May 2010 Archives

For Immediate Release

College Park, MD, May 24, 2010--They came from Iowa and Ohio, Oregon and Massachusetts. Five came from California, two from New Jersey, and one from Connecticut. Students from the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic, the Midwest, the Southwest, and the Pacific coast are beginning ten days of rigorous academic training, interactive learning, and friendship building as they prepare to test themselves on the world stage.

They are the top twenty high school physics students in the United States, selected through an examination process that included such upper level skills as the Lagrangian Formula of Mechanics, Differential Calculus for Electricity and Magnetism, and Complex Variables, skills usually learned at the end of the undergraduate experience.

They were welcomed to the University of Maryland, College Park campus by AAPT Executive Officer, Warren Hein and AIP Executive Director, Fred Dylla. Officers and staff from AAPT, AIP, APS, and the University of Maryland were on hand for the camp kick off.

Meet the U.S. Physics team at http://www.aapt.org/physicsteam/2010/team.cfm. Get to know their coaches, Paul Stanley, Academic Director; Warren Turner, Senior Lab Coach; Qui Zi Li, Assistant Lab Coach; and Academic Coaches, Jia Jia Dong, David Fallest, and Andrew Linn at http://www.aapt.org/physicsteam/2010/coaches.cfm.

In addition to learning a year of physics in two weeks, the team members will visit their congressional representatives on Capitol Hill, tour the National Air and Space Museum, and visit the Albert Einstein statue at the National Academy of Science. At the end of the camp, they will be tested again and five of the team members will be selected to travel to Zagreb, Croatia, representing the United States in the International Physics Olympiad, July 17 - 25, 2010.

Funding for the U.S. Physics Team is supported through donations from concerned individuals and organizations. Contributions are entirely used to support the selection, training, and travel of the team. Donations to the U.S. Physics Team are accepted at www.aapt.org/physicsteam/donate.cfm.

The US Physics Olympiad Program is a joint initiative of AAPT in partnership with the member societies of the American Institute for Physics (AIP): Acoustical Society of America, American Association of Physicists in Medicine, American Astronomical Society, American Crystallographic Society, American Geophysical Union, American Physical Society, AVS, Optical Society America, and the Society of Rheology.

MORE ON THE WEB
Main website of the U.S. Physics Team: http://www.aapt.org/physicsteam/2010
History of the physics team, including past winners: http://www.aapt.org/Contests/olympiad.cfm
The official website of the 2010 International Physics Olympiad: http://ipho2010.hfd.hr/

About AAPT
The American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) is an international organization for physics educators, physicists, and industrial scientists--with more than 10,000 members worldwide. Dedicated to enhancing the understanding and appreciation of physics through teaching, AAPT provides organizational and sponsorship support to the U.S. Physics Team in partnership with the American Institute for Physics and its member societies (http://www.aip.org/aip/societies.html).

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

May 11, 2010—The AVS: Science & Technology of Materials, Interfaces, and Processing (AVS) and the American Institute of Physics (AIP) are pleased to announce selection of their jointly-sponsored Congressional Science Fellow for 2010-11 - Christopher Spitzer, Ph.D. Spitzer's background combines research in engineering and physics and participation in policy groups with academic training in science policy and time as a science reporter.

May 11, 2010—The Acoustical Society of America (ASA) and the American Institute of Physics (AIP) are pleased to announce the selection of Peter Norgaard as their jointly-sponsored Congressional Science Fellow , who will work on Capitol Hill in 2010-11. Norgaard has a background in mathematics, physics, aerospace engineering, and computer science and is slated to complete his PhD in Physics from Princeton University this summer.

COLLEGE PARK, MD (May 10, 2010)—The American Institute of Physics (AIP) is awarding its 2010 Andrew W. Gemant Award to Daniel Roberto Altschuler Stern, an astronomer and author from Puerto Rico who has written that we are all just "hijos de las estrellas" (children of the stars).

College Park, MD (May 10, 2010)—The American Institute of Physics (AIP) has appointed Philip ("Bo") Hammer its new Associate Vice President of Physics Resources, a position he will fill beginning on May 17, 2010.

