July 2009 Archives

College Park, MD, July 22, 2009. Defying all the research studies proclaiming that U.S. students lag far behind the rest of the developed world in science and math, the five student representatives of the United States Physics Team competed with teams of high school students from 70 nations and struck gold winning four gold medals and one silver medal at the 40th International Physics Olympiad held in Merida, Mexico in July of 2009.

Students from China won five gold medals, coming in first on the overall medal count; while India and Korea also won four gold medals and one silver medal, tying for second with the United States on the overall medal count. Taiwan, Russia, and Romania each earned three gold and two silver medals. Countries winning at least two gold medals included Singapore, Kazakhstan and Japan; countries winning at least one gold medal included Thailand, Indonesia, Hungary, Hong Kong, Turkey, Serbia, Israel, Poland, and Slovakia.

Traveling to Merida, Mexico for the 40th International Physics Olympiad were:
David Field, of Andover, MA, a sophomore at the Phillips Andover Academy in Andover, MA;
Bowei Liu, of Freemont, CA, a sophomore at Mission San Jose High School in Freemont, CA;
Marianna Mao, of Freemont, CA, a senior at Mission San Jose High School in Freemont, CA;
Anand Natarajan, a senior at The Harker School, San Jose, CA;
Joshua Oreman, a senior at Harvard Westlake School, Los Angeles, CA;
Paul Stanley, Academic Director, Dobson Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Beloit College;
Warren Turner, Senior Coach, Assistant Professor at Westfield State, College in Massachusetts.

The three graduating seniors will be going to Harvard (Marianna), MIT (Joshua), and Stanford (Anand) next year.

The US team gold medal winners included Anand Nataranjan (with 14th highest theory score), Bowei Liu, Joshua Oreman (with 11th highest overall score), and Marianna Mao (with 6th highest experimental score). David Field won the silver medal. The overall highest score this year was Handuo Shi from China, marking the first time in the history of the Physics Olympiad that the top score was obtained by a female. Accompanying the US Physics Team to Mexico was Academic Director Paul Stanley of Beloit College and Senior Lab Coach Warren Turner of Westfield State College.

"They all did very well," said Paul Stanley, Academic Director. " Much of the success of the traveling five can be attributed to the collegial, supportive atmosphere of training camp; I thank each of the nineteen team members for working so hard to make this one of the best teams ever!"

The three theoretical problems this year included a question on the tidal drag affecting the moon, a question on laser cooling and optical molasses, and a question on the mass to radius ratio of stars and estimating a lower limit to the size of a star. The two experimental problems included measuring the wavelength of light using a razor blade and vernier calipers, and determining the index of refraction difference of a birefringent material. 316 students from around the world took part in the examination.

The US physics team has participated in the International Physics Olympiad since 1986. On four occasions the team has won four gold medals: in Australia (1995), Singapore (2006), Vietnam (2008), and Mexico (2009). The United States hosted the International Physics Olympiad in 1993. In 2010 the Olympiad will be held in Croatia.

The US Physics Team is sponsored by the generous support of private donors and the member societies of the American Institute for Physics:
Acoustical Society of America
American Association of Physicists in Medicine
American Association of Physics Teachers
American Astronomical Society
American Crystallographic Association
American Geophysical Union
American Physical Society
AVS: Science & Technology of Materials, Interfaces, and Processing
Optical Society of America
The Society of Rheology

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.
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.

For more information: Contact Marilyn Gardner, Director of Communications, mgardner@aapt.org, (301)209-3306, (301)209-0845 (Fax)

STFC is pleased to announce that Dr Marc Balcells, a tenured researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Tenerife, has been appointed Director of the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes (ING) in the Canary Islands. He will begin his new role with effect from 15 July 2009.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

College Park, Maryland, July 13, 2009. As physics educators from around the world convene at the University of Michigan Campus in Ann Arbor, MI, from July 25-29 for The American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) 2009 Summer Meeting they will be participating in Michigan state's official Physics Education Week.

In the official Proclamation, Governor Jennifer M. Granholm "encourages all residents of this state to learn more about physics education and to encourage our youth to become involved in this exciting field." The proclamation will be read as part of the opening ceremonies of the 2009 Summer Meeting.

Onsite registration is available to all interested science scholars at the University of Michigan, Michigan League. The meeting program includes plenary sessions featuring nationally renowned speakers, award winning educators, and a salute to the 400th anniversary of the telescope. As an added attraction, David Saltzberg, physics consultant for the popular television situation-comedy "The Big Bang Theory" will join the program.

