Message from FIP 2017 Chair

The international physics scene enjoyed some highs and suffered some lows during 2017. Let me start this, my last, message from the FIP chair, with recounting the triumph of the observations of the collision of two neutron stars in August: the three LIGO machines, two in the USA and one in Italy, first saw the gravitational wave signals from this distant event and quickly sent out the stars’ approximate position in the sky to 90 astronomical observatories all over the world. Within hours 70 telescopes on all five continents observing in a wide range of electromagnetic frequencies had detected signals and even the space-bound Fermi Gamma Ray Telescope circling the earth had detected gamma rays from the colliding stars. This sharing of information amongst scientists of many countries, without omitting anyone, for example, Australia, “because we don’t like the way they treat koala bears!”, is how we should aim to practice physics and it as individuals that we have to make sure international collaboration continues to happen, to overcome government policies that aim to make some countries our enemies.

The latter is happening with USA policy towards Cuba for example. FIP organized an invited session on “Physics and Physicists in Cuba” at the 2016 March meeting and later in 2016 the APS sent a small delegation to Cuba to investigate future physics collaborations, these events were possible because the US government lifted its 50 years embargo on Cuba in December 2014. But a reversal in this policy was imposed by our current USA government in June 2017, with new travel restrictions on USA citizens going to Cuba, these restrictions, along with the still in force travel ban on citizens from 8 countries entering the USA, are what I call the lows of 2017 with regard to international physics. Part of the APS’s mission statement declares: “the APS strives to support physicists worldwide and to foster international collaboration”. So, while the Society cannot intervene in individual situations, we invite colleagues who have been affected by these executive orders or suffered harsh treatment from immigration officials as they entered the USA, to share their stories with us. Information can be sent to International@aps.org. (This information will only be used for statistical purposes and will be kept private.)

Physics and Engineering Departments have already seen substantial reductions in the number of applications for graduate programs from foreign students (e.g. a 42% drop in applicants from India at California State University at Long Beach), we presume because they do not want to live in an un-friendly country. Consider these statistics: in 2015 43% of Physics PhDs in the USA were awarded to foreign citizens; since 2000, 78 Nobel Prizes in Physics, Chemistry, and Medicine have been awarded to people living in the United States, of which 31 (40%) were immigrants. Therefore immigration policy affects the progress of science, and we must work to allow the freedom of scientists and students to move and exchange ideas freely across national boundaries, such movement is to the benefit of all countries.

The Forum on International Physics has several ways it encourages international collaborations and physicists’ international travel. Our International Research Travel Award Program (IRTAP) promotes international research collaborations between physicists in developed and developing countries; it has been going since 2004, with 84 travel grants awarded. The second travel award program FIP organizes is for Distinguished Students (DS). The travel awards are given to undergraduate or graduate students from developing or under-developed countries who have their abstract for a poster or a contributed talk accepted to either the March or April APS meetings. Another article in this FIP newsletter, by member-at-large Jason Gardner, who ran this DS program for two years, describes the most recent winners.

Every other year FIP presents the John Wheatley Award which honors and recognizes the dedication of physicists who have made contributions to the development of physics in countries of the third world. The award will consist of a stipend of $2,000 and a certificate citing the contributions made by the recipient. The deadline for nominating someone for the 2019 John Wheatley Award is June 29th 2018 and all details can be found here: https://www.aps.org/programs/honors/awards/wheatley.cfm . Another way FIP encourages international collaborations is through our selection of FIP Fellows. In order to become an APS Fellow in a scientific division one only needs to demonstrate exceptional contributions to the physics enterprise; e.g. outstanding physics research or important applications of physics. Fellowship is a distinct honor signifying recognition by one's professional peers. In order to qualify to become a FIP Fellow our Fellowship Committee also demands evidence of activities above and beyond the chairing of a typical international conference, such as the fostering of scientific collaborations amongst physicists from diverse cultural backgrounds or the establishment of international exchange programs. In 2017 we awarded only 6 FIP Fellows out of 13 nominations, although we could have awarded up to 7, because the others lacked the kind of international efforts we want our FIP fellows to have expended. APS members working abroad can be nominated through the appropriate scientific division; do not send their nomination to FIP just because they live and work outside the USA. In another article in this FIP newsletter you will find the names and citations of the six 2017 FIP Fellows.

Our 2018 Program Committee, enthusiastically led by chair-elect, Jerry Peterson, has assembled a fascinating array of invited sessions for the March and April meetings. You can hear about physics experiments from the Antarctic to the International Space Station, learn how women physicists are faring in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, consider the future of physics and discover how to turn new undergraduates into physical scientists. The complete details of all 8 FIP invited session are given in the article by Jerry Peterson later in this newsletter.

Finally, here is where I bid a fond farewell to the four Executive Committee members who are “rolling off” at the end of 2017 and welcome the four new Committee members who start their service to FIP on 1st January 2018. My many thanks to Young-Kee Kim, who served as our FIP councilor the past four years, she represented FIP’s interests on the APS’s Council of Representatives and sat on the APS’s Board of Directors for two years; to Maria Spiropulu who served in our four-year chair line, leading various committees and enhancing international scientific cooperation; to Jason Gardner, member-at-large for three years, who served on our Fellowship Committee, our Program Committee, and chaired the Distinguished Student (DS) Travel Award Committee; and to Aldo Romero, member-at-large for three years, who served on our Fellowship , DS and Program Committees.

Our recent election for Executive Committee members yielded these four new members: Councillor - Emanuela Barzi (Fermilab, US); Vice Chair - Luisa Cifarelli (University of Bologna, Italy); Member-at-large - Dmitri Denisov (Femilab, US); Member-at-large - Abhishek Kumar (Univ of Maryland-College Park, US).

I became past-chair on 1st January 2018, which puts me in charge of the FIP Nominating Committee; please help us maintain an excellent team of committee members by nominating people who are passionate about physics from an international point of view. Good luck to Jerry Peterson who took over as chair on 1st January 2018.

Cherrill Spencer started her 45 years physics career as an experimental particle physicist, followed by a spell in industry where she learned to design magnets for a start-up MRI machine company, she returned to academia in 1988 as the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory’s only Magnet Engineer. She retired from SLAC in 2014 and is enjoying a busy retirement consulting and volunteering for FIP and other non-profit organizations.