July 2013 • Vol. 22, No. 7 Nominate some Golden Geese A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY see page 5 WWW.APS.ORG/PUBLICATIONS/APSNEWS APS Bridge Program Selects New Sites APS Picks Pierre Meystre to Lead PRL Editorial Team By Bushraa Khatib are now seven Bridge Fellows, The new Lead Editor for Gene Sprouse said in a statement. The APS Bridge Program with the possibility that even a Physical Review Letters is Pierre “His prior involvement with PRL (APS-BP) recently announced few more may be able to join. Meystre of the University of Ari- and his strong editorial experi- that The Ohio State University OSU has established a one-or zona. He succeeds Jack Sandweiss ence is very compelling. We look (OSU) and the University of South two-year transitional M.S. pro- of Yale, who held the position for forward to Dr. Meystre following Florida (USF) will receive fund- gram beginning in summer 2013. 25 years. Jack Sandweiss as an inspirational ing to develop bridge programs to The APS-BP Fellows will enter “Physical Review Letters is, in leader for the journal.” the physics doctoral degree. The OSU’s existing physics M.S. pro- my opinion, the greatest physics Meystre is an APS Fellow and goal of APS-BP is to increase the gram, and eventually apply to a journal. It is absolutely essential has been a referee for PRL for number of physics PhDs awarded physics doctoral program there that this position be maintained years. He is an optical physicist to underrepresented minority stu- or at another institution. Students and strengthened going forward who specializes in quantum op- Pierre Meystre dents, including African Ameri- will spend the summer of their in the face of a number of com- tics, atomic physics and the statis- Meystre received his PhD from cans, Hispanic Americans and first year doing research and pre- plex but interesting challenges,” tical properties of radiation. the École Polytechnique Fédérale Native Americans. paring extensively for the gen- Meystre said. In addition he is the director in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1974. Students selected as APS eral and physics GRE. During Meystre will be in charge of the of the Biosphere2 Institute which He joined the University of Ari- Bridge Fellows receive stipends the academic year, they will take day-to-day operations of PRL, in- addresses the “Grand Challenges zona as a professor of physics in to participate in programs at the graduate physics core courses cluding handling author appeals as whose solutions require the com- 1986 and was head of the depart- bridge sites. APS-BP had initially and receive application coaching well as other major editorial deci- bined expertise of a broad range of ment from 2005 through 2007. planned on placing four students to prepare their applications for sions of the journal. scientific fields and diverse inter- The search committee an- in its first year, but, because the graduate school. The program also “We are fortunate that Dr. disciplinary talents.” He is also the nounced his selection in mid-June bridge sites were able to secure plans to implement a network of Meystre will be leading PRL into director of the Arizona Center for and his first day as Lead Editor their own funding as well, there BRIDGE continued on page 6 the future,” APS’s Editor in Chief STEM Teachers. was on the first of July. Science Community Slams Draft Legislation Physicists in Outreach Face Tricky Career Choices By Michael Lucibella told that they are going ‘back to By Calla Cofield reach, including career timing, and first find out how much their insti- the drawing board’ to figure out Congress is stepping back and The 2013 APS April Meeting what he or she is willing to sac- tution and their coworkers value what to do next,” said Jodi Lieber- rethinking controversial legis- was brimming with sessions on rifice to make time for outreach. outreach work. man, APS Senior Government Re- lation that many scientists saw science communication and out- Early career physicists may have Leslie-Pelecky is the author of lations Specialist. She added that as a change to how the National reach. These talks addressed how advantages such as more energy, the book The Physics of NASCAR, it was unclear whether any ver- Science Foundation awards its physicists engage and communi- more time, and fewer personal re- and her work has been featured in sion of the bill will be introduced grants. The leaked draft of the cate with the public by blogging, sponsibilities. The New York Times and Sports Il- at all in the foreseeable future. “High Quality Research Act” writing books, speaking at public But Leslie-Pelecky also warned lustrated. Last year she began ap- The draft legislation, which sparked controversy over fears events, teaching classes on un- that young physicists should con- pearing the SiriusXM satellite ra- originated