The 2010 Very Early Career Award, presented by the Women in Physics Group of the Institute of Physics (IOP), was for the first time awarded jointly to two young women physicists on 5 May, for their outstanding achievements in physics research and their inspiring enthusiasm for disseminating a love of physics through a variety of outreach activities.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

College Park, MD April 22, 2010-- According to the Kansas State University website, "Sanjay Rebello does not just teach his students -- he wants to get into their minds."

This associate professor of physics focuses his research on physics education.
Rebello has been an active member of AAPT since 1995. He is currently serving on the Committee Graduate Education in Physics, and has served on the Committee on Educational Technologies. He hosted the 2003 Arkansas-Oklahoma-Kansas (AOK) section meeting at Kansas State University and is always working on some project that leads to better physics education. He organized the 2004 PER Conference at the National AAPT Summer meeting.

An active member of the AOK Section, Rebello brings his graduate students to section meetings where they always present the latest physics education research that the Kansas State University PER group is conducting. He is the kind of "champion" that a local AAPT section needs to maintain its presence in the greater organization. Without him, the AAPT AOK Section might be lost among the wind blown prairies.

Rebello promotes good educational practices in the classroom and he practices what he preaches. His students rave at his ability to assist them in understanding physics at both a conceptual level and at even greater depths. Many of his graduate students have continued the tradition of physics education as they have moved on to their own teaching careers, giving talks at the various AAPT meetings around the nation. This is probably the most significant and essential part of what Sanjay Rebello has meant to AAPT.

About AAPT
AAPT is an international organization for physics educators, physicists, and industrial scientists--with more than 10,000 members worldwide. Dedicated to enhancing the understanding and appreciation of physics through teaching, AAPT provides awards, publications, and programs that encourage teaching practical application of physics principles, support continuing professional development, and reward excellence in physics education. 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), www.aapt.org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

College Park, MD April 22, 2010--"Always a physics teacher," is a phrase that aptly describes Chris Chiaverina whether he's teaching a physics class at New Trier High School, or shopping for physics toys at Wal-Mart, or pushing a Nobel laureate down the hall on an air-supported platform, or writing a physics textbook, or sharing a new teaching idea with his colleagues at Physics Northwest, or attending an AAPT Executive Board meeting, or helping one of 700 physics students at New Trier make a hologram. (The Physics Teacher, February 2002)

Regarding his selection for this honor, he says, "I am honored to receive this citation. I'm proud to say that I have been a member of AAPT for over 35 years. My association with this wonderful organization has profoundly affected my professional and personal life. Through my association with AAPT, I have grown professionally and have formed friendships with fellow physicists all over the world. To say that my introduction to AAPT by my friend and mentor Jim Hicks marked a watershed for me would be an understatement."

Chris received both his bachelor's and MS ED degrees from Northern Illinois University. Before retiring in 2002, he taught physics in an inner-city Chicago high school and in a small Illinois town (Forreston), as well as in the larger suburban Barrington High School and New Trier Township High School in Winnetka. He has also served as a visiting faculty member at DePaul University, Roosevelt University, and at Northern Illinois University.

Chris is a frequent contributor to The Physics Teacher (TPT) and also has served several terms on its Editorial Board. He is currently editor of the TPT "Little Gems" column (2004-present). He has been a co-author or contributor to several physics textbooks, including Light Science (Springer-Verlag, 1999), as well as a reprint book on Teaching Light and Color (AAPT, 2001). He was a contributing author in the Active Physics curriculum project of AAPT.

He has been a very active physics teacher outside the classroom. At Barrington, he was the co-founder of The Science Place, an interactive science museum. He was co-developer of physics day at Six Flags Great America and wrote one of the first manuals for doing physics at amusement parks. He served as Lead Teacher in the Department of Energy's High School Honors Program at FermiLab.

Chris has served AAPT in a number of roles on both the local and national levels. He has been a mainstay of the Chicago Section, serving as president 1992-93. Nationally, he has sat on several AAPT committees and boards, including the Science Education for the Public Committee (1990 - 1993) before becoming Vice President, President Elect, President, and Past President (200-2004). He has also been a key member of two local alliances of physics teachers in the Chicago area: The Illinois State Physics Project (ISPP) and Physics Northwest, both of which meet monthly to share physics teaching ideas.

