March 2009 Volume 18, No. 3 www.aps.org/publications/apsnews APS NEWS Spring Prizes & Awards A PublicAtion of the AmericAn PhysicAl society • www.APs.org/PublicAtions/APsnews See Insert March Meeting Covers Broad Spectrum of Research APS President’s Message Stimulates The APS March Meeting, the Changing the substrate on which perconducting phenomena. Strong Member Response largest physics meeting of the year, the graphene sits or the trigger- Cheap, Bendy Photodetectors Thousands of APS members science, Murray told APS mem- will take place March 16-20, 2009 ing of small terraces in a graphene Xiong Gong and his colleagues responded to a letter from APS bers in her letter. APS recom- in Pittsburgh at the David L. Law- sheet are methods for tuning gra- at the University of California, San- president Cherry Murray request- mended investments in scientific rence Convention Center. Scientists phene behavior. Other sessions fea- ta Barbara and CBrite Inc. have de- ing that they contact their sena- infrastructure that would create from around the world will present ture new experimental results (B1), veloped prototypes of low-cost flex- tors regarding the need to include more than 100,000 direct and in- more than 7,000 papers on the lat- electronic behavior (H1), and elec- ible photodetectors that are sensitive science funding in the Senate’s direct jobs. “The investments we est research in condensed matter to infrared, visible, and ultraviolet economic stimulus package. proposed are principally in infra- physics, new materials, chemical light in the wavelength range of 300 In January, the House passed structure in our national labora- 0 Y 2 T – I E 6 C and biological physics, fluids, poly- 1 O to 1450 nanometers. The photode- an economic stimulus bill with tories and universities, high per- S L A mers, and computational physics. I C tectors are made with semiconduct- over $800 billion in spending in- formance computing, in procure- 2 S Y 00 H P A number of sessions will also ad- N ing polymers that work much like tended to jump-start the economy, ments of scientific instruments A 9 archI C R E g dress the role of physics in society, M common commercial silicon-based including a significant boost for and material for projects such as A H n G such as its relevance to education in ti R photodetectors by converting light the physical sciences. The House ITER, and in creation of jobs for e BU developing nations, the quantitative S into electrical signals. They are at bill included $2 billion for the young investigators at our uni- e T T I study of paintings, the greening of P least as sensitive as silicon photo- DOE Office of Science, $2.5 bil- versities to ensure that they have WWW . A P S . O R G / the city of Pittsburgh, and climate M EETI NGS/M A RCH detectors, says Gong, and they have lion for NSF, and $500 million a place to go during these trying change mitigation. M the advantage of covering a very for NIST. economic times. As a result of our Some special sessions to be held tron trajectories in graphene (J1). broad spectral range as well as be- On January 28, Murray sent efforts, many of our recommenda- at the meeting include a session on Iron-Arsenic Superconductors ing flexible and much cheaper to a letter to APS members asking tions were used by the House and Energy and the Environment on These new materials–the first produce. The potential commercial them to thank House Speaker Senate in formulating their pro- Monday evening and special eve- superconductors above a tempera- applications include image sensing, Nancy Pelosi for her hard work in posed stimulus packages,” Mur- ning symposium Wednesday on ture of 50 Kelvin not made from communications, chemical, biologi- support of science funding. ray’s letter said. Windows on our Universe: Break- copper-oxide planes–have made a cal, and environmental monitoring, The stimulus bill under consid- Responding to Murray’s mes- throughs in Observational Cosmol- big splash over the past year. Last remote control, night-time surveil- eration in the Senate in early Feb- sage, 2785 APS members had ogy. year’s meeting featured no session lance, and military applications. ruary included less funding for written to their senators, and 1342 Graphene Stays Hot on this topic; this year; a dozen ses- Gong predicts that the technology physical science than the House had written to thank Pelosi as of More than two dozen sessions sions. Topics include the possible will be commercially available in version. Murray urged APS mem- February 10. are devoted to the study of gra- ways in which electrons pair up on less than five years. (H20.10) bers to write to their senators ask- In early February, the Sen- phene, a two-dimensional form of the Fe-based materials, summa- Nano-Tool