August/September 2015 • Vol. 24, No. 8 A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY PhysTEC Grows Page 4 WWW.APS.ORG/PUBLICATIONS/APSNEWS Roger Falcone Chosen as Vice President of APS for 2016 By Emily Conover ident-elect, Homer Neal, will APS members took to the polls assume the position of president. in May and June to select new The current vice president, Laura leadership, and the votes have been Greene, will become president- tallied. The majority of voters in elect, and Falcone will assume the annual general election chose the vice presidency. Falcone will Roger Falcone to fill the office of become president of the Society vice president beginning January in 2018. “I’m very pleased to be able to Roger Falcone James Hollenhorst Deborah Jin Johanna Stachel Bonnie Fleming 1, 2016. Falcone, a professor of Vice President Treasurer Chair-Elect International Councilor General Councilor physics at the University of Califor- serve the Society and the physicists Nominating Committee nia, Berkeley, is the director of the within APS,” Falcone said. “I will is carried out,” Falcone said in his horst, senior director of technology of the APS.” Advanced Light Source, an x-ray be spending a lot of time listening, candidate statement. for Agilent Technologies, will be In his candidate statement, synchrotron facility at Lawrence to understand the work of the APS The election is the first since the the first elected treasurer of APS. Hollenhorst cited sound financial Berkeley National Laboratory. more close-up, and also hearing corporate reform that was instituted Past president Malcolm Beasley is management as a top priority. Under the APS governance from people who are members of last year, which included amend- serving as interim treasurer. “Without it, none of the exciting structure, the vice president joins the Society.” ments to the APS Constitution & “I look forward to making a goals of APS will survive the test the presidential line, eventually Falcone also cited the impor- Bylaws and Articles of Incorpora- contribution to the Society,” Hol- of time.” ascending to the presidency after tant role that physicists can play tion. Members voted to adopt the lenhorst said. “It is a new role, and One important challenge is the one-year terms as vice president in influencing science policy in reform in November 2014. so what’s done by the first person changing face of scientific pub- and then president-elect. the nation. “APS can strengthen As a result of the restructuring, in that role will have an impact on lishing, Hollenhorst added. “Open In January 2016, the cur- the collective impact of physi- this year’s election marks the first what the definition of that role is access is the rallying cry from the rent president, Samuel Aronson, cists, and improve the educational, time APS members have voted for going forward. So it’s a responsi- government, the universities, and will step down to become past industrial, private, and government a treasurer, a position on the APS bility, but also an opportunity to president, and the current pres- institutions within which science Board of Directors. James Hollen- make the best of the new structure ELECTION continued on page 6 U.S. Physics Olympiad Team JOURNAL PUBLISHING Returns With Gold and Silver Getting Up to Speed on FASTR Legislation By David Voss lenge involved measuring complex By Emily Conover committee responsible for the bill Open-access proponents have In a four-way tie for second optical diffraction patterns and the A bill that would mandate public has yet to vote on it. come out in support of the leg- The bill is similar to a White islation. “The passage of the bill place overall, the United States diffraction of surface waves. access to federally funded research The U.S. team’s performance is House Office of Science and Tech- would be a step forward,” says Physics Olympiad team won four is now one step closer to becoming the best relative to other teams since nology Policy (OSTP) memo from Michael Eisen of the University gold medals and one silver medal at law. On July 29, the Senate Com- 2009, said Paul Stanley of Beloit February 2013; the memo requires of California, Berkeley, and a co- the International Physics Olympiad mittee on Homeland Security and agencies that fund more than $100 in Mumbai. College in Wisconsin, academic founder of the Public Library of Government Affairs unanimously million worth of research to fashion Three other countries — Russia, director of the team. “[There were] Science (PLoS), a nonprofit open- approved the Fair Access to Science plans to make peer-reviewed publica- Taiwan, and South Korea — also some remarkably creative solutions access publisher. But, he says, “My and Technology Research (FASTR) tions available to the public. Federal won four gold and one silver medal, by all of the U.S. Team, but unfor- hesitancy