Monday, July 27
Special Session
A Physicist Scattering on Hollywood
David Saltzberg, (University of California, Los Angeles) has served for the past two years as the physics consultant for the popular television situation-comedy "The Big Bang Theory" which features physicists as its main characters. He will describe his experiences with production of the show.

APS/DPP Symposium on Plasma Physics
The Electrical Charge and Motion of Objects Inserted into a Plasma
John Goree, (The University of Iowa's Department of Physics and Astronomy) conducts research experiments with Plasma, a gas that has been ionized, with freely moving electrons and ions. Objects immersed in plasma develop an electric charge by collecting electrons and ions. Experiments in the laboratory and on board the International Space Station where micron-size plastic spheres are immersed in plasma will be described, including videos of the microspheres in experiments, showing the rich variety of their collective motion.
Turbulent Liquid Metal Dynamo Experiments
Cary Forest (University of Wisconsin) focuses on understanding how electrical currents are generated in plasmas and other MHD systems. This talk will address how dynamo experiments, using high speed flows of liquid sodium, have been investigating the key processes of the geodynamo and solar dynamo. Understanding the conversion of turbulent kinetic energy in the fluid motion into electrical currents and thus magnetic fields, is the biggest challenge for both experiments and theory at this time. Experimental evidence for these currents and future directions, including the possibility of a plasma dynamo experiment, will be discussed.

Robert A. Millikan Medal
Physics for All: From Special Needs to Olympiads
Arthur Eisenkraft, Distinguished Professor of Science Education and Director of the Center of Science and Math in Context (COSMIC), at University of Massachusetts, Boston will present the Millikan Medal Address. He helped created the process that identifies and supports U.S. Physics Olympics Team to compete in the International Physics Olympiad. In 1991, Eisenkraft became the Executive Director of the XXIV International Physics Olympiad, hosted by the U.S. for teams from 40 countries. He was one of the originators of Quantum magazine, and also developed the Active Physics curriculum project, which was funded by research grants from the National Science Foundation. He has appeared on numerous television radio shows and his work has been featured in The New York Times, Education Week, Physics Today, American Journal of Physics, and The Physics Teacher.

Tuesday, July 28
Klopsteg Memorial Award
The Role of the Scientist as a Public Intellectual
Lee Smolin, a theoretical physicist, is a founding and senior faculty member at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada. He is also Adjunct Professor of Physics at the University of Waterloo. His research and writings have made major contributions to the quantum theory of gravity, being a co-inventor of loop quantum gravity and deformed special relativity. He has also worked in cosmology and is the inventor of a theory called cosmological natural selection, which applies a Darwinian methodology to the question of how the laws of physics are chosen. He has research interests also in elementary particle physics, the foundations of quantum mechanics, astrophysics, theoretical biology, and economics.

Excellence in Pre-College Physics Teaching Award
What Your Mother Never Told You About... Physics Teaching
Deborah Roudebush (Oakton High School, Herndon, VA) shares her experiences as a Physics Teacher as she is recognized with this prestigious award. She became a National Board Certified Teacher in 2001 and has served as an AAPT Physics Teaching Resource Agent (PTRA) since 1992, participated in the D.C. Urban initiative, served as Rural Initiative-James Madison University Lead Teacher, and D.C. MSP Lead Teacher in 2008. She has been active in QuarkNet since 2000, serving as Teaching & Learning Fellow with QuarkNet centers. She has participated in the National Academy of Sciences since 2004 and is a member of the College Board AP Physics Redesign Commission. She was recognized as a Presidential Awardee for Excellence in Science Teaching in 2001.

Excellence in Undergraduate Physics Teaching Award
Using Technology to Increase Student Engagement Inside and Outside of the Classroom
Mario Belloni (Davidson College, Davidson, NC) is well known as an author, public speaker, researcher, workshop leader, motivator of students, award winning professor, and an innovator in the use of technology for teaching physics. He received the AAPT Distinguished Service Citation in 2006 and has served as a member of the Planning Committee for the Section Representative/Area Chair Governance (2007), as a member of the AAPT Meetings Committee (2007-08), and as a member of the AAPT Membership and Benefits Committee (2004-07). Belloni is currently Chair of the AAPT Committee on Educational Technologies, North Carolina AAPT Section Representative, and a member of the ComPADRE Quantum Physics Editorial Board.

