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February 2001 in 2000 NEWS Volume 10, No IN THIS ISSUE: Physics News February 2001 in 2000 NEWS Volume 10, No. 2 A Publication of The American Physical Society http://www.aps.org/apsnews Council Statement Underpins APS New APS Prize Targets Education Lobbying Effort Under-30 Physicists The importance of improving and math education approved “However, we are only able to national science and math edu- in November is an important talk about things that are official The APS has established a new cation is especially apparent in first step in setting APS policy APS policy. The Council’s state- prize with a new mission: to rec- the wake of a new TIMSS report in this area, according to APS ment on K-12 science and math ognize the achievements and the showing marginal improvement Public Affairs Fellow Christina education gives us the authori- potential of a physicist under the in the science and math scores of Hood. zation to talk about and lobby for age of 30. Named the George E. US eighth-graders compared to “The APS Office of Public Af- these issues.” Valley, Jr. Prize in honor of a gener- their peers in other countries (see fairs deals with the federal The full text of the statement ous bequest from the estate of story, page 5). And the new APS government trying to promote follows: George E. Valley, Jr., the prize will Council Statement on K-12 science the interest of physics,” she says. be given every two years and will Policy Statement on carry with it a cash award of K-12 Science and $20,000, making it the largest single See WORLD CONGRESS on page 6 Mathematics Education prize that the Society gives. Delegates Convene at World Congress Nominations are now being so- In an age of rapid techno- George E. Valley, Jr. logical advances, a strong licited for the first recipient, who will educational program in science be chosen by a selection commit- was on the faculty at MIT from 1946 and mathematics is essential for tee consisting of the President and to 1974, was one of the founders the United States. Despite the two immediate past-Presidents of of MIT Lincoln Laboratory, and was heroic efforts of many teachers the APS, as well as a chairperson to Chief Scientist of the Air Force in and the large investments of be elected by the APS Council. 1957-58. His areas of research in- school districts, in too many A fifth, non-voting, member of cluded: Artificial Radioactivity, Mass places we currently fail to pro- the committee will be George C. Spectroscopy, Cosmic Rays, design vide it. Too many citizens leave Valley, son of George E. Valley, Jr. of Radar Systems and invention of school without the scientific and, like his father, a physicist. The the SAGE Air Defense System. Val- literacy necessary to deal with Prize is open to candidates in any ley developed the idea for the prize new technologies, and their far- field of physics. The deadline for in discussions with then-APS Trea- reaching societal implications. submission of nominations to the surer Harry Lustig in the years Our country is not educating APS is July 1, 2001. Nominees must shortly before his death in 1999. enough technologically skilled be less than 30 years of age at the The prize was authorized by and knowledgeable workers, a time of their nomination. Further Council at its November meeting, Judy Franz, APS Executive Officer; Frank Franz, President of the University of details may be found on the APS and the bequest was received by Alabama, Huntsville; and member of the local organizing committee Christian situation that will compromise Thomsen attend the banquet of the Third World Congress of Physical Societies our competitive advantage in web site, http://www.aps.org, un- the APS shortly thereafter. “This in Berlin. See story, page 6. der the Prize and Awards button. is an exciting new direction for the See EDUCATION on page 3 George E. Valley, Jr. received his APS honors program,” commented PhD in physics from the University APS Treasurer Thomas McIlrath. of Rochester in 1939. He was “We anticipate receiving many out- Internal and External Reviews Address named a National Research Fellow standing nominations, and we in nuclear physics in 1940 and was hope the Prize will make an impor- Problems at Department of Energy Project Supervisor and senior staff tant difference to a young member of the Radiation Labora- researcher with great potential In the waning months of his ten- partment or be reconstituted outside tory at MIT from 1941 to 1945. He early in his or her career.” ure as Secretary of Energy, Bill the DOE. Richardson commissioned a presti- In an appearance on ABC’s gious panel to study the science and Nightline on December 21, Secretary security functions of the department. Richardson described the Hamre APS Creates Email Alias System Calling on the resources