is that it doesn’t go far Act. This bill would require that agencies and some publishers have while China took home first place tunately the scoring system did not enough.” Eisen would rather see a peer-reviewed scientific publica- since begun arrangements to release with five gold medals. award extra points for creativity!” bill requiring papers to be imme- tions from federally funded research publications in accord with the OSTP At the Olympiad, top high school Stanley wrote in an email. diately available upon publication. The U.S. Physics Olympiad pro- be made freely available to the pub- mandate. (See page 4 for a related The current legislation originally physics students from around the lic within a year of publication. The article.) The new legislation would world face a challenging battery gram was started by the American called for a 6-month time limit Association of Physics Teachers bill will next move to the full Senate codify public-access policies into before publications must be made of tests: a five-hour theory exam for a vote. The bill has also been law, making requirements less likely and a five-hour experimental exam. (AAPT) and is co-sponsored by a introduced in the House, but the to shift with each administration. FASTR continued on page 6 The theory questions ranged from number of societies, including APS. the physics of neutrinos and pho- “Everyone at AAPT is very proud of tons emitted from the Sun, to the the second place position of the team Inclusive Astronomy Conference Confronts Diversity Issues engineering design of a nuclear and for each individual’s medals and By Emily Conover than one underrepresented group is welcome. “It’s not just having reactor. The experimental chal- OLYMPIAD continued on page 3 Astrophysicist Jedidah Isler — like African-American women people at the table, it’s making has not always felt welcomed by such as Isler. sure that they feel like they … are the scientific community. “Being But change is on the horizon. encouraged to be who they are,” part of a minority group can feel Isler and others recently convened Isler says. Paul Stanley very daunting and very lonely,” the inaugural Inclusive Astronomy Making science more inclusive says Isler, an African-American conference, held June 17 - 19 at is crucial for its success, the meet- woman and a postdoc at Vanderbilt Vanderbilt University, to explore ing’s participants say. “Talent is not University. And although scientific how to make astronomy accessible restricted to one group, so when you communities — physics and astron- to all. Following two influential limit yourself to one group, you’re omy included — have paid great Women in Astronomy meetings in necessarily excluding a lot of talent, attention to the status of women recent years, the group “felt that a lot of genius,” says Jesse Shana- in recent years, other underrepre- the field was really ready to think han, a graduate student at Wesleyan sented groups have remained in the about … diversity and inclusion University. “A lot of people in sci- shadows. Among those are scien- more broadly,” says Keivan Stassun, ence like to claim that this is a true tists who are members of racial or a professor of physics and astron- meritocracy, and that’s not true.” ethnic minorities, who are lesbian/ omy at Vanderbilt and the chair of Organizers designed the con- gay/bisexual/transsexual/intersex/ the local organizing committee for ference not only to help attendees queer or questioning (LGBTIQ), the meeting. understand the issues, but also to The 2015 U.S. Physics Olympiad traveling team brings home gold and sil- give them tools and strategies to ver medals: (l to r) Kevin Li, Saranesh Prembabu, Zachary Bogorad, Jason who are neuroatypical (e.g., have The goal is not just diversity, but Lu, and Adam Busis. autism), and who belong to more also an atmosphere where everyone INCLUSIVE continued on page 5 2 • August/September 2015 This Month in Physics History “He would pull one rabbit out “He’ll be able to speak, you just of the hat, and another, and then wouldn’t be able to hear him, and August 1620: Kepler’s Mother Imprisoned for Witchcraft suddenly the rabbits would arrange if you could hear him you wouldn’t n 1615, Lutherus Einhorn, a local magistrate of Regardless of whether Kepler was correct in this themselves in a pattern and start be able to stop laughing.” ILeonberg, Germany, launched a series of witch assessment, the rumors about his mother intensified. dancing in a way you’d never seen James Kakalios, University of trials, part of a witch-hunting hysteria then sweeping In 1615, a local woman named Ursula Reingold, who before.” Minnesota, on what physics says across Europe that claimed the lives of thousands had also fallen out with Kepler’s brother, Christoph, Peter Freund, University of about the changes to the main of suspected sorcerers.