December 2003 Volume 12, No. 11 NEWS http://www.physics2005.org A Publication of The American Physical Society http://www.aps.org/apsnews APS March Meeting Heads North to Montréal California Physics Departments Face More The 2004 March Meeting will Physics; International Physics; Edu- be organizing a host of special For those who want to Budget Cuts in an be held in lively and cosmopolitan cation and Physics; and Graduate events, including receptions, explore, there will be tours of Uncertain Future Montréal, Canada’s second largest Student Affairs, as well as topical alumni reunions, a students’ Montréal, highlighting the city’s city. The meeting runs from March groups on Instrument and Mea- lunch with the experts, and an history, cultural heritage, cosmo- The California recall election 22nd through the 26th at the surement Science; Magnetism and opportunity to meet the editors politan nature, and European was a laughing matter to many, Palais des Congrès de Montréal. Its Applications; Shock Compres- of the APS and AIP journals. flavor. a veritable circus of replace- Approximately 5,500 papers sion of Condensed Matter; and ment candidates of dubious will be presented in more than 90 Statistical and Nonlinear Physics. celebrity and questionable invited sessions and 550 contrib- An exhibit show will round out APS Honors Two Undergrads qualifications for the job. But for uted sessions in a wide variety of the program during which attend- physics departments across the categories, including condensed ees can visit vendors who will be With Apker Award state, the ongoing budget woes matter, materials, polymer physics, displaying the latest products, that spurred angry voters to chemical physics, biological phys- instruments and equipment, and Peter Onyisi of the University action in the first place remain ics, fluid dynamics, laser science, software, as well as scientific pub- of Chicago received the award deadly serious. computational physics, and lications related to the research and for a PhD-granting institution for Once the flagship of state- atomic, molecular, and optical application of physics. his research entitled, “Looking funded education, boasting 44 physics. There will also be several for New Invisible Particles.” Nobel Laureates and some of There will also be forums on special programs, including a Nathaniel Stern of Harvey Mudd the top research facilities in the Industrial and Applied Physics; Division of Polymer Physics Short Nathaniel Peter College received the award for a nation, the University of Physics and Society; History of Course on Rheology and Dynamics Stern Onyisi non-PhD-granting institution for California (UC) system is simul- of Polymers & Com- his thesis entitled, “Exchange taneously facing an enrollment plex Fluids, and eight Two young physicists have Anisotropy and Giant Magne- boom and deep budget cuts. The half-day tutorials on been honored with the 2004 toresistance in Thin Film Spin California State University specialized topics: Apker Award for their outstand- Valves Containing Ultra-thin (CSU) system, already stretched magneto- transport; ing undergraduate research. The IrMn Antiferromagnetic Layers.” thin with its 23 campuses and computational cell bi- APS presents two Apker awards Onyisi’s research involved network of community colleges, ology; semiconductor annually, one to a student from searching for evidence of new is facing similar drastic cuts. quantum dots; quan- a PhD-granting institution, one particles in data from proton- In August, then-Governor tum information to a student from an non-PhD- anti-proton collisions at 1.8 TeV, Gray Davis approved a particu- science; spintronics; granting institution. The using data collected by the larly stringent 2003-2004 budget, opportunities in bio- recipients, who will each receive Collider Detector at Fermilab in response to a lackluster logical physics; $5,000, were selected by a com- (CDF). California economy that gener- Terahertz frequency mittee from a group of six After analyzing photon and ated a record $38 billion deficit. spectroscopy at low finalists. See APKER RECIPIENTS on page 5 After the dust settled, the $2.9 temperatures; and billion state funding package for Java programming us- the UC system lost $410 million ing the Open Source AMS, Biomedical Applications in cuts, including a $10.8 million Physics Library. reduction to its $259 million gen- The Society will eral research fund. This comes on Highlight 2003 DNP Meeting the heels of an $18 million mid- year reduction, and last year’s 10% New techniques for carbon 14 with several grams required for beta budget cut. dating and trace element analysis, counting. He illustrated this point Nobel Laureates Past and Present The CSU system has been hit as well as the application of nuclear