Box ing them to include the same lev- ate passed a stimulus bill that carbon. Session A1 looks at how ries of how the materials are made, If you want to build tiny things, el of funding for science in their included much less funding for graphene properties can be tweaked electronic properties, theoretical ex- it’s handy to have some tiny tools. version of the stimulus bill. science than the House bill: $1.2 to produce novel effects and pos- planations, and the manifestation of Abha Misra and colleagues at APS has been actively in- billion for NSF, $330 million for sible applications in micro-circuitry. the Josephson effect and other su- MEETING continued on page 6 volved in promoting funding for MESSAGE continued on page 7 Panel Pushes More Investment in Energy Research By Michael Lucibella mittee (all 3 of them APS Fellows) blocks,” said BESAC chair John fifteen, twenty years is going to clining levels over the last two de- An advisory committee to the called for greater use of green en- Hemminger of the University of invent new energy technology. If cades. In 1989 the US federal gov- Department of Energy has called ergy technologies that would curb California-Irvine, “Areas where we that is us, we’re going to be selling ernment invested on average 10% upon both the private and public carbon dioxide emissions and use just don’t understand how nature that to the world. If that is China of its research budget in energy more renewable energy sources. works.” sectors to increase investment in or Japan or Europe, we’re going to issues compared to only 2% today. Widespread use of these technolo- The report, “New Science for a advanced energy research. Con- be buying that from them,” Hem- gies has been hampered because Secure and Sustainable Energy Fu- In the private sector, the energy in- stituted as a subcommittee of the minger said. dustry reinvests on average 0.23% Basic Energy Sciences Advisory their current capabilities lag far be- ture” (www.sc.doe.gov/bes/reports/ hind the country’s needs. Technolo- list.html) recommended that the The panel also called for great- of its revenue to research, com- Committee (BESAC), the group er financial investment in research put forward a series of recom- gies such as solar power, carbon Department of Energy’s Basic En- pared to 3.3% in the auto industry and development, pointing to de- PANEL continued on page 5 mendations to help curtail global sequestration and superconducting ergy Science Advisory Committee warming and manage the nation’s electrical wires have shown prom- create research “dream teams” of energy needs at a February press ise in labs, but have not yet been the nation’s top scientific minds to APS Honors Rabi and Columbia conference at the Center for Stra- fully developed for large scale hasten the pace of discovery. These tegic and International Studies in commercial use. teams would spearhead research in Washington. “Virtually all of the potential- the cutting edge of energy technol- At the press conference, a panel ly revolutionary technologies in ogy to help protect US national and consisting of the BESAC chair and the energy and environment area economic security. the two co-chairs of the subcom- have what we call scientific road- “Someone over the next ten to LaserFest Website Launched A new website for Laser- “Now that the web- Fest, the 2010 celebration site is up and running, of the 50th anniversary of we hope LaserFest will the laser, has recently been become more accessible– launched. The site, www. hopefully visitors will laserfest.org, contains infor- find the site engaging and mation concerning Laser- informative,” said Nadia Fest events and activities, Ramlagan, APS LaserFest the history of the laser and project coordinator. its impact on society, and its The site’s laser history Photo by David wentworth potential for the future. section provides informa- Visitors to the site can tion about the early his- On January 29, as part of its historic sites initiative, APS presented a plaque (see inset) to the physics department at Columbia, honoring the achievements sign up to receive updates tory of the laser, from Ein- of i. i. rabi and also more generally the contributions of the department. rabi and program announce- stein’s theory of stimulat- was cited specifically for his discovery of the magnetic resonance method.i n the ments. Those with plans or event submission form. LaserFest ed emission to the demon- photo, APs editor-in-chief gene sprouse (right) and columbia vice-President ideas for events are encouraged is being organized by APS and stration of the first working laser for Research David Hirsh (center) examine the APS register of historic sites, while chair of the columbia Physics Department Andrew millis (left) looks on.