the SPSVolume LIV, Issue 1 ObserverSPRING 2020 Physics and a Climate in Crisis + Speaking Out and Getting Motivated + Meeting the Challenges of a + SEES-ing Young Minds with Science Warming World + From E&M to Promoting Innovation + Stemming the Tide of Climate in Developing Communities Change SPS Chapter Report owth Submission Deadline: June 15 e SPS members in yourovement chapter • Maintain chapter health, success, and geasr of impr engths and ar • Provide guidance fors futustImpor r rtance of Chapter Reports • Determine chapter’ s best practices withom SPSother National SPS chapters Office e your chapter’ ecognition fr • Shar • Receive feedback and r wards Qualify for National Recognition: , SPS Observer • SPS Outstanding Chapter A • Blake Lilly Prize e in SPS publications, such as the Featur • or Radiations. JURP, For mor e information r Start your data collection now to make completing your r egarding Chapter Reports, visit www.spsnational.org/chapter-reports. The Socie eport a br eeze! One Ph ty of Ph ysics Elli ysics Stude pse, Colleg nts e Park, MD 20740 | T el: 301-209-3007 | Email: s [email protected] rg TABLE OF CONTENTS the SPS Observer SPRING 2020 • VOLUME LIV, ISSUE 1 Editor Kendra Redmond FEATURES Managing Editor Meeting the Challenges of a Warming World . 15 Kayla Stephens Climate Change from the Ground Up: Contributing to a Global Challenge . 16 SPS Makes a Statement on the Climate Crisis . 18 Contributing Editors Changing Climate and Changing Lifestyles . 20 Korena Di Roma Howley Teaching Change: The Importance of Climate Communication . 22 Brad R. Conrad Althea Gaffney Special Feature Copy Editor Interview with Warren Washington, a Pioneer of Climate Modeling . 24 Cynthia Freeman DEPARTMENTS Art Director CROSSWORD PUZZLE Aaron Hansen Climate Crisis . 4 Layout Designer LETTER Michael Wernert Enacting Change as a Physicist . 5 ON THE COVER SPS President PATHWAYS Oceanography grad student Alina Gearba-Sell, Beyond Undergrad Physics: A Physicist’s Path into Climate Science . 6 Jacquelyn Veatch stands atop US Air Force Academy STARS a retreating glacier along the SPS Director Fall 2019 Chapter Awards . 7 Western Antarctic Peninsula. Brad R. Conrad However, the view looks INTERACTIONS promising as scientists from Speaking Out and Getting Motivated: Notes from a Campus Climate Rally . 10 all disciplines work hard to ALUMNI CAREER SPOTLIGHT understand our planet at Jacquelyn Veatch . 11 Palmer Station. Photo courtesy PHYSICS PUZZLER of Jacquelyn Veatch. Calculating the Collective Effect: Stemming the Tide of Climate Change . 12 1 Physics Ellipse BUILDING BLOCKS College Park, MD 20740 Beer from the Stratosphere: A Payload with a Tasty Payoff . 26 301.209.3007 (tel) MEETING NOTES [email protected] SEES-ing Young Minds with Science . 28 www.spsnational.org PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Climate Stories: Shifting the Narrative of Climate Change Conversations . 29 SINGULARITIES From E&M to Promoting Innovation in Developing Communities . 30 IN THE ZONE Starry Nights at Sacramento State’s Zone 18 Meeting . 31 Find SPS National on: The SPS Observer (ISSN 2160- The American Institute of Physics is a federation of scientific AIP Member Societies: 1305) is the magazine of the Society societies in the physical sciences, representing scientists, engineers, American Association of Physicists in Medicine of Physics Students, published educators, and students. AIP offers authoritative information, American Association of Physics Teachers quarterly by the American Institute services, and expertise in physics education and student programs, American Astronomical Society of Physics, printed in the USA. science communication, government relations, career services, American Crystallographic Association Standard postage paid at Freeport, statistical research in physics employment and education, industrial American Meteorological Society OH. POSTMASTER: Send address outreach, and history of the physical sciences. AIP publishes Physics American Physical Society changes to The SPS Observer, One Today, the most closely followed magazine of the physical sciences Acoustical Society of America Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD community, and is also home to the Society of Physics Students and AVS: Science & Technology of Materials, 20740-3841. the Niels Bohr Library & Archives. AIP owns AIP Publishing LLC, a Interfaces, and Processing scholarly publisher in the physical and related sciences. www.aip.org The Optical Society The Society of Rheology Other Member Organizations: Sigma Pi Sigma physics honor society Society of Physics Students Corporate Associates Put your climate science Crossword Puzzle - knowledge to the test with this climate-themed crossword Climate Crisis puzzle! Can you finish it first? by Kayla Stephens