2011 U.S. Physics Team Trains for International Competition

For Immediate Release

College Park, MD, May 23, 2011 — The members of the 2011 U.S. Physics Team come from California, Iowa, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Texas, and Washington.  There are four sophomores, seven juniors, and nine seniors. Five of them are returning as second time members of the United States Physics Team.  You will find them in College Park, MD, preparing for the next stage of the competition to identify the world’s best high school physics students.

The top twenty physics students in the United States are beginning ten days of rigorous academic training, interactive learning, and friendship building as they prepare to test themselves on the world stage. Team members were selected through an examination process that included such upper level skills as the Lagrangian Formula of Mechanics, Differential Calculus for Electricity and Magnetism, and Complex Variables, skills usually learned at the end of the undergraduate experience.

They were welcomed to the University of Maryland, College Park campus by AAPT Executive Officer, Beth Cunningham and AIP Executive Director, Fred Dylla.  Officers and staff from AAPT, AIP, APS, and the University of Maryland were on hand for the camp kick off.

Meet the U.S. Physics team at http://www.aapt.org/physicsteam/2011/team.cfm.  Get to know their coaches, Paul Stanley, Academic Director; Warren Turner, Senior Lab Coach; Qui Zi Li, Assistant Lab Coach; and Academic Coaches, Jia Jia Dong, David Fallest, and Andrew Linn at http://www.aapt.org/physicsteam/2011/coaches.cfm.

In addition to learning a year of physics in two weeks, the team members will visit their congressional representatives on Capitol Hill, meet with physicist and Nobel prize winner, Carl Wieman of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), have a photo opportunity at the Albert Einstein statue at the National Academy of Science, and meet NASA scientists, Jonathan Gardner, Chief, Observational Cosmology Laboratory and Neil Gehrels, Chief, Astroparticle Physics Laboratory. 

At the end of the camp, they will be tested again and five of the team members will be selected to travel to Bangkok, Thailand, representing the United States in the 42nd International Physics Olympiad, July 10 – 18, 2011.

MORE ON THE WEB
Main website of the U.S. Physics Team: http://www.aapt.org/physicsteam/2011  
Meet the 2011 Team:  http://www.aapt.org/physicsteam/2011/team.cfm
History of the physics team, including past winners: http://www.aapt.org/Contests/olympiad.cfm  
The official website of the 2011 International Physics Olympiad: http://www.ipho2011.org/index.php
 

About AAPT
The American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) is an international organization for physics educators, physicists, and industrial scientists—with more than 10,000 members worldwide. Dedicated to enhancing the understanding and appreciation of physics through teaching, AAPT provides organizational and sponsorship support to the U.S. Physics Team in partnership with the American Institute for Physics and its member societies (http://www.aip.org/aip/societies.html).

For more information: Contact Marilyn Gardner, Director of Communications, mgardner@aapt.org, (301) 209-3306, (301) 209-0845 (Fax), www.aapt.org.