander- grams during a session on bridge threat by reminding people of proving education is only starting people outside of Japan. I asked bilt. These students participated program logistics. Summer Ash, sources of their self-worth. to become a priority for the Brazil- if ethnic diversity provided moti- in a panel in which they candidly Assistant Director of Columbia ian government. vation for adopting SCALE-UP, Mandana Sassanfar described described their experiences, talk- University’s “Bridge to the PhD” I visited the private American since at NC State it significantly the two-year non-degree Bio- ed about how they fared with the Program, described the two-year School of Brasilia to see the “best- reduced failure rates for women technology Biology Bridge (B3) GRE, and shared defining mo- non-degree program, in which case” scenario of high school edu- and other traditionally underrep- Program at MIT, which provides ments, among other topics. students are hired as research as- cation in Brazil. The physics class resented groups. USP professors students with research training in Peter Henderson, Senior Advi- sistants as they prepare for gradu- felt like a SCALE-UP classroom: are more concerned with handling industry as well as rigorous aca- sor to the President at University ate school in the natural sciences. students worked in groups to col- differences in economic back- demic preparation at MIT. of Maryland, Baltimore County, Çagliyan Kurdak explained that lect real-time lab data, solve prob- ground and incoming knowledge, Philip Kutzko, University of delivered the opening plenary at the University of Michigan Ap- lems on whiteboards and present especially after recent affirmative Iowa, spoke about the National Al- the meeting. Henderson discussed plied Physics Imes-Moore Fel- results to classmates. Unfortunate- action efforts. Universities are re- liance for Doctoral Studies in the the National Academies Report lows Program emphasizes pro- ly, active and collaborative learn- quired to accept a certain percent- Mathematical Sciences, which has “Expanding Underrepresented gram flexibility and personalized ing opportunities are rare in Bra- age of students from public high similar goals to the Bridge pro- Minority Participation: America’s mentoring in preparing students to zil, especially in public schools, schools, which historically pro- gram. It seeks to increase the num- Science and Technology Talent complete doctoral degrees in ap- because financial resources are vide a notoriously poor education, ber of students from “families, at the Crossroads.” He explained plied physics. Keivan Stassun said tight and often, teachers are not thus the preparation of students regions and ethnic backgrounds why broad participation matters, that the Fisk-Vanderbilt bridge trained appropriately. This was varies significantly. that have had little prior contact and presented recommendations program looks for basic content true even back in 1950, when My last meeting was with the with the profession and culture of Richard Feynman complained Chemistry Education Group at from the report. He also discussed preparation and “grit” in students UMBC’s Meyerhoff Program, de- accepted into its two-year master’s the mathematical sciences” who about the shallowness of educa- Brazil’s largest Federal Univer- enroll in doctoral studies, earn tion here, since he found students sity in Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). The signed to increase diversity among sequence, designed to lead to a future leaders in STEM. Vanderbilt PhD. doctoral degrees, and enter the could only recall facts, not apply disparity between rich and poor is workforce. The Alliance has built information. especially apparent in Rio, a city William Sedlacek, University The conference also featured a sizable community of faculty Realizing that students need to infamous for its favelas (slums). of Maryland, gave a talk on “What sessions on research on mentor- mentors, math sciences students, do more than memorize informa- Educating these students is a chal- more do I need besides grades, ing, building community, generat- and math sciences departments tion to be innovative, productive lenge, since many struggle with test scores, and the right courses?” ing administrative and faculty sup- committed to promoting a diverse members of today’s workforce, drugs, gangs, and lack of food and Sedlacek described the GRE as port, being a successful mentee, workforce. physics professors at the Univer- healthcare. The Chemistry Educa- an insufficient predictor of gradu- research/evaluation questions on sity of Sao Paulo (USP, South tion Group has rapidly expanded ate school success, and advocated increasing diversity, and admis- The APS Bridge Program is America’s best university) ap- its facilities to include computer using non-cognitive variables in sions criteria and their correlation funded by a grant from the Nation- plied for funding to implement labs and rooms for experiments measuring prospective graduate with success. al Science Foundation. The project SCALE-UP’s minimal lecture, for students whose schools can- students. These variables include In a plenary talk, Valerie Pur- anticipates holding another meet- technology-rich, highly collabora- not afford these supplies, and their demonstrating leadership, hav- die-Vaughns of Columbia ad- ing next June, featuring