His outstanding contributions to physics teaching have been recognized with the ISPP John Rush Memorial Physics Teaching Award in 1985. In 1997, AAPT awarded him the Award for Excellence in Pre-College Physics Teaching. He received the AAPT Illinois Section Outstanding Physics Teacher Award in 1982 and the Governor's Master Teacher Award in 1984. He was recognized by APS as Distinguished Physics Teacher from Illinois.

About AAPT
AAPT is an international organization for physics educators, physicists, and industrial scientists--with more than 10,000 members worldwide. Dedicated to enhancing the understanding and appreciation of physics through teaching, AAPT provides awards, publications, and programs that encourage teaching practical application of physics principles, support continuing professional development, and reward excellence in physics education. 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), www.aapt.org.

For Immediate Release

College Park, MD April 22, 2010-- Quoting from the February 2007 issue of The Physics Teacher: "Harvey 'Styx' Leff brings a formidable combination of ability, passion, and demonstrated accomplishment--in the classroom, in research, in academic leadership, and on musical stages--to his service to AAPT."

After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa under the direction of Max Dresden, he taught on the faculty at Case Western Reserve University, Harvey Mudd College, and Chicago State University. He spent four years as an energy policy analyst for the Oak Ridge Associated Universities before joining the faculty at Cal Poly Pomona in 1983 as department chair. He built a Physics Department that actively encourages and rewards excellence in physics teaching and the participation of faculty members in AAPT.

Harvey served as an officer and Section Representative of the Southern California Section of AAPT from 1987 to 2005, Associate Editor of the American Journal of Physics 1992-95, Chair of AAPT's Professional Concerns Committee 1999-2000, and Chair of the AAPT Nominating Committee 2003-04. He was subsequently elected to the AAPT Presidential Chain, serving as Vice President in 2005, President-Elect in 2006, President in 2007, and Past President in 2008. He was on the Governing Board of the American Institute of Physics 2006-2008.

Among Harvey's six dozen scientific publications, primarily related to thermal physics, are three dozen articles, letters, and book reviews in AAPT's American Journal of Physics and a half dozen in The Physics Teacher. He was a referee for these journals for over forty years. Serving the wider physics-teaching community, Harvey was an organizer of the Gordon Research Conference on Physics Education and Research on Quantum Mechanics in 2002 and Classical Mechanics and Non-linear Dynamics in 2004. In 2003, he co-edited the anthology, Maxwell's Demon 2: Entropy, Classical and Quantum Information, Computing. Finally, using the nickname Styx, Harvey has been drummer for the Out-Laws of Physics since 2003.

Upon learning he would receive an AAPT Distinguished Service Citation, Harvey commented, "AAPT has been a critical element of my growth and success as a physics teacher and I am thrilled to have been chosen for a DSC. I am reminded that when comedian Jack Benny was presented with an award, he quipped that he didn't deserve the award, but didn't deserve arthritis either. I feel the same way, including the arthritis! Without AAPT, my career would have been far less fruitful and my life far less rich. Thank you AAPT."

About AAPT
AAPT is an international organization for physics educators, physicists, and industrial scientists--with more than 10,000 members worldwide. Dedicated to enhancing the understanding and appreciation of physics through teaching, AAPT provides awards, publications, and programs that encourage teaching practical application of physics principles, support continuing professional development, and reward excellence in physics education. 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), www.aapt.org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

College Park, Maryland, United States, April 22, 2010--The American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) announced today William P. Hogan is the recipient of the 2010 AAPT Excellence in Undergraduate Physics Teaching Award. Hogan is Professor of Physics at Joliet Junior College, Joliet, IL. This award is in recognition of contributions to undergraduate physics teaching and awardees are chosen for their extraordinary accomplishments in communicating the excitement of physics to their students. This prestigious award will be presented to Hogan during the AAPT Summer Meeting in Portland, Oregon where he will also present a paper.

When informed of his selection for this award, Hogan said, "I'm honored to be chosen. I'm not sure I deserve this award but I love teaching introductory physics and feel very fortunate to make my living doing something I enjoy."

