May 2009 Archives

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

College Park, MD, May 27, 2009. The physics community and AAPT lost a friend and advocate on May 17 with the death of Betty Preece of Indialantic, FL. A long-time member of AAPT, Betty was recognized for her years of dedicated service with a Distinguished Service Citation in 1997. She served on many committees, including the Committee on Minorities, the Committee on Women in Physics, and the Committee on International Education.

Betty organized events for under privileged elementary children at AAPT's Winter Meetings for many years. She enlisted volunteers including local Society of Women Engineers (SWE) chapters in these activities for students. Betty was a recipient of the 2007 SWE Distinguished Service Award.

"Not only was Betty the living standard of a loyal AAPT member, but she was also a personal friend to many of us. She never said NO, and it was very hard to tell her No also. You could always count on her to do anything for the good of AAPT, children and women," said Lila Adair, AAPT Past President.

Betty was the first woman to graduate from the University of Kentucky with a degree in electrical engineering, was inducted into the University of Kentucky Hall of Distinction and was, in 1950, the first woman engineer at the Eastern Test Range, Cape Canaveral.

Betty was an organizing member of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) in 1950. She was a civil engineer with over 10,000 volunteer hours as the Handicap and Accessibility Coordinator at Patrick Air Force Base, an Adjunct Professor at Florida Institute of Technology, a physics teacher at Melbourne High for 18 years, and a science fair judge for state and county competitions.

She was a Mentor for Take Stock in Children and she was a member of and held local, state, and national office in the following: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), Phi Delta Kappa, Delta Kappa Gamma, Environmentally Endangered Land Society (EELS), Abigail Wright Chamberlin Chapter NSDAR, Daughters of 1812, Daughters of American Colonists, American Association of Physics Teachers, National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), Women in Engineering ProActive Network (WEPAN), Junior Engineering Technical Society (JETS), South Brevard Historical Society, SCSEA, Scots-American Society of Brevard and Women Engineering Society in United Kingdom (WES).

She traveled the world as a speaker and teacher to show children that "Science could be fun." Betty was a cherished member in all of these organizations and will be missed by her many friends and family.

About AAPT: AAPT (www.aapt.org) is the leading organization for physics educators--with more than 10,000 members worldwide. Our mission is to advance the greater good through physics teaching. We provide our members with many opportunities for professional development, communication, and student enrichment. We serve the larger community through a variety of programs and publications. AAPT was founded in 1930 and is headquartered in the American Center for Physics in College Park, Maryland.

CONTACT:
Marilyn Gardner, American Association of Physics Teachers, mgardner@aapt.org 301-209-3306.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 26, 2009

(College Park, MD) -- Five students have been selected to represent the U.S Physics Team as the 2009 Traveling Team at the 40th International Physics Olympiad, a competition among high-school physics students, held this summer in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.

The students are:
David Field, of Andover, MA, a sophomore at the Phillips Andover Academy in Andover, MA; bio at http://www.aapt.org/physicsteam/team.cfm?id=495&year=2009
Bowei Liu, of Freemont, CA, a sophomore at Mission San Jose High School in Freemont, CA; bio at http://www.aapt.org/physicsteam/team.cfm?id=612&year=2009
Marianna Mao, of Freemont, CA, a senior at Mission San Jose High School in Freemont, CA; bio at http://www.aapt.org/physicsteam/team.cfm?id=627&year=2009
Anand Natarajan, of San Jose, CA, a senior at The Harker School; bio at http://www.aapt.org/physicsteam/team.cfm?id=654&year=2009
Joshua Oreman, of Los Angeles, CA a senior at Harvard Westlake School, Los Angeles, CA; bio at: http://www.aapt.org/physicsteam/team.cfm?id=663&year=2009

"We are very proud of all nineteen students who participated in the training camp. They have tested themselves with the best of their peers for ten days and have proven to be an outstanding group of young people," said Warren Hein, Executive Officer of the American Association of Physics Teachers, which sponsors the team. "We are sure that the five Traveling Team members will uphold the tradition of success for the United States as they represent the U.S. Physics Team in Merida."

The students attended a training camp at the University of Maryland, where, through classes, labs and special lectures, they were coached on difficult physics concepts, then took a series of exams. They also made a trip to nearby Washington, DC, to see the Smithsonian Museums and to NASA's Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt, MD.

The coaches for the 2009 U.S. Physics team are: Paul Stanley, Academic Director/Senior Coach, Warren Turner, Senior Coach/Lab Coach, Andrew Lin, David Jones, and David Fallest.

Last year, the team brought home one silver and four gold medals. Joshua Oreman, a returning team member, brought home a gold medal for the 2008 Team.

The U.S. Physics Olympiad Program was started in 1986 by AAPT to promote and demonstrate academic excellence. It continues to be supported as a joint initiative between AAPT and AIP. The nine-day international competition brings together pre-university students from more than 60 nations. This year's event is sponsored by the Mexico Ministry of Education, the National Council of Science and Technology, and the Yucatan State Government with the support of the National University of Mexico, the National Polytechnical Institute, the Metropolitan Autonomous University, and the Institute for Scientific and Technological Research of San Luis Potosi. The 2009 International Physics Olympiad is being organized by the Mexican Physical Society, the University of Yucatan, and the Merida Campus of the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnical Institute.

LIST OF EVENTS:
May 16-26 -- Physics Team students visit University of Maryland for their intensive training camp.
May 26 -- Five students chosen as the Traveling Team to represent the US Team at the international competition.
July 3-7 --Traveling Team Mini-Boot Camp, College Park, MD
July 11 -- Traveling Team arrives in Merida for the international competition.
July 19 -- The International Olympiad's final awards given.