the role tive approach. I wanted to make outreach efforts keep growing. ing long-range goals, taking ad- dressed stereotype threat–the of master’s degrees in improving sure to visit and see how they Overall, Brazil and the United vantage of support networks, and well-documented effect of scoring diversity. use this reformed pedagogy and States face similar challenges as classroom design. SCALE-UP large, diverse countries trying to ing with my UnB host on a paper and Andre WINNERS continued from page 5 has been spreading rapidly (cur- stay competitive in an increas- Vieira from USP came to visit my University rently to almost 200 institutions ingly technological age. I enjoyed to see SCALE-UP in action. Every time I said Middle School in Coral Springs, Florida. They received worldwide) and André Vieira had the opportunity to share dialogue goodbye to someone in Brazil, they wanted me a $100 gift certificate and physics gear. been inspired to try it at USP after with Brazilians in a variety of po- to promise to come back. I hope I will be able “It’s really refreshing to find an organization that sup- talking to a collaborator at Duke sitions about educating the next to return soon! plies a resource that is usable by itself,” DeCarlo said. “This comes completely encapsulated…. I wish more University. generation of scientists and en- Kathleen Foote is a physics PhD candidate companies would do something like this.” Sao Paulo’s 12 million resi- gineers. I expect these collabora- in the Physics Education Research Group at dents make it the biggest city in tions to last a lifetime–I am work- North Carolina State University. August/September 2013 • 7

ANNOUNCEMENTS

CORRECTION: In the Back Page in the February APS News, in the Physicists, physics graduate students, and postdocs in India and the discussion about use of the GRE as an admissions criterion for graduate school, United States can apply for travel grants to pursue opportunities in the it was stated that in "the US News formula, the weight given to the mean GRE other country. score is 12%." This is incorrect for physics; their science department rankings are based solely on peer surveys. The National Research Council includes the The APS-IUSSTF Professorship Awards in Physics funds phys- GRE as 8% of the department rankings. icists in India or the United States wishing to visit overseas to teach short courses or provide a physics lecture series delivered at a U.S. or Reviews of Modern Physics Indian university. Awards are up to U.S. $4,000. Silicon quantum electronics Through the APS-IUSSTF Physics Graduate Student and Postdoc Visitation Program, U.S. and Floris A. Zwanenburg, Andrew S. Dzurak, Andrea Morello, Indian graduate students and postdocs may apply for travel funds to pursue a breadth of opportunities in Michelle Y. Simmons, Lloyd C. L. Hollenberg, Gerhard Klimeck, Sven Rogge, Susan N. Coppersmith, and Mark A. Eriksson physics. Silicon is universally recognized as the central ingredient of today's computer This program is sponsored by the Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF) and administered by and electronic technologies. Silicon not only benefits from a microelectronics fabrication technology developed over the last half century but also provides the American Physical Society (APS). an ideal host environment for spins in the solid state, since there is negligible spin-orbit coupling and Si isotopes have zero nuclear spin. This review cov-

Application Deadline: Friday, 1 November 2013 TM ers recent experimental advances and theoretical developments. Highlights include a description of methods to isolate and manipulate single electrons and their spins in gate-defined quantum dots and in individual dopant atoms, Application information: www.aps.org/programs/international/us-india-travel.cfm advances which point to the realization of quantum computation using spin quantum bits in a material with a long spin coherence time. http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/RevModPhys.85.961 Accepting applications from U.S. applicants for the Brazil-U.S. Exchange Program. http://rmp.aps.org Through the Brazil-U.S. Physics Graduate Student and Postdoc Visitation Program, graduate students and postdocs can apply for travel funds to pur- sue a breadth of opportunities in physics. Grants are for up to USD $3,000. Senior Editor-Physical Review Applied TM he American Physical Society is conducting an international search for the found- The Brazil-U.S. Professorship/Lectureship Program funds physicists in Ting Senior Editor of the newly established journal Physical Review Applied. The Brazil and the United States wishing to visit overseas to teach a short course Senior Editor will develop editorial standards and policies, direct the journal, and Brazil-U.S. or deliver a lecture series in the other country. Grants are for up to USD $4,000. lead an editorial board and staff of editors. The scope of Physical Review Applied will comprise experimental and theoretical applications of all areas of physics, including Exchange Program The deadline for U.S. applicants traveling to Brazil is Friday, 1 November 2013. condensed matter, materials, electronic structure and transport, lasers, optics and optoelectronics, magnetism, nanoscience, superconductivity, biophysics, fluids and http://www.aps.org/international/programs/brazil.cfm devices, as well