Hogan received a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering physics, a Masters of Science in physics, and a Ph.D. in experimental high energy physics all from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He accepted an appointment as a post-doctoral research associate with Rutgers University stationed at Fermi National Acceleration Laboratory after finishing his graduate studies. While working at Fermilab, he began teaching physics as an adjunct faculty member at several Chicago-area two-year colleges and decided to pursue a career teaching physics.

In 1997, he joined the physics faculty at Joliet Junior College where he has taught introductory physics at all levels including conceptual physics, technical physics, college physics with a trigonometry pre-requisite, and university physics with a calculus prerequisite. He believes strongly in making students active participants in the learning process in all parts of the course. In addition to teaching his classes, Hogan has been active in the Joliet Junior College Faculty Union and has served as its treasurer since being first elected in 2003.

Hogan has been active in physics teaching organizations throughout his career as a teacher. He is a member of both the Illinois Section and the Chicago Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) and has presented many papers at Illinois Section meetings. He has served as President-Elect (2005), President (2006), and Past-President of the Illinois Section of AAPT. In 2007, he received the Distinguished Service Citation Award from the Illinois Section of the AAPT. Currently, he serves on the Executive Board of ISAAPT as one of the Two-Year College representatives.

He was instrumental in the success of TYC21 (an NSF sponsored project to build networks among two- year college physics teachers) in Illinois. Hogan has represented Illinois at the national meetings of TYC21 and spoken at national meetings about the success of the network of Illinois teachers. He has previously served a term as a member of the AAPT Committee on Physics in Two-Year Colleges and is currently serving another term, this time as chair of the committee. Hogan was Editor for the AAPT Guidelines for Two-Year College Physics Programs (2001) and is currently serving as editor of a revision.

Hogan was a key member of the SPIN-UP/TYC Project during 2002-2004, attending the Training and Planning Conference held July 24-28, 2002 at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX. He was the team leader for a site visit to Lord Fairfax Community College in Middletown, VA in 2003 and helped write the Case Study for Lord Fairfax Community College which was selected as an "Exemplary Two-Year College Physics Program" by this Project.

One of his former students, expressing his experience with Hogan said, "Dr. Hogan has the empathy, the vocabulary, and the skills to express criticism and critique in ways that create an open and nurturing environment in which students of all levels can appreciate physics. He is not only interested in helping students learn physics but also takes interest in his students as human beings and helps them beyond the classroom."

About AAPT
AAPT is an international organization for physics educators, physicists, and industrial scientists--with more than 10,000 members worldwide. Dedicated to enhancing the understanding and appreciation of physics through teaching, AAPT provides awards, publications, and programs that encourage practical application of physics principles, support continuing professional development, and reward excellence in physics education. 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), www.aapt.org.

The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) has announced that Renato Aguilera, Ph.D., professor of biology and director of the graduate program in biology at The University of Texas at El Paso, will be the recipient of the 2010 William A. Hinton Research Training Award.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

College Park, Maryland, United States, April 26, 2010. The American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) announced today that the 2010 AAPT Excellence in Pre-College Physics Teaching Award winner is Diane Riendeau, a high school physics teacher at Deerfield High School in Deerfield, IL. This award is in recognition of contributions to pre-college physics teaching and awardees are chosen for their extraordinary accomplishments in communicating the excitement of physics to their students.

On her selection for this recognition, Riendeau said, "I am honored to receive this award. Many of my mentors, who supported me through my career, are previous recipients. I am humbled to join them as Pre-College award winners. The key to becoming a good teacher is support. I had fantastic high school physics teachers myself that became unbelievable mentors during my early years as a physics teacher. My husband supported me by handling the children while I went to AAPT or local physics alliance meetings and encouraging me when I hit some lows. My colleagues at the schools I taught shared their ideas with me and together we sharpened each other. I am not a great physics teacher due to my own hard work...I am a great physics teacher because of the input of others."

Riendeau has a BA in Mathematics from Northeastern Illinois University and earned her MA in Curriculum and Instruction from Concordia University. Additionally she had extensive coursework in Physics. She has received numerous awards including AAPT's Innovative High School Teaching Award, the Illinois finalist for Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching, and the AAAS Leadership in Science Education for High School Teachers.

