New Efforts from APS International Affairs

Amy Flatten, APS Director of International Affairs

During 2017, APS provided international exchanges, travel, and training opportunities for physicists world-wide. I am pleased to highlight some of our past activities and a few things to watch for in 2018.

This past year, APS and the Sociedade Brasileira de Física (SBF) continued to offer an exchange program for physics Ph.D. students, postdocs, and professors in the United States and Brazil. Likewise, we continued our partnership with the Indo-U.S. Science& Technology Forum to offer a similar exchange program with India. FIP members have helped with the development and promotion of these programs and have served on the proposal review committees. We will continue these programs in 2018, so visit www.aps.org/programs/international/honors for more information.

We are continuing to build joint programs with the Cuban Physical Society and were pleased to include a delegation of 14 Cuban PhD students in the 2017 Canadian-American-Mexican Physics Graduate Student Conference (CAM 2017), that APS hosted this past August 2017 in Washington, D.C. CAM is a biennial scientific conference cosponsored by the physical societies of North America and for the first time in CAM’s 15 year history that the physics graduate students from across North America could be joined by their Cuban colleagues.

This past year, APS continued to lead the SESAME Travel Award Program, a partnership of 11 scientific societies in Europe and the United States that supports training opportunities for scientists in the Middle East. In May 2017, APS leaders joining dignitaries from around the world for the SESAME Opening Ceremonies. Likewise, APS also served developing country physicists through FIP’s International Research Travel Award Program and also through the Entrepreneurship Workshops cosponsored by the UK Institute of Physics, International Centre for Theoretical Physics and other societies.

As we look ahead, I am excited about the growing opportunities for APS to serve the international physics community. In the August 2017 issue of the FIP Newsletter, I shared news of the Task Force on Expanding International Engagement, launched by APS CEO, Kate Kirby. The Task Force has spent months reaching out to APS members and partners regarding how the Society can expand its offerings, strengthen its connections, and ensure its long-term value to the international physics community. The Task Force will present its report and recommendations to APS leaders later in 2018.

APS continues its vigilance regarding U.S. Government policies that impact scientific mobility, joining other scientific and higher education organizations to meet with State Department officials regarding new developments in visa policy. APS has a website dedicated to helping scientists with visa issues and I encourage you to visit it at www.aps.org/programs/international/visa.

Members of the Forum on International Physics (FIP) were tremendous partners in the activities mentioned above and are key colleagues in developing our future efforts. I want to thank you all for your ongoing interest and support for APS international affairs and I look forward to working together in 2018.

Amy Flatten is serving as Director of International Affairs of the American Physical Society (APS), where she develops international scientific exchanges, collaborations, and partnerships with physicists around the globe. Prior to joining APS, she served for five years with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), where she managed international S&T initiatives involving government, academia, and industry. She received her Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Engineering Science and Mechanics from the Georgia Tech.