FIP Invited Sessions at the 2018 APS Meetings

Our Forum was asked to create three sessions of invited talks for the March and April 2018 APS meetings. We amplified these both to four sessions, by strategic partnerships with other APS units.

The March 2018 meeting will be held in Los Angeles CA 5-9 March, with about 10,000 expected attendees. Your FIP Program Committee selected three themes for sessions, each with five invited speakers, plus a session shared with the Topical Group on Energy Research and Applications (GERA).

1. On Wednesday March 7 from 08:00-11:00, Surajit Sen will chair the session “Physics Teaching in Gateway Classes: A Global Perspective”, concerning the ‘impedance matching’ problem of turning young adults into physical scientists in their first two years of college. Speakers will be Mulugeta Bekele (Sakharov prize winner in 2011) of Addis Ababa University, Jason Hafner of Rice University, David Helfand of Columbia University, Syed Minhaz Hossain of the Indian Institute of Engineering, Science and Technology, and Daniel Siegel, a best-selling neuropsychiatrist, author of “The Mindful Brain” and many other books.
2. Later on Wednesday, I will chair the session from 11:15-14:15 “Major Physics Organizations and their Role in the Future of Physics’. Speakers will be Arthur Bienenstock of Stanford (Associate Director of the OSTP in the Clinton White House and past APS president), Amy Flatten (Director of International Affairs of the APS), Sekazi Mtingwa of the Triangle Science, Education, and Economic Development LLC (speaking on behalf of IUPAP), Fernando Quevedo, Director of the International Center for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, and Ruediger Voss, President of the European Physical Society. These speakers have been on the inside of institutions with enormous impact on physics, in the present and in the future.
3. On Thursday March 8 from 14:30-17:30, we have created a session together with GERA “Materials and Fuels for the Global New Energy Economy”, chaired by Michelle Johannes of GERA. Speakers will cover research and development of batteries, fuel cells, magnets for wind energy, sunlight-driven hydrogen formation and nuclear hydrogen production.
4. On Friday March 9 from 11:15 to 14:15, Maria Longobardi will chair the session “Condensed Matter Experiments on Board the International Space Station” shared with our FECS partner. This is international physics by its very definition. Speakers will be Eric Furth of the University of Delaware, Joe MacClennan of the University of Colorado Boulder, Hubertus Thomas of the German Aerospace Centre, John Goree of the University of Iowa, Rob Thompson of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and David Weitz of Harvard. These speakers will cover a wide range of fascinating microgravity studies.

In addition, FIP will host a reception on the evening Tuesday March 6. If you will be at the March meeting, please do come by. FIP members will be provided details of this event before the March meeting.

For the April 2018 meeting in Columbus, Ohio, our three allotted sessions will each include, as usual, three invited speakers. In addition the APS has also assigned responsibility for the Sakharov prize session to the FIP. We partnered with the Forum on Early Career Scientists (FECS) for this prize session.

1. On the first day, Saturday April 14 from 10:45 to 12:33, I will chair a session “Opportunities in Global Nuclear Science Industries”. The April meeting traditionally attracts young people in nuclear and particle physics, many of whom will choose to work in industry, and this session is designed to inform them of the many options. Speakers will be Phil Cole of Lamar University on applications of accelerators, Ray Ladbury of NASA, on radiation effects on microcircuits and their bits, and Nigel Stevenson (2018 chair of the World Council on Isotopes) on the vast market for radioisotopes.
2. On Monday April 16 from 10:45 to 12:33, FIP will celebrate the two winners of the APS Sakharov prize for 2018. One of the prize winners is Narges Mohammadi, currently imprisoned in Iran. She will be represented as a speaker by her brother Hamidreza Mohammadi. Our second winner will speak himself, Ravi Kuchimanchi. His title is “Parity in our world and in physics”. Our third speaker in this session on physicists and human rights was selected by our partner, the Forum on Early Career Scientists. This will be Shelly Lesher of the University of Wisconsin LaCrosse. This session will be chaired by Elena Aprile, 2018 Chair-elect of the FIP.
3. Later at 15:30 on Monday April 16 our FIP session will chaired by Noemi Mirkin, with the theme ‘Physics Experiments in Antarctica, What They Tell us About the South Pole and the Changing Climate”. Speakers will be Kimberley Casey of the USGS and NASA, Dustin Schroeder of Stanford University, and Gillian Young of the British Antarctic Survey.
4. One of the APS themes for this April meeting is the status of women in our profession. Cherrill Spencer, 2018 FIP Past-chair, will preside over a session “Progress and Challenges for Women Physicists in Africa, Asia and the Middle East’, from 10:55 to 12:33 on Tuesday April 17. Speakers will be Ibiyanka Agboola Fuwape from Nigeria, Rohini M. Godbole from India, and Mona Mohamed Abd Latif Mohsen from Egypt.

In addition, your FIP Executive Committee will be meeting Sunday April 15, all day. Please tell us of any concerns or issues that you would like us to consider. Jerry.Peterson@colorado.edu

These are all important and fascinating topics for the international side of our field. Each session chair was responsible for organizing their session, and I thank them mightily. If you plan to attend the March or April 2018 APS meetings, please schedule to attend these FIP sessions.