and Mikayla Cleaver, SPS National Office ACROSS DOWN 3. Determining past climates from studying tree growth characteristics 1. A greenhouse gas that traps heat in the 7. Comes from naturally replenished resources, such as sunlight, wind, atmosphere waves, and geothermal heat 2. Study of climate change taken on the scale of the 9. Greenhouse gases released into the air that are produced by numerous entire history of the Earth activities, including burning fossil fuels, industrial agriculture, and 4. Land degradation in arid, semi-arid, and dry melting permafrost, to name a few subhumid areas resulting from various factors, 10. Average of weather patterns over a longer period of time including climatic variations and human activities 11. These frozen bodies have been losing mass since at least the 1970s 5. Permanent removal of trees and shrubbery that 13. Efforts to cut the rate of man-made emissions of greenhouse gas into can lead to significant levels of carbon dioxide the atmosphere emissions 6. Absorbs around 30% of the CO we pump into the 14. For the first time brings all nations into a common cause to undertake 2 ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects, atmosphere with enhanced support to assist developing countries to do so 8. Amount of electromagnetic radiation reaching a 16. A family of gases that have contributed to ozone depletion and are also surface, measured in watts per square meter greenhouse gases 12. Occurs naturally and is also caused by human 17. A substance that contaminates the air, earth, or water activities such as agriculture, burning of fossil fuels, and industrial processes 18. The total amount of greenhouse gases produced to directly and indirectly support human activities 15. Fiscal policy that introduces taxes intended to promote ecologically sustainable activities via 19. Relating to or resulting from the influence of human beings economic incentives 20. A daily record of global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration Submit a picture of your completed crossword puzzle to [email protected] for a chance to win. If you are one of the first THREE to complete and submit the puzzle correctly, you will win a prize from SPS National, get a shoutout on our social media, and be mentioned in the next issue of the SPS Observer! Best of luck puzzling! LETTER as a Physicist Enacting Change by Molly McDonough, SPS and Sigma Pi Sigma Executive Committee, Associate Zone Counselor Representative Over the last 650,000 years, the Earth has weathered seven cycles 2. Use renewable energy. of glacial advance and retreat. The end of the last cycle, around At home, choose a utility company 11,700 years ago, marks the beginning of human civilization.1 that generates at least half of its With humans ultimately came industrialization and a marked devia- energy from solar or wind power . tion from Earth’s past climate cycles . In the past century, the global Review your electric, gas, and water sea level has risen about 8 inches, surface temperatures have risen by usage to see if you can make reduc- approximately 1.62 ℉, and the ice sheets in Antarctica have rapidly tions . At your college or university, shrunk .1 bring up sustainability concerns with As physicists, it is our responsibility to educate ourselves and to your department, student govern- communicate the evidence supporting the severity of the climate crisis ment, or university administration in the age of false information and climate change denial . and see if they can provide support The SPS and ΣΠΣ community expressed concern for the climate for enacting change . crisis at the 2019 Physics Congress, and as a result, the Society of Physics Students National Office voted to release the following SPS 3. Rethink your commute. and ΣΠΣ Statement on the Climate Crisis: Using public transit can drasti- ABOVE: Molly “The Society of Physics Students and the Sigma Pi Sigma National cally reduce your carbon footprint . McDonough. Photo Council encourage chapters to sponsor, engage in, and pursue Additionally, walking or biking to courtesy of the SPS outreach events that promote awareness of the scientific basis of class is a great alternative to driv- National Office. human-induced climate change to the general public . Furthermore, ing a car . Either of these options will chapters are encouraged to champion initiatives that address the reduce fuel consumption and the generation of air pollution and green- climate crisis and to practice environmental sustainability .” house gases . If a car is necessary, consider a more fuel-efficient option, It is critical that we call upon ourselves as scientists to advocate for such as a hybrid or electric car, or carpool with a friend! climate change education to our public policymakers, government offi- cials, and