The Executive Committee has voted unanimously to modify the SESAPS Bylaws to expand the SESAPS region to include Puerto Rico. The Executive Committee had many reasons to do this, among which were the existence of strong physics departments at the University of Puerto Rico campuses at Mayaguez, Humacao, and Rio Piedras, as well as at other smaller departments, and the existence of the Arecibo Observatory. The Southeastern Section is the only logical Section for Puerto Rico. Participation in SESAPS can help mitigate the geographic isolation of Puerto Rico and SESAPS can gain by the expansion, particularly through expanding the diversity of our membership. The change proposed to the Bylaws is now moving through the appropriate committees at APS. After these approvals, the change is to be discussed at the next general business meeting of SESAPS, likely the one to be held during the upcoming Atlanta meeting, and then voted on by the SESAPS membership. In the meantime, we will solicit new members from Puerto Rico and the Executive Committee has asked Dr. Angel Lopez from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, to serve as an ex officio member.

This year will bring th 76th Meeting of the Southeastern Section of the American Physical Society. It will be hosted by Agnes College, Emory University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia State University, and the University of Georgia, on Thursday, November 12 – Saturday, November 14, in Atlanta. Because Atlanta is reasonably central to the SESAPS region and because there are many campuses in the area, we are looking forward to a large and lively meeting. Paul Cottle of Florida State University will serve as program chair and would welcome suggestions and volunteers to organize sessions.

As always, SESAPS meetings showcase physics efforts going on in the South. The meetings also are excellent opportunities for undergraduate and graduates to present their first papers. To meet, chat, and share problems and successes in a large family is a very Southern thing. The SESAPS meetings support the health and vigor of the Southeastern physics community.

Please put the dates on your calendar, remind your colleagues, and plan to bring your students. By the way, remind your colleagues to sign up online for membership in SESAPS; it costs nothing if you are already an APS member.

As the new Chair I wish to thank the outgoing chair, David Haase, for his many efforts and abundant organizational skills that kept SESAPS moving in the last year. He, together with Paul Cottle, assembled the outstanding slate of candidates for the SESAPS Executive Committee.

Thanks are also in order to the Physics Department at North Carolina State University for preparing and hosting a very successful Fall 2008 meeting in Raleigh. The local chairs, David Haase and John Risley, and their colleagues provided a pleasant venue and a memorable banquet, with banquet speakers Fred Jerome and Rodger Taylor, authors of Einstein on Race and Racism. Attendance at the meeting was the second largest in SESAPS history.

I welcome new members to the Executive Board, elected recently from an excellent slate of candidates. The new Vice-Chair is Dr. Laurie McNeil, University of North Carolina. Dr. Jorge Piekarewicz of Florida State University is the newly elected at-large member of the Executive Board.

The departing members of the Executive Committee – Tom Clegg (Past Chair, 4 years in the Chair chain) and Robert Jones (at-large member, three years) – are to be thanked for their dedicated service on the Executive Committee and to SESAPS through their terms.

We invite and welcome your suggestions for future openings on the Executive Committee. Each fall we seek nominees for the position of Vice-Chair and for one at-large member. In addition, this year we will also be searching for a new Secretary.

The Section makes three annual awards for outstanding research, teaching and service to physics in the Southeast. There are many members who are outstanding in these areas and worthy of recognition. Please think about nominating a colleague for the Beams, Pegram, or Slack Awards. The deadline and information can be found later in this newsletter.

I look forward to working with you and SESAPS this year. I look forward to a lively and exciting meeting in Atlanta. SESAPS, the oldest and largest Section of the APS, has a rich history and reflects the energy of physics in the Southeast.

Sincerely,

David Ernst
Professor of Physics, Vanderbilt University
Adjunct Professor, Fisk University