One of her philosophies is that high school physics curricula should be concepts driven instead of math driven and hands-on instead of lecture-based. This way students walk away with lived physics experiences. This philosophy is especially applicable to high school freshmen who are still children at heart and enjoy learning by doing and playing. Throwing math at a group of students whose math skills are underdeveloped would be counterproductive to our school's goal of providing physics for all. She has served as a mentor for several years, teaching colleagues this philosophy.

According to her Department Chair, Judi Luepke, "Diane is always searching for new ideas to bring to the classroom. She is a lifelong learner, continually taking online courses to learn more about making physics relative to students" lives."

Riendeau joined AAPT in 1992 and served on the AAPT Committee on Physics in High Schools and is the current Chair of the Pre-High School Committee. She also served as head judge for the High School Teaching Grant 2005-6. She also serves on the Editorial Board.

She was a co-author of the 2006 AAPT "Physics First" pamphlet and has contributed numerous articles to The Physics Teacher. Additionally, she was a contributing author to "Conceptual Physics" (2008).

About AAPT
AAPT is an international organization for physics educators, physicists, and industrial scientists--with more than 10,000 members worldwide. Dedicated to enhancing the understanding and appreciation of physics through teaching, AAPT provides awards, publications, and programs that encourage practical application of physics principles, support continuing professional development, and reward excellence in physics education. 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), www.aapt.org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

College Park, MD, May 3, 2010--With all the bad press that the US education system has received, it is good news that the U.S. is competitive in physics at the highest level. Over the past ten years, every U.S. Physics Team member traveling to the International Physics Olympiad has returned with a medal.

This year twenty students from across the U.S. have emerged through a rigorous exam process that began last January with approximately 3,300 students who participated in the Fnet=ma exam to become the 2010 U.S. Physics Team. These students will continue to train for the mentally grueling exams and lab tests they'll face at the 41st International Physics Olympiad to be held from July 17 - 25, 2010 in Zagreb, Croatia, where more than 400 student scholars from 90 nations will test their knowledge in physics, competing with the best in the world.

"Each student who participated in the 2010 U.S. Physics Team selection process is deserving of recognition. They are the future of physics and physics education in the United States. It is AAPT's honor to recognize the exceptional scholars who qualified for the team and to support their further participation in the International Physics Olympiad," said Dr. Warren Hein, Executive Officer of the American Association of Physics Teachers in College Park, MD, which selects the students and organizes their training.

An integral part of the U.S. Physics Team experience is the training camp. Most of the students invited to the camp are the top science student in their high school. For many, it is their first chance to meet other students who are truly their peers. The training camp is a crash course in the first two years of university physics. Students learn at a very fast pace. They have an opportunity to hear about cutting edge research from some of the community's leading physicists. At the end of the training camp, five students will be selected to travel to Croatia for the international competition.

The coaches for the 2010 U.S. Physics team are: Paul Stanley, Academic Director/Senior Coach, Warren Turner, Senior Coach/Lab Coach, Andrew Lin, Jia Jia Dong, Qui Zi Li, and David Fallest are all coaches.

The U.S. Physics Olympiad Program was started in 1986 by AAPT to promote and demonstrate academic excellence. This year's event is organized by the Croatian Physical Society and the University of Zagreb as the co-organizer, under the financial support of the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia and the City of Zagreb.

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

LIST OF EVENTS
May 22-31 -- Students visit University of Maryland for their intensive training camp.
May 31 -- Five students will be chosen to represent the US at the international competition.
July 17 -- Students arrive in Zagreb for the international competition.
July 25 -- The International Competition Closing Ceremony .

MORE ON THE WEB
Main website of the U.S. Physics Team: http://www.aapt.org/physicsteam/2010
History of the physics team, including past winners: http://www.aapt.org/Contests/olympiad.cfm
The official website of the 2010 International Physics Olympiad: http://ipho2010.hfd.hr/

About AAPT
AAPT is an international organization for physics educators, physicists, and industrial scientists--with more than 10,000 members worldwide. Dedicated to enhancing the understanding and appreciation of physics through teaching, AAPT provides awards, publications, and programs that encourage teaching practical application of physics principles, support con¬tinuing professional development, and reward excellence in physics education. AAPT was founded in 1930 and is headquar¬tered 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), www.aapt.org.