Wednesday, July 29
Something Incredible Wonderful Happens: Frank Oppenheimer and the world He Made Up
K. C. Cole (Southern California's Annenberg School of Journalism) is the author of eight nonfiction books, including The Universe and the Teacup: The Mathematics of Truth and Beauty. She covered math, physics, cosmology and psychology at The Los Angeles Times for 10 years, often exploring connections between science, art, and society, and wrote the column "Mind Over Matter." Cole has taught at UCLA, Wesleyan and Yale Universities, and has been an editor, writer, and columnist at Discover Magazine. Her most recent book is Something Incredibly Wonderful Happens: Frank Oppenheimer and the World He Made Up, to be published this summer by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

About AAPT:
AAPT is the leading organization for physics educators--with more than 10,000 members worldwide. Our mission is to advance the greater good through physics education. 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:
Journalists are invited to contact Marilyn Gardner, Director of Communications, American Association of Physics Teachers, mgardner@aapt org, 301-209-3306 regarding press registration and materials regarding this meeting.

The Society of Physics Students (SPS) has awarded 20 Leadership Scholarships to undergraduate physics majors for the 2009-10 academic year. The five top awardees receiving $3,000 SPS Outstanding Leadership Scholarships are Maria Drout, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA; Logan Hancock, Angelo State University, San Angelo, TX; Michael Jokubaitis, Drew University, Madison, NJ; Tyler McCleery, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS; and Jenna Smith, Rhodes College, Memphis, TN. Fifteen $2,000 awards were also given in a variety of categories. The purpose of the SPS Scholarship program is to encourage the study of physics and the pursuit of high scholarship. SPS derives most of its support from the American Institute of Physics (AIP). SPS awards and scholarship programs are made possible, in part, through the generous contributions of Sigma Pi Sigma members and friends.

July 13, 2009, College Park, MD - The five students representing the U.S. Physics Team as the 2009 Traveling Team, and two of their coaches, are competing with high school students from 84 nations this week at the 40th International Physics Olympiad in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.

The U.S. Traveling Team Representatives are:
David Field, of Andover, MA, a sophomore at the Phillips Andover Academy in Andover, MA;
Bowei Liu, of Freemont, CA, a sophomore at Mission San Jose High School in Freemont, CA;
Marianna Mao, of Freemont, CA, a senior at Mission San Jose High School in Freemont, CA;
Anand Natarajan, of San Jose, CA, a senior at The Harker School;
Joshua Oreman, of Los Angeles, CA a senior at Harvard Westlake School, Los Angeles, CA;

The traveling team coaches are:
Paul Stanley, Academic Director, Dobson Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Beloit College;
Warren Turner, Senior Coach, Assistant Professor at Westfield State College in Massachusetts.

The US Physics Team Traveling Representatives participated in a two-day mini-camp at the University of Maryland, College Park, where they reviewed problem solving skills and sharpened their laboratory skills. The mini-camp ended with a visit to the Mexican Embassy in Washington, DC where the students met with Antonio Ortiz-Mena, Head of Section Economic Affairs. The team members presented an art glass globe representing the world, as a gift to the people of Mexico during their embassy visit.

The Traveling Representatives arrived in Merida on July 11 and will spend the next week participating in a unique opportunity to meet with other high school students, demonstrate their abilities in physics, exchange experiences, and build cross-cultural contacts. They will have the opportunity to make new and lasting friendships with peers from all over the world; visit archeological sites full of ancient history; and to attend talks by world renowned scientists regarding interesting research in physics.

Team members will have the opportunity to add to the medals received by previous U.S. Physics Teams. Last year's team brought home one silver medal and four gold medals. This year's awards will be presented on July 19, 2009.

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
Donations to support the U.S. Physics Team: http://www.aapt.org/physicsteam/donate.cfm

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.

For more information: Contact Marilyn Gardner, Director of Communications, mgardner@aapt.org, (301)209-3306, (301)209-0845 (Fax)

Jeanie Lau of the University of California, Riverside has been recognized with a national honor given only to a few outstanding researchers who are beginning their independent research careers. Lau is one of 100 recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) for the 2008 competition. PECASE represents the highest honor a beginning scientist or engineer can receive in the United States. She and the other PECASE winners will be presented with their awards at a White House ceremony this fall.

More information at: http://newsroom.ucr.edu/news_item.html?action=page&id=2136

Alcatel–Lucent Bell Labs scientists Andrew R. Chraplyvy and Robert W. Tkach, research partners for more than two decades, have been awarded the 2009 Marconi Fellowship and Prize for their research into optical fiber nonlinearities and their development of novel mitigation techniques that vastly increased the transmission speed and capacity of optical fiber communications systems.