Home | Publications | APS News | August/September 2004 (Volume 13, Number 8)

August/September 2004 (Volume 13, Number 8)

August/September 2004 (Volume 13, Number 8) Entire Issue

News

UN Declares 2005 the International Year of Physics
General assembly grants international status to World Year of Physics.

Executive Board Urges Review of Moon/Mars Mission Proposal
Board expresses reservations about Bush administration's new space initiative.

Latest Membership Survey Rates APS Activities
Lobbying, public information, and improving education cited as top priorities.

Physics Department Chairs Make Their Case on Capitol Hill
APS lobbying day proves that all politics is truly local.

APS Members Urged to Help Jailed Russian Researcher
APS Committee on International Freedom of Scientists makes plea on behalf of arms control physicist Igor Satyagin.

Spotlight on the Physics Profession
Entrepreneurship gains ground in the physics curriculum.

Consider an Asymmetrical Pulsar…
APS participated in an event on Capitol Hill sponsored by CNSF.

Workforce Issues Dominate Policy Briefing
Panelists probe whether enough US students are going into science.

NRC Releases "Physics of the Universe" Strategic Plan
Top priorities include projects on dark matter, dark energy and gravity.

DAMOP Lecture Wows the Public
Success offers useful model for planned special events during 2005's World Year of Physics.

Fred Stein Heads for the Hills
The APS Director of Education and Outreach is retiring to Colorado.

APS Selects 26 as 2004-2005 Undergraduate Minority Scholars
Students will receive $2000 to pursue physics aspirations.

APS-Led Teacher Prep Program is Seeing Results
Now entering its fourth year, PhysTEC emphasizes "active learning."

Librarians Honor APS Journals
Meeting of the Special Libraries Association in Nashville.

Opinion

Letters
Readers Take Issue with Varmus's Paise of Secularism — Appearance of Order is Perfectly Natural — Friendly Advice for Bob Park — "The Scream" May Reflect Munch Kin's Death

Inside the Beltway: A Washington Analysis
Physics in the Battleground

The Back Page
Navigating Challenges in a Rapidly Changing World

Departments

Members in the Media
As quoted in other publications…

This Month in Physics History
August 1932: Discovery of the Positron

Zero Gravity: The Lighter Side of Science
When Physicists Cook, Watch Out!

APS Hosts Chairs’ Conference

Chairs Conference

Photo Credits: Bernard Khoury

On June 4-6, 84 physics department chairs from around the country gathered in College Park, MD to attend a biennial conference sponsored by the APS and the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT). The theme of this year’s conference was “Physics in the Public Interest.” The Friday evening session featured an address by Charles McQueary, Under Secretary for Science and Technology of the Department of Homeland Security. Among the speakers on Saturday were David Campbell of Boston University (top photo) shown addressing the conference on the National Task Force on Graduate Education, and Alan Dorsey of the University of Florida (bottom photo), shown participating in a panel on graduate education issues. Other speakers included Robert Dynes, President of the University of California, and, on Sunday, Peter Rooney of the House Science Committee and Michael Turner, Assistant Director for Mathematical and Physical Sciences of the National Science Foundation.

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APS encourages the redistribution of the materials included in this newspaper provided that attribution to the source is noted and the materials are not truncated or changed.

Editor: Alan Chodos
Associate Editor: Jennifer Ouellette