MORE ON THE WEB
• Main website of the U.S. Physics Team: http://www.aapt.org/olympiad2009/
• History of the physics team, including past winners: http://www.aapt.org/Contests/olympiad.cfm
• The official website of the International Physics Olympiad: http://ipho2009.smf.mx/home
• Screening exams the students had to pass to place on the U.S. Physics Team: http://www.compadre.org/psrc/evals/olympiad.cfm

CONTACT:
Marilyn Gardner, American Association of Physics Teachers, mgardner@aapt.org, 301-209-3306

For Immediate Release

College Park, MD (May 22, 2009) Nineteen of the country's best and brightest physics students sit in a classroom, gritting their teeth against the screech of Professor Paul Stanley's chalk. He bears down on the chalkboard and offers the teens a challenge.

"You can calculate how long this piece of chalk is by measuring the frequency [pitch] of the squeak," says Stanley. When the chalk snaps a moment later, he explains that the pitch of the ultrasonic sound of the break can be determined from the sizes of the leftover fragments.

These high school students -- who have a penchant for wearing MIT t-shirts -- banter about how they would perform the calculations. They are the U.S. Physics Team and have gathered from across the country to train for the 40th Annual International Physics Olympiad. From May 16 to 26, they are spending thirteen hours a day at the University of Maryland in fast-paced lecture classes and hands-on labs that challenge the depth and breadth of their knowledge of physics.

To make it this far, the team members scored better than 4,000 other students on three exams that tested their knowledge of theoretical physics.

"To do well, you have to be the kind of person who likes sitting up at night with physics textbook just because it's the most fun thing to do," says Andrew Lin, who competed on the U.S. team twice and has been a coach for the team for 9 years.

Five students will be chosen to represent the U.S. in the international competition, in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico from July 12th through the 19th. The U.S. team will compete against teams from around the world to solve three theoretical problems and one experimental problem drawn from a wide range of physics fields. Past problems have included everything from the application of physics to automobile air bags and spacecraft to abstract questions about relativity and mechanics. Last year, the U.S. team won one silver medal and four gold medals..

Their boot camp training for the event includes time in a laboratory. "The experimental side is similar to what they do in their high schools, but we give them something that pushes them a little further," says Warren Turner, head lab coach. Instead of simply measuring the motion of a pendulum, for example, the students develop their own mathematical models to take into account and predict the nuances of the swinging bob.

The week isn't all work. Whether debating if alternative energy schemes inspired by science fiction novels would actually work or wiggling their arms in the "vector dance," the gathering is an opportunity for the teens to get to know each other.

"I get to meet cool people who are interested in the same crazy things that I am," says Joshua Oreman of Harvard Westlake School in North Hollywood, who brought home a gold medal at last year's competition in Iran.

The camp schedule includes a movie night and field trips to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC and to NASA's Goddard Space Laboratory in Greenbelt, MD.

The demographics of the bunch are fairly representative of a slice of the physics community at large. They are a mix of public and private school students and a mix of ethnicities, with about half being of Asian descent. Only three of the students are female.

But when asked whether these students were representative of his colleagues in physics coach David Fallest of North Carolina University shook his head. "These students are special and amazing ... the level of enthusiasm is not what I see in Ph.D students. They're the cream of the crop, interested in every aspect of the subject."

The U.S. Physics Olympiad Program was started in 1986 by AAPT to promote and demonstrate academic excellence. It continues to be supported as a joint initiative between AAPT and AIP. The nine-day International Physics Olympiad brings together pre-university students from more than 60 nations.

LIST OF EVENTS:
May 16-26 -- Physics Team students visit University of Maryland for their intensive training camp.
May 26 -- Five students chosen as the Traveling Team to represent the US Team at the international competition.
July 11 -- Traveling Team arrives in Merida for the international competition.
July 19 -- The International Competition's final awards given.

MORE ON THE WEB
Main website of the U.S. Physics Team: http://www.aapt.org/olympiad2009/
History of the physics team, including past winners: http://www.aapt.org/Contests/olympiad.cfm
The official website of the International Physics Olympiad: http://ipho2009.smf.mx/home.

CONTACT:
Marilyn Gardner, American Association of Physics Teachers, mgardner@aapt.org, 301-209-3306

WASHINGTON, D.C.— The American Physical Society (APS) is pleased to announce, following a national search, that Dr. Kate Kirby, research physicist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and lecturer in the Harvard University Department of Astronomy, has accepted the position of Executive Officer of the Society, the premier professional organization of more than 47,000 physicists from academia, national laboratories and industry, and a leading publisher of scientific journals.

Her appointment is effective July 13. Dr. Kirby replaces Dr. Judy Franz, who is retiring from APS after 15 years of service.

The European Physical Society announced the 2009 winners of its senior Prizes in Quantum Electronics and Optics. These prizes are awarded only once every two years, and recognize the very highest level of achievements in fundamental and applied research.

Today in Tokyo, the government of Japan awarded Arden L. Bement, Jr., director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, its second-highest-ranked award available to foreigners. He received this honor for his meritorious contribution to promoting cooperation and understanding between the United States and Japan in the science and technology field.

Ed Synakowski,Fusion Energy Program Leader at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and a current member of Fusion Power Associates Board of Directors, has been named to head the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (OFES) effective June 7. He succeeds Ray Fonck (University of Wisconsin), who resigned the post in August 2008.

Flagstaff, Ariz.-- Dr. Eileen Friel has accepted the appointment by Observatory Trustee, William Lowell Putnam, to be the next Director of Lowell Observatory. Dr. Friel will become the tenth Director of the Observatory.