with the case of Iceman Oetzi, a well just as hard, according to Chris particle detectors in the biomedi- preserved 5200-year-old body Gaffney, chair of the physics cal arena, were among the found in the central European Alps department at CSU-Chico, highlights presented at the annual in 1991. losing $304 million of its $2.6 bil- meeting of the APS Division of At a special public lecture, Dou- lion state funding, while Nuclear Physics, held October 30 glas Donahue (University of Arizona) simultaneously being expected to through November 1 in Tucson, described his team’s studies of artis- absorb a 4.3% growth in Arizona. The technical program tic artifacts, the populating of the enrollment. Such a large reduc- also featured several talks on sub- Americas, and the study of Martian tion in state funding would have jects related to last year’s National meteorites using an AMS instrument. been truly devastating, except for Research Council report, “Con- He incorporated a small tandem elec- a 32% increase in fees necting Quarks to the Cosmos,” trostatic accelerator as one (tuition) this year, raising the along with presentations on the component of a conventional mass yearly cost from $2100 to nuclear physics of supernovae. spectrometer, giving the ions to be $2800. These large statewide cuts analyzed kinetic energies of millions translated into, among other Revolutionizing Carbon DatingDating. of electron volts instead of the more See CALIFORNIA on page 6 A public lecture on Wednesday See DNP MEETING on page 3 evening and an invited talk on Thurs- Photo credit to Darlene Logan day afternoon both focused on At a recent reception for APS Fellows in the Chicago area, Leon Lederman (left), applications for accelerator mass Nobel Laureate in 1988, chats with Aleksei Abrikosov, Nobel Laureate in 2003, spectroscopy (AMS), most of which and his wife Svetlana. (Another picture from the same reception appears on center on its use for carbon 14 dat- HHighlights page 2.) Abrikosov, for a long time at the Institute for Physical Problems in ing. According to Walter Kutschera Moscow and now at Argonne National Laboratory, shares the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics with Vitaly L. Ginzburg of the Lebedev Institute in Moscow and (University of Vienna, Austria), AMS Anthony J. Leggett of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). has revolutionized the field by mea- 4 8 They were honored for their work on the theories of superconductivity and super- suring carbon 14 through isotope fluidity. In addition, this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine recognized ratios rather than the classical an important physics-based technology, magnetic resonance imaging or MRI. method of beta counting, increas- This Prize is being awarded to two pioneers in this field, Paul C. Lauterbur of ing the sensitivity almost one million The Back Page: UIUC, and Peter Mansfield of the University of Nottingham, UK. All of this Viewpoint: times, which in turn enables Spencer Abraham: Energy Department year’s laureates will receive their prizes in Stockholm on December 10. Howard Greyber: Science High Schools Releases 20-year Plan for New Facilities researchers to reduce the sample Provide Useful Educational Model size to milligram amounts, compared 2 December 2003 NEWS Fusion Tops DOE Facilities List This Month in Physics History Speaking at the National Press an international collaboration to December 1958: Invention of the Laser Club on November 10, Secretary of build an experiment capable of pro- Energy Spencer Abraham unveiled ducing the first self-sustaining fusion the Department’s twenty-year plan reaction. Every now and then, a scien- ter at Bell Labs. Schawlow came Perhaps that is why the question for the future of science facilities. The list of 28 facilities is repro- tific breakthrough occurs that up with the idea of arranging a set of who really invented the laser The plan lists the 28 major duced below. In addition, Secretary has a revolutionary impact on of mirrors, one on each end of the has proven to be a fairly litigious research facilities that should Abraham’s speech appears as the daily life. One example of this is device’s cavity, to bounce the light one, due in large part to the ef- receive priority for near, mid, and Back Page on page 8 of this issue. the invention of the laser, which back and forth, thus eliminating forts of Gordon Gould, a far term funding. The number one The complete report is available at stands for light amplification by the amplification of any beams scientist at Columbia and later priority for near term funding is ITER, http://www.science.doe.gov/ . stimulated emission of radiation. bouncing in other directions. He with Technical Research Group Few people realized (TRG), to earn patent