of a bi-parti- Commission’s charge as “to strike a bal- san mix of eminent scientists and ance for the new administration for Members experts in security, the study is being between science and security.” conducted by the Center for Strategic The commission has already held APS members who struggle with not sell such email address lists or and International Studies (CSIS). It is preliminary meetings, and members of constantly updating their email ad- allow them to otherwise be used for headed by John Hamre, President of the commission have visited some of John Hamre, President of CSIS dresses as they change employment commercial purposes,. CSIS and former Deputy Secretary of the national laboratories, which are the our scientific enterprise, have fallen will be pleased to learn that the So- To establish an email alias with Defense, and includes two former focus of much of DOE-sponsored re- on harder days”, and promised to ciety will now provide all active the APS, visit http://www.aps.org/ presidents of the APS. The panel is ex- search. At a reception at the National “use our best efforts to come up with members with an electronic mail memb/mailalias.html. (Have your pected to present its final report by April Academies in December, some of the recommendations for the new admin- alias to be used for forwarding email APS membership number handy.) of 2002. commission members commented on istration.” Burton Richter, Nobel-Prize to a personal email (target) account. Alternatively, members may call the Meanwhile, eleven distinguished what they hoped the commission winning former director of SLAC and The target account of the alias can APS Membership Department at scientists and science policy makers, as- would achieve. president of APS in 1994, thought that be changed at any time, allowing the (301) 209-2180. sembled under the aegis of the APS but Hamre called the current ar- “the system is badly broken. The com- member to switch email providers, acting as an independent group, have rangement, which involves a mission may be the last shot to fix it. employers or account names with- addressed concerns specific to the Of- quasi-independent agency within It’s either fix it or break it up.” out the need to notify multiple HIGHLIGHTS fice of Science in DOE, and, in a DOE, headed by Undersecretary Among the other members of the contacts of the new email address. document circulated widely on Capi- for Nuclear Security General John Hamre commission are former Senator Tracy Alinger, Director of Infor- tol Hill, have proposed alternative Gordon, “a sub-optimal solution to Howard Baker and former mation Technology, stresses that the organizational structures for the Office a serious problem”, and hoped that Representative Lee Hamilton, co- service is not an email account. Mes- should it either remain within the De- the commission could be helpful authors of the Baker-Hamilton report sages are not stored by the APS, but to the new Secretary of Energy as that studied security policies at Los rather passed through to an email John Hamre will be speaking well as to General Gordon. Alamos, and found that “the combined account specified by the member. at a special session on D. Allan Bromley, science advisor effects of the Wen Ho Lee affair, the “This allows a member to perma- Alan Chodos/APS Scientific Freedom and to President George Bush the elder recent fire, and the continuing swirl nently maintain an email address of Old Phys Rev’s Worth National Security at the APS Anything? and president of APS in 1997, re- around the hard-drive episode have [name]@mailaps.org, as long as that 5 John Ptak, proprietor of April Meeting in Washington, marked that the national labs, which devastated morale and productivity.” individual remains an APS member,” J. F. Ptak Science Books in DC April 28 – May 1, 2001. “used to be considered the gems of See DOE REVIEWS on page 6 she says, adding that the Society will Washington, DC says yes! 2 February 2001 NEWS “Members in the Media” This Month in Physics History “Without quantum fluctua- “This is a beautiful develop- February 2, 1893: Edison Records First Sneeze on Film tions there would have been no ment that gives us much higher little wrinkles to grow into the confidence that we will soon de- The millions of viewers who structure we observe. It would tect gravitational waves,” flock to movie theaters every have been a pretty boring uni- —Rainer Weiss, MIT, on improved weekend to view the latest Holly- verse.” sensitivity of gravitational wave de- wood blockbusters rarely stop to —Fermilab astrophysicist Rocky tectors, AP Net, December 6, 2000 ✶✶✶ consider the technological roots Kolb, Dallas Morning News, De- of the entertainment industry we cember 11, 2000 ‘’There is no theoretical limit ✶✶✶ now take for granted.
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