June 2018 • Vol. 27, No. 6 STEM Inclusion Study A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY Surveys APS Members APS.ORG/APSNEWS Page 4 2018 APS General Election Members should watch for an email with voting instructions. Reporting on Research from the Physical Review Journals Those who are elected will begin their terms on January 1, By Jessica Thomas 2019. Information on voting, and the candidates’ full state- ments and biographical information, are available at go.aps. This July 14th, while France journal, but instead exists as a sepa- their papers for other experts, using admires fireworks for its national rate online publication. And all the specialized language to concisely org/aps-vote-2018 holiday, the editors of Physics articles in it are free-to-read, with convey their results. But would you will open a bottle of champagne no journal subscription required. know the meaning of “charmoni- Vice President (maybe two) and celebrate the pub- umlike structure” if you weren’t lication turning 10. While younger a particle physicist or “valley Sylvester James Gates, Jr. Edward (Rocky) Kolb than most of the journals in the degeneracy” if you didn’t study Brown University University of Chicago Physical Review collection—which semiconductors? Even if you had celebrates its 125th birthday this an encyclopedic mind, digesting year—Physics has covered a lot of the more than 300 papers per week ground and is now much valued by published in the Physical Review the physics community. journals would be a tall order. Like the “front half” of many Why Physics? That was the Physics therefore serves as a fil- print journals, Physics highlights question David Voss, the founding ter, offering one or two new stories newsworthy papers—in this case, editor of Physics (now editor of per day on papers our editors think from the Physical Review—pro- APS News), asked in his first edi- the community will want to know viding context for results that torial. The answer then and now about. Our storytellers are experts, would otherwise be obvious only remains the same: to help physicists journalists, and Physics staff writ- Voting will run from July 2 until August 10. to specialists. The difference is that keep up with the field as a whole. ELECTIONELECTION continued continued on on page page 6 6 Physics doesn’t live inside any one Researchers understandably write JOURNALS continued on page 6 Getting a Running Start in Physics Physicists for Human Rights By Leah Poffenberger By Amanda Babcock Kuchimanchi was able to con- firm that not only were the flood In February 2016, Karna Morey 2018 APS April Meeting, levels issued by the authorities was a high school sophomore at Columbus, OH—This year’s APS incorrect, but they were off by track practice when his coach Andrei Sakharov Prize was pre- a full three meters. This meant brought him an article about a new sented during the April Meeting disaster for tens of thousands of physics discovery: the first detec- Awards Ceremony on Sunday, tion of gravitational waves by the April 15th. The honor is awarded people, driving them from their Laser Interferometer Gravitational- every two years to one or more homes. Even worse, the incor- Wave Observatory (LIGO). Now scientists in recognition of their rect levels would leave many a senior at the prestigious North leadership and achievements in without the right to rehabilitation Carolina School of Science and advocating for human rights. This funding provided by the govern- Mathematics (NCSSM), Morey is year’s award showcased two indi- ment. Bridging this disconnect contributing to gravitational wave viduals whose work has spanned between the government and the Karna Morey Ravi Kuchimanchi research himself. decades: Ravi Kuchimanchi and local people would become the At the 2018 APS April Meeting, prediction is crucial for future Narges Mohammadi. basis for Kuchimanchi’s work Morey presented his work on pre- detections: theoretical models Kuchimanchi was in attendance with the Association for India’s dicting the type of gravitational become templates that possible at the awards ceremony. However, Development (AID). waves that will be measured by gravitational–wave events can be Mohammadi is currently impris- Kuchimanchi founded AID the future Laser Interferometer compared to. Morey’s improved oned in Iran. Nayereh Tohidi while a grad student at the Space Antenna (LISA). The modeling technique could contrib- accepted the award on her behalf. University of Maryland. “We had work was done in collaboration ute to LISA’s detections of gravi- Tohidi is a professor of gender and a learning attitude,” Kuchimanchi with Zach Nasipak and Charles tational waves caused by extreme women’s studies and director of said. And the learning curve was Evans at the University of North mass ratio inspirals—a phenom- Middle Eastern and Islamic stud- steep. “We thought