as applications to other sciences, engineering, and industry. This 2014 journal will maintain the same high editorial standards as the other Physical Review This program is sponsored by the Sociedade Information for Brazilian applicants: journals to select papers with significant, new results for publication. Brasileira de Física (SBF) and APS. www.sbfisica.org.br/v1/ TM The Senior Editor may maintain his/her present appointment and location while de- voting at least 20% of his/her time to this position. The initial appointment is for a three-year term with renewal possible after review. Salary is negotiable and depen- RAYLEIGH continued from page 2 dent on established time commitment. The desired starting date is 1 October 2013. laws lay hid in night: God said, The name “argon” was pro- or, indeed, “atom.” The “ergon” is The APS is an equal employment opportunity employer and encourages applications Let Newton be! and all was light.” posed by H.G. Madan, from the “energy,” as in the “erg” of phys- from or nominations of women and minorities. Inquiries, nominations, and appli- cations (cover letter plus CV) should be sent by 1 September 2013 to: Chair, Argon and four other elemental Greek word, aergon meaning “in- ics. PR Applied Search Committee, [email protected] gases lay hid in plain sight, there ert” or ”lazy”. It is a contraction Rayleigh and Ramsay each re- in every breath. Rayleigh’s dili- of two words, “a” and “ergon.” ceived the Nobel Prize in 1904, gent physics and Ramsay’s savvy The “a” is a prefix negating the Rayleigh for Physics and Ramsay JOURNAL continued from page 1 chemistry brought all to light. following word, as in “apolitical,” for Chemistry. geoning area,” said Kate Kirby, aims of the strategic plan,” Kirby APS’s Executive Officer. “I hope said. “To have a journal of applied OLYMPIANS continued from page 3 it becomes the journal in which to physics research within the Physi- of the High Technology High ond, students were given solar ative for the students. Instead of publish high quality applied phys- cal Review family is an important School in Lincroft, New Jersey. cells and a related series of ques- what he calls “cookbook” ques- ics papers.” statement that applied physics and This was his second time com- tions. tions, where students plug in a In the last ten years, applied industrial physics is valuable re- peting at the Olympiad, and he “I feel quite good about it. It’s long series of prescribed equa- areas of physics research have search that advances physics fron- placed fifth overall. “The test is nice to think that I’m the best seen tremendous growth. Both the tions into their calculators, he’s tiers.” not the big emphasis.” experimental physicist in the number of articles in applied phys- “There’s a broad goal of the The students were treated to world,” Huang quipped. He add- seen more abstract questions ics, and the number of journals de- strategic plan that we should have trips to local museums and his- ed that he particularly liked the where students have to infer their voted specifically to it have been a place in our journals for all of torical sites around Copenhagen. last question dealing with solar own problem-solving methods. growing substantially, particularly our members to publish,” Sprouse Researchers from the Niels Bohr cells, which asked the students “It was kind of neat dealing in condensed matter and materials. said. institute came and spoke to the to determine water’s index of re- “The journal is going to be very with questions that the organiz- APS has constituted a search Olympiad participants. fraction by measuring the change ers tried to make practical yet broad in scope,” Sprouse said, Calvin Huang from Gunn in current when a container of adding that all fields with an ap- committee to find an editor for the good,” Stanley said. He said also High School in Palo Alto, Cali- water is placed between the solar plied component are encouraged journal. Following the selection fornia, placed first overall in the cell and the light source. that his favorite question asked to publish in the new journal. of the editor, the committee will experimental competition, which Stanley said he felt that over the students to estimate the pow- The push for Physical Review begin recruiting associate editors. had two parts. The first dealt with the last five years Olympiad er of a meteor by analyzing video Applied stems also from the APS If all goes according to plan, re- the speed of light, and in the sec- questions have gotten more cre- of it taken by a security camera. strategic plan, which calls for more searchers will start submitting pa- effort to reach out to, and to serve, pers in the fall, and the journal will OPEN ACCESS continued from page 1 applied and industrial physicists. publish its first issue sometime the publishers’ websites, other do this.” sible for the authors. “It aligns very well with the early next year. non-governmental repositories A significant feature of CHO- “All they have to do is put the or a government server akin to RUS is a central web portal proper acknowledgement in their PHYS REV X continued from page 1 PubMed Central, which is man- through which researchers can paper and they’re done,” Serene tributes more weight to the highly one of three APS journals that are aged by the National Institutes of link to open access articles stored said. cited