FIP Sessions and Events at the APS April meeting

Harvey Newman

There will be three sessions sponsored or co-sponsored by FIP at the APS 2011 April. The April meeting runs from Saturday April 30 through Tuesday, May 3, 2011 and will take place at the Hyatt Hotel Orange County, Garden Grove, California. The Hyatt is immediately adjacent to Anaheim.

The Digital Divide in 2011
Sunday, May 1 - 1:30 PM-3:18 AM

“The Digital Divide in 2011” will present the current perspective on the evolution, status and outlook for the Divide that separates the more- and less-technologically advanced regions of the world. The 21st century has been marked by some leading and emerging nations’ realization that a focus on advances in information technologies, as enablers of education, knowledge sharing, international collaboration and scientific progress, is a powerful means to economic leadership. The distinguished speakers at this session are leaders in this field, who will review the status and outlook for the Divide and the means to reduce or close it in the coming years, in spite of the influences that tend to open it further. One of the speakers at this session is Hamadoun Tourè, Secretary General of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

Prize Session
Monday, May 2 - 3:30 PM-5:18 PM

A special Prize Session will host two distinguished honorees who will receive their awards at the session. Professor Miguel José Yacaman, winner of the Wheatley Prize for his work on behalf of his Mexican colleagues and physics in Mexico, will speak on his research as well as its relationship to the rise of physics in Latin America. The winner of the Nicholson Medal for Human Outreach, FIP's own Past Chair Noemie Benczer-Koller, will give her perspective on her career devoted to advocating the freedom of scientists around the world and fostering equal opportunities for women in science, in her talk entitled “Physics Outreach: Social Benefits".

Science Diplomacy
Tuesday, May 3 - 1:30 PM-3:18 PM
Co-sponsored with FPS

“Science Diplomacy” will present perspectives on this important issue in its various forms, from encouraging technological progress and economic development in the third world, to promoting equality and peace on a foundation of open international scientific collaboration, to the relationship to political policy. The speakers at this session, all key players in this area through their leadership of global projects or their central roles in representing science on the world stage, will present their views and give their perspectives on this subject whose importance has continued to accelerate since the late 20th century. Our distinguished speakers include: APS President and Caltech Professor Emeritus Barry Barish, Neal Lane who is a Senior Fellow in Science and Technology Policy at the Baker Institute and a former NSF Director as well as the former Science Advisor during the Clinton Administration, and Norman Neureiter who is the Director of the AAAS Center for Science, Technology and Security Policy and was the Science Advisor the Secretary of State during the Bush administration.

Harvey Newman  is a Professor at Caltech, a high-energy physics experimentalist and Chair of the FIP. He is also engaged in work on Digital Divide issues in many regions of the world. During 2010, as FIP Chair-Elect and FIP Program Chair he organized the FIP sessions for the APS Spring 2011 meetings.

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