that either Carolina-Chapel Hill, and Jonathan enon where two black holes, one ies at California State University, AID would exponentially grow, Bennett at NCSSM. “As part of much bigger than the other, orbit Northridge. in which case we would spend all my research, I looked into making around one another, sending out Both Kuchimanchi and Tohidi our lives on it. Or it would expo- potential modifications that will gravitational waves. spoke in a session Monday morn- nentially decay, in which case further the accuracy of the existing These waves aren’t detected by ing. Tohidi read an open letter from we wouldn’t have to put in much Narges Mohammadi models,” said Morey. “Compared LIGO on Earth, but LISA, which Mohammadi that she translated effort,” he said. “As it turns out, it the importance of finding time for to the previous models [ours] actu- will be constructed in space and from Persian. exponentially grew.” both. When not working for caste ally performed a lot better than we scheduled for launch in 2034, may A river in India In the twenty-seven years since parity in India, he is conducting thought it would.” be able to spot them. To gain the At the beginning of Ravi its founding, the organization research on parity in physics. This kind of gravitational wave Kuchimanchi’s work in human has grown to at least 800 volun- MOREY continued on page 4 Kuchimanchi shows deep rights is the story of a river in India. teers and more than 100 projects compassion for the people he is In the summer of 2000, after com- organized by 36 chapters across working to help. One case he high- pleting his postdoc, Kuchimanchi the United States. The work has lighted is the ongoing agrarian cri- volunteered with Save Narmada, a absorbed most of Kuchimanchi’s sis in India. “In the past 10 years, movement to protect the villages of life. He says he is unable to focus 150,000 farmers have committed the Narmada valley from imminent on both human rights work and suicide in India.” He described flooding caused by nearby dam con- physics research at the same time. crippling debt from loans taken struction. The villagers said the flood The concentration required of out to buy pesticides, fertilizer, waters would affect many more peo- physics makes any other consid- ple than the government predicted. eration difficult, but he emphasizes RIGHTS continued on page 7 Revised 06/15/18 2 • June 2018 Spotlight on Development This Month in Physics History Mini-grants Make Room for June 30, 1908: The Tunguska Event New Ideas in Outreach n the morning of June 30, 1908, the sparse Hiroshima, Japan, after the detonation of a nuclear By Leah Poffenberger present the results of their projects Opopulace—mostly indigenous Evenki natives bomb in 1945, and scientists have estimated the For many people, engagement at the APS March Meeting to share and Russian settlers—in a remote region of Siberia Tunguska event released the energy equivalent of with physics ends when they walk what worked—and what didn’t— saw a bright column of light streak across the sky. about 185 such bombs. Further away, trees had out of a high school or college which can help future outreach Ten minutes later, there was a flash of light and a fallen away from the center of the blast in a radial physics classroom. But a science- endeavors. burst of sound, accompanied by a powerful shock pattern. literate public is important to Funds for the mini-grant pro- wave strong enough to break windows hundreds Over three successive expeditions, Kulik noted informed decision-making in an gram jointly come from the of miles away. A farmer named Sergei Semenov several small “pothole” bogs that he assumed were increasingly technological world. National Science Foundation (NSF) was one of the few eyewitnesses to the entire meteorite craters, but when he finally drained one Each year, APS awards its and APS and are awarded based event while having breakfast of the bogs (dubbed the “Suslov Public Outreach and Informing the on project proposals. However, the just 40 miles from the epicenter. crater”), an old stump at the bot- Public Grants, often called mini- 2018 mini-grants may be some of “Suddenly the sky appeared like tom proved it could not be such a grants, to fund projects aimed at the last: NSF funding is running out it was split in two, high above crater. His team also took several engaging all ages, from kinder- and won’t be renewed for this pro- the forest, the whole northern aerial photographs; although the garteners to senior citizens. These gram. In the coming months, APS sky appeared to be completely negatives were destroyed in 1975 Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia selected innovative, original, and will be looking for ways to replace covered with blazing fire,” he (part of a Soviet initiative to get sometimes experimental projects external funding and continue recalled.