journals while it controls for entirely open access. The rest are Health. on the publishers’ servers. The If all goes well, it is likely self-citations and for journal size. hybrid journals that include some “The OSTP memo has a set CHORUS website would cross- that a proof of concept version of Eigenfactor gave PRX an article open access content. of requirements that are going to reference metadata of the papers CHORUS will be running by the influence score of 5.001. In the same report, Reviews be met one way or the other. The to make them more easily discov- end of summer and a full version “The articles in PRX are clear- of Modern Physics received an question is how,” said APS Trea- erable. by the end of the year. ly making an impact,” said the impact factor of 44.982 while surer/Publisher Joseph Serene. A new standardized meta- In another action by the Ex- journal’s editor, Jorge Pullin, in a Physical Review Letters came in “We would prefer people to find data tag that identifies the fund- statement. “The physics commu- at 7.943 (both published by APS). ecutive Board, APS decided not papers on our own sites.” ing source of research has been nity has been very supportive. We More information about the to participate in the proposed He added that he would like to developed. Everyone would be are eager to continue PRX’s cur- impact factor, and a discussion of see federal funds spent on science able to more easily track which SCOAP3 open access initiative. rent momentum and take it to an the pros and cons of using it as a research rather than on maintain- papers received federal funding Based at CERN in Geneva, the even higher level in terms of qual- measure of significance, can be ing a server for journal articles, and are therefore subject to the re- initiative intends to redirect in- ity and influence.” found in Wikipedia under “Impact similar to those already main- quirements outlined in the OSTP stitution subscription revenue to Launched in 2011, PRX is an Factor”, and in E. Garfield, “The tained by the publishers. “Publish- memo. participating publishers to make online-only author pays open ac- history and meaning of the journal ers have been hosting their content The inclusion of the funding high-energy physics papers avail- cess journal, featuring research impact factor”, J. Amer. Med. As- for a long time; we know how to information is as effortless as pos- able open access. from all physics disciplines. It is soc. 295, 90 (2006).” 8 • August/September 2013

he Task Force on Teacher Education students. Yet, they are what many students pick Tin Physics (T-TEP) was convened by up. APS, AAPT and AIP to examine high school The Role of Physics Departments in We envision a very different situation, one physics teacher education in the United in which most physics departments see part of States and make recommendations for its High School Teacher Education their mission as encouraging talented students improvement. T-TEP found that, except for to consider physics teaching as a career, and a handful of isolated pockets of excellence, By David E. Meltzer, Monica Plisch, and Stamatis Vokos in which many physics faculty are actively the national landscape of physics teacher engaged in the education of future teachers. preparation shows a system that is largely Many of these physics departments would inefficient, mostly incoherent, and completely unprepared Physics departments with a physics partner with expert practicing teachers to provide students to deal with the current and future needs of the nation’s stu- teacher education (PTE) program with diverse role models of high-quality physics teaching, dents.* Physics departments have an indispensable role to and together they would mentor bright students who sought play if every high school student is to have the opportunity careers as physics teachers. As a consequence, increasing to learn physics with a qualified teacher. However, most proportions of high school students would experience exhil- physics departments currently avoid playing an active role arating physics courses from inspirational, knowledgeable in physics teacher education. We believe this avoidance is teachers before they even began university study. Moreover, not in the best interests of the physics community. at this time of national emphasis on the need for more and I. The impact of pre-college science education on the better prepared STEM teachers, a physics department that physics community aligns itself with such institutional and national priorities is PTE graduates in a two-year period The US physics community has become habituated–per- likely to upgrade its perceived value both within the univer- haps unconsciously–to a pre-college science education sys- most obvious problem, most physics teachers don’t have sity, and within society as a whole. tem that is relatively weak by international standards. Sever- adequate physics content backgrounds; about two-thirds of We believe that physicists and physics departments are al studies have confirmed that, when comparing equivalent them did not major in physics or physics education. Of the capable of addressing the problem of high-quality physics student populations, US science students rank no better than minority who do have adequate content knowledge, only a teacher education quite effectively. Indeed, there are physics middle-of-the-pack among