Plenaries

• • • AAPT Presidential Transfer

    • PL03
    • Tue 01/21, 10:30AM - 12:30PM
    
    
    • Presider:
      
    • Type: Plenary

• • • AIP Science Award

    • PL02
    • Tue 01/21, 10:30AM - 12:30PM
    
    
    • Awardee: Raman Prinja
      
    • Type: Plenary
    • Raman Prinja won the 2019 AIP Science Communication Award in the Writing for Children category for his Planetarium, published by Bonnier Books in the U.K. and Big Picture Press in the U.S. He is a professor of astrophysics and head of department at University College London, and his research has focused on the evolution and properties of the most massive stars in the galaxy and their progression into supernovae. Prinja has been awarded the Pol and Christiane Swings research prize as well as UCL faculty and department teaching awards. When he’s not teaching and researching, Prinja is an active public speaker and regularly presents lectures to a wide audience range. He has made it his personal goal to bring the subject of astronomy to more diverse audiences, including children, and has written over 20 successful outreach-level science books.

• • • Melba Newell Philips Medal - Richard W. Peterson, Emeritus, Bethel University, St. Paul, Minnesota

    • PL05
    • Tue 01/21, 10:30AM - 12:30PM
    
    
    • Awardee: Richard Peterson
      
    • Type: Plenary
    • Changed . . . by a high and humbling calling - The intent here is to reflect a bit on the many changes of our lives as we teach physics. Inspired by the sometimes tumultuous and amazing career of Melba Newell Phillips, we are reminded of the formative and lasting role the teaching of physics may play in bringing meaning to our lives. It is appropriate that the rich diversity of the AAPT family should more often lead to a sharing of the human impacts of physics and teaching within our lives and careers. In that context I will share a bit of my own teaching story, the excitement of creative experimental apparatus, and of being nurtured within an engaging community of those who delight in mentoring students and skillfully teaching physics.

• • • Oersted Medal - David R. Sokoloff, University of Oregon

    • PL04
    • Tue 01/21, 10:30AM - 12:30PM
    
    
    • Awardee: David Sokoloff
      
    • Type: Plenary
    • If Opportunity Doesn't Knock, Build a Door - My Path to Active Dissemination of Active Learning - I've had the good fortune to be able to influence the way physics is taught around the world. The influence of a number of very special colleagues, the synergy of events and a bit of chutzpah have all contributed. I will comment on these factors, and also describe what I believe are the essential features of active dissemination of research-validated active learning strategies.

• • • Plenary I - Jonathan Smith, SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment

    • PL01
    • Sun 01/19, 6:45PM - 7:45PM
    
    
    • Presider: Jan Mader
      
    • Type: Plenary

• • • Plenary II - James Gates, Brown Univeristy

    • PL02
    • Mon 01/20, 10:15AM - 11:15AM
    
    
    • Speaker: James Gates
      
    • Type: Plenary
    • Sylvester James “Jim” Gates, Jr., (born December 15, 1950) is an American theoretical physicist. He received two B.S. degrees and a Ph.D. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the latter in 1977. His doctoral thesis was the first one at MIT to deal with supersymmetry. In 2017, Gates retired from the University of Maryland, and is currently the Brown Theoretical Physics Center Director, Ford Foundation Professor of Physics, an Affiliate Mathematics Professor, and a Faculty Fellow, Watson Institute for International Studies & Public Affairs at Brown University. While at the University of Maryland, College Park, Gates was a University System Regents Professor, the John S. Toll Professor of Physics, the Director of the String and Particle Theory Center, and Affiliate Professor of Mathematics. Gates served on the U.S. President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, contemporaneously on the Maryland State Board of Education from 2009-2016, and the National Commission on Forensic Science from 2013-2016. He is known for his work on supersymmetry, supergravity, and superstring theory. In 1984, working with M.T. Grisaru, M. Rocek, W. Siegel, Gates co-authored Superspace, the first comprehensive book on the topic of supersymmetry. In