|
| |
|
|
 Highlights from the 2008 Winter Meeting (Baltimore)
By Alex Dickison, President-Elect and Program Chair
February 15, 2008
“State of Maryland Declares January 20-26, 2008, Physics Education Week.” This official proclamation by Martin O’Malley, Governor of the State of Maryland, welcomed AAPT to Baltimore for our Winter Meeting. The meeting’s theme was “Enriching the Health of Physics Education”—in recognition of the excellent health care facilities located in Baltimore. The comments heard from some of the more than 1,200 attendee signified that it was a very successful meeting.
Our Thanks to Johns Hopkins
The meeting started with 28 workshops held primarily at Johns Hopkins University across Saturday and Sunday. I thank Dr. Jonathan Bagger, Physics Department Chair, and the entire physics department at Johns Hopkins University. Our point person at JHU, Steven Wonnell, deserves the most credit—he went way beyond the call of duty to make our experience there truly memorable. It is wonderful when a local physics department pitches in as such gracious hosts!
Teacher Recognition Day
On Monday, there was a special “High School Physics Teachers Recognition Day” that celebrated the rising enrollments of students in high school physics across the United States. As reported by Michael Neuschatz of the American Institute of Physics, this increase has been particularly strong in the Central Atlantic Region with Baltimore roughly in its geographical center. Now more than one million students take high school physics in the United States! The day was filled with sessions of special interest to high school teachers. And the day was highlighted by a celebratory luncheon and an evening reception. I thank John Layman for creating and organizing this event.
Enriching the Health of Physics Education
There were four invited sessions related to the theme of the meeting. The Graduate Education Committee sponsored the session “Physicists in the Medical Profession.” The Apparatus Committee sponsored two sessions “Medical/Health Physics Research and Education” and “Upper Level Labs for the Biosciences.” The American Association of Physicists in Medicine sponsored a session called “Medical Physics-Education and Careers.” All of these sessions were enjoyed by a large attendance.
Plenary Sessions
There were three wonderful plenary sessions. The first, “Developing Conceptual Physics” by Paul Hewitt, was held in conjunction with the High School Recognition Day. Paul lived up to his reputation and gave a presentation that was greatly appreciated by the standing room only crowd.
The second plenary was sponsored by the Division of Particles and Fields of the American Physical Society and featured Hitoshi Murayama (University of California Berkeley) presiding over a panel discussing the Large Hadron Collider. The panelists were: Lawrence Hall (University of California Berkeley), Beate Heinemann (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), and Rudiger Schmidt (CERN). It was enlightening to hear the three speakers explain the physics and engineering behind the LHC and what they hope to accomplish when it goes on line. Furthermore, it was satisfying to see a presentation by leading physicists who have taken the time and effort to make their topics understandable to the audience members who are not experts in the field.
The third plenary speaker was Mario Livio of the Space Telescope Institute. His talk “Symmetry: from Human Perception to the Laws of Nature” was both entertaining and educational. He helped the audience consider symmetry from many different angles and in an entirely different light. I found his talk most enlightening.
AAPT Awards
The AAPT awards committee did an exceptional job. Not only were the awardees most deserving, but they presented interesting talks. The Oersted Medal went to Mildred S. Dresselhaus. Her talk outlined her career and her lifetime efforts in increasing the number of women in physics. The Melba Newell Phillips Medal was awarded to Judy Franz (a Past President of AAPT and the current Executive Officer of APS). The SPS outstanding Chapter Advisor Award went to Toni Sauncy (Angelo State University, San Angelo, TX). The work she puts into her chapter to make it successful makes her very worthy. The Distinguished Service Citations went to Dewey Dykstra, Andrew Graham, Jonathan Reichert, Barbara Wolff-Reichert, Tomas Senior, Chuck Stone, and Michael Wolter (in memoriam). These awards are so uplifting to attend because they showcase all the volunteer efforts that go into making AAPT what it is.
Annual Symposium
The second annual Symposium on Physics Education: “The Many-Body Challenge: The Full-Community Solution for Strengthening Teacher Recruitment, Preparation, and Retention in Physics” took place on Tuesday. The moderator was Michael Lach (Chicago Public Schools). The panelists were: Patrick Mulvey (AIP), Marilyn Decker (Boston Public Schools), Patrick Callahan (Cal Teach Program), and Sally Marietta (IBM Corporation). This symposium addressed important issues and it was great to hear these distinguished panelists discuss them. I hope the proceedings of the symposium are preserved.
Thank You to Our Volunteers and the AAPT Staff
A meeting of this size does not occur without a great deal of preparation. Volunteers do a great deal of work in preparation of the meeting (including the area committees, area committee chairs, and paper sorters.) The meeting, however, would not be possible without the hard work of the AAPT Central Office Staff. They deserve special kudos for a job “well done.” This is especially true of the AAPT Meetings and Programs Department. This was the staff’s first Annual Meeting since both Carol Heimpel and Maria Elena Khoury retired, and overall it was wonderful how smoothly it went. I worked directly with Tiffany Hayes, Associate Director, and Janet Lane, Programs Coordinator, and know how hard they worked. I also know that behind the scenes Natasha Randall, Laura Headrick, Annette Coleman, and the rest of the professional staff deserve our praise. They are responsible for the successful meeting.
See You in Edmonton
In conclusion, it is hard to capture the excitement and rejuvenation that occurs at an AAPT Annual Meeting in a written synopsis. If you have never been to an Annual Meeting, I strongly encourage you to plan on joining us at the University of Alberta in Edmonton in July—read more about it here:
http://aapt.org/Events/SM2008/index.cfm
Return to Guest Commentaries
|
|
 |
|
|