developed nations, and indica- small portion actually had specialized preparation in physics departments that graduate relatively large numbers of teach- tions are that physics students rank even lower. There is no teaching, not merely in “general science” teaching. Not co- ers from excellent programs; some of these are indicated by great mystery regarding the cause: pre-college students in incidentally, physics teacher preparation is scattered among the outliers in the histogram distribution (see figure). The other countries study science–including physics–for more hundreds of institutions, only a few of which can and do T-TEP recommendations for physics departments center on years than they do in the US, and other nations tend to put devote the resources necessary to do a good job. (i) developing strong content-knowledge background, (ii) substantially more resources into preparing highly qualified II. The role of physics departments cultivating early physics teaching experiences under expert science teachers for those students. Five years of study by T- Physicists tend to regard the situation of weak pre-col- mentorship, and (iii) developing special courses focused TEP have shown that, despite the presence of many devoted lege science education in the US with some resignation, be- specifically on physics pedagogy. The US has never come and highly qualified high school physics teachers, the over- lieving that it is neither their job to deal with this situation close to meeting these recommendations for the great major- all situation for US high-school physics students is not good. directly, nor that it has any significant impact on the effec- ity of its physics teachers. The impacts of our weak pre-college science-education tiveness of their own work or on the physics community. To III. What can be done system are visible to varying degrees. Despite recent growth the contrary, we argue, it does have an impact, and–while it As physics faculty we can begin by asking: How many in the number of physics bachelor’s degrees, the proportion may not be their “job”–university physics faculty bear some of our students have thought about becoming a teacher? If of students who elect to major in physics has been shrinking: responsibility for both the causes of and the potential rem- we do not know the answer, we should ask the students; their in fact, the number of physics bachelor’s degrees awarded edies for this unsatisfactory state of affairs. For one thing, responses may be surprising. Our experience has been that in 2010 was virtually identical to that in 1970, even though most US. physics teachers received their physics education a significant fraction of students consider teaching at some the overall number of bachelor’s degrees had more than though US physics departments, if they received one at all. point in their undergraduate program. A physics department doubled. Among the consequences of this shrinking propor- More to the point, if physics departments don’t take substan- that offers an encouraging and supportive environment for tion is an increasingly successful campaign by some state tial responsibility for this process, they can be sure that no future teachers can make a difference in what career stu- education administrators to eliminate the physics major one else will either: education schools have little motivation dents ultimately decide to pursue (and in the overall number from “lower producing” departments. While there are many and few resources to address deficiencies in physics teacher of students pursuing a physics degree). factors behind the low and declining proportion of physics education; neither do state education departments. There There are a number of steps physics faculty can take to majors, there can be little doubt that pre-university science simply is no other “responsible” party, like it or not. get started. Many of these actions do not require a lot of education has a significant influence. Several studies have To be sure, in such a complex system as teacher educa- time: shown that students’ decisions to major in science fields, tion, there are plenty of potential culprits to hold responsible including physics, are usually made well before their depar- for poor outcomes. And, in our experience, our tendency as • Find out what courses and other requirements are needed to ture from high school. Moreover, college students who re- earn a physics degree and teaching certification at your institu- physicists is to do just that and engage in finger pointing tion. Make this information widely available, for example, on the ceive inadequate physics preparation in high school are at a at others. Though perhaps justified, this ignores a zeroth- department website, in the course catalog, and as a handout substantial disadvantage when trying to complete a standard order explanation: the typical university physics department for advising. physics-major curriculum within four years. Studies have neither actively recruits nor culturally supports prospective • Make an announcement in introductory classes about physics shown that US students beginning undergraduate work are physics teachers, nor provides specialized preparation for teacher education and whom to contact if students are inter- not as well prepared in physics as are many of their foreign their future endeavors. According to a T-TEP survey of all