in the House Science that Congress was trying to inter- usual subjects like the physics of sider how senior physicists with dio show Sirius Speedway, where Committee, would have required fere with the scientific process. cooking and the like. Many of the whom they work view outreach. she addresses science questions the Director of the National Sci- The backlash within the scientific presenters addressed a common She said that many physicists as- about NASCAR, such as whether ence Foundation to certify that community has helped to delay question: When, during a physi- sume young people involved in or not a misplaced oil tank cover every grant’s research “is in the action and, as APS News goes to cist’s career, is an ideal time to get outreach are “not serious” about can increase the speed of a car. interests of the United States to press, the bill has yet to be intro- involved in public outreach? their scientific work. Those opin- An article she wrote about stock advance the national health, pros- duced in the House. Congressio- Diandra Leslie-Pelecky, a ions could harm young careers, car science received over 40,000 perity or welfare, and to secure nal aides say, however, that they physicist at West Virginia Univer- especially if they come up on re- unique views, about which she the national defense by promot- are continuing to work on it. sity, outlined in her talk key issues view boards or in recommendation noted that “even if only five per- ing the progress of science,” be “Because of the uproar that that a physicist should consider letters. cent of those people actually read ground-breaking, not duplicative this draft bill has caused within before getting involved in out- To overcome this obstacle, Les- the article, that’s more students the scientific community…we are COMMUNITY continued on page 7 lie-Pelecky says physicists should OUTREACH continued on page 7 Chairs Conference Highlights New Technology and Techniques The 2013 Physics Department techniques into their programs. included a new physics and en- Chairs Conference, jointly orga- Attracting prospective stu- gineering program, an option for nized by APS and the American dents into their physics program students to design their own track, Association of Physics Teachers, had been a major problem for and a multidisciplinary concen- took place at the American Cen- James Madison University. In the tration, which incorporated mi- ter for Physics in College Park on mid 1990s enrollment reached a nors from other fields including May 30 and 31. Part of a series of decades-long low, which the ad- education or English. conferences that have been orga- ministrators attributed to a per- “This gives us a way to com- nized biennially for the past three ception of limited career options bine physics with other possible decades, the Chairs Conferences for physics majors. career choices,” Whisnant said. are now organized annually. “Physics is poorly viewed by “Mostly it’s replacing existing At this year’s conference, at- prospective students and their courses. It’s how you sell it in the tended by about 100 chairs from parents,” said Steven Whisnant, catalogue.” both large research universities head of JMU’s physics depart- Since 1995, when the depart- and smaller colleges, speakers ment. ment first started reorganizing shared innovative ways to re- To boost their enrollment itself, the number of physics Photo Credit: Ken Cole cruit, educate and assess physics in the physics programs, they majors has quadrupled while the majors at their colleges and uni- started offering more specialized overall number of students at the The Chairs Conference Organizing Committee gathers outside APS versities. In the opening plenary tracks for their physics majors. university hasn’t quite doubled. headquarters to contemplate a job well done. They are (l to r): Willie Rockward session, professors from schools Over the next decade, the depart- Steven Pollock from the Uni- (Morehouse College); Bob Hilborn (AAPT); Talat Rahman (University of Central Florida); Monica Plisch (APS); Chuhee Kwon (CSU Long Beach); across the country described how ment instituted a wide variety of versity of Colorado at Boulder Steve Whisnant (James Madison University); Rafael Muller (University of they adapted new technology and new “multi-track” degrees. These CHAIRS continued on page 6 Puerto Rico at Humacao); and Ed Bertschinger (MIT). 2 • July 2013 This Month in Physics History July 21, 2004: Hawking concedes bet on black hole information loss n 1684, Christopher Wren announced a wager of sible to recover that information from the radiation Isorts: he promised a book worth 40 shillings to emitted by the black hole as it evaporates. Or, as the first person able to demonstrate that Kepler’s the formal wager phrased it: “When an initial pure laws could be derived from the inverse-square law.