ested. The contact should be knowledgeable about certification counterparts. US physics departments, the typical department graduates pathways and prepared to help students navigate the require- ments. Many physics faculty are aware that, among US phys- exactly zero physics teachers every two years (see figure). ics Ph.D graduates, US citizens are outnumbered by foreign As long as physics departments place primary respon- • Ask students with an aptitude for teaching if they have consid- citizens. An important contributing factor is that the number sibility for the preparation of physics teachers somewhere ered becoming a teacher. Share personal values about teach- ing and why it is important. of US citizens who go on to physics graduate study tends to else, abdicating their own role in the process, future teachers follow trends in the number of physics majors; fewer majors lose the guidance of the only community able to communi- • Invite a local physics teacher to give a presentation and meet means a smaller pool to fill openings for graduate students. cate the unique habits of mind that physicists possess. Worse with students interested in teaching. It is even better if the One might argue that there is no problem so long as foreign teacher is an alumnus of the department or is close in age to still, high school physics education loses its most natural the students. citizens are available to fill gaps left by domestic students. and ardent advocate. Physics is a relatively small player in However, the supply of foreign graduate students is not as- STEM precollege education. Although physicists see phys- • Go to lunch with the education faculty member in charge of the sured long term as global investments in R&D continue to secondary science education program. Learn more about the ics as a special way of knowing–not just a collection of facts certification program and look for opportunities to work togeth- rise relative to US levels of spending. A weak science-edu- and formulas–policymakers tend to view physics as just an- er. Showing respect for the expertise of education colleagues cation system is a potential liability in seeking to increase other package (among many competing packages) of stuff can help build the relationship and open doors. the domestic supply of physics students. to be learned, and therefore a dispensable luxury. The argu- • Consider making early teaching experiences available through There are additional impacts of the science-education ment goes as follows: Students have to take science. Physics the physics department. Such opportunities can help students system. It is reasonable to assert–though difficult to prove– teachers are scarce. Let students take environmental science identify a passion for teaching and experience its intellectual that weaknesses in pre-college science education undermine or more biology to fulfill their generic “science” require- challenges and rewards potential social support for the US science research enter- ment. Who, then, will stand up for the importance of physics prise. It is difficult to cultivate respect and support for a field education, if not the physicists themselves? An important resource is the Physics Teacher Education that is neither well understood nor well liked by citizens who Many physics departments convey to their students (of- Coalition (PhysTEC) project, led by APS with AAPT since were denied an enjoyable and rewarding science education ten unintentionally) the message that teaching is a second- 2001. PhysTEC-supported sites have collectively more than during their schooling. Weak science education also limits class career option, that being a physics teacher is a com- doubled the number of their graduates prepared to teach production of high school and college graduates with the promise someone would make if their first option–graduate physics, primarily by changing what happens in physics de- skills needed for an increasingly high-tech economy. school–did not pan out. After all, the thinking goes, aren’t a partments. PhysTEC has over 280 member institutions, and Efforts to improve the US science-education system decent command of content, tolerance toward adolescents, organizes an annual conference To learn more or become a must include dramatic changes in physics teacher education; and willingness to jump through education hoops the only member institution, visit ptec.org and phystec.org. such changes may not be sufficient, but they are certainly requirements for becoming a teacher? Isn’t the life of a re- Meltzer, Plisch and Vokos are the editors of the T-TEP report. Meltzer necessary. T-TEP has found that the present system of U.S. searcher the only true and noble calling for a physics major? is an APS Fellow and a faculty member of the Mary Lou Fulton Teach- physics teacher education is inadequate. To start with the We want to believe that no university physics faculty mem- ers College at Arizona State University. Plisch is Associate Director of Education and Diversity at APS. Vokos is T-TEP chair and professor of ber consciously communicates these shortsighted views to * The complete T-TEP report may be downloaded at www.ptec.org/taskforce physics at Seattle Pacific University.

APS News welcomes and encourages letters and submissions from its members responding to these and other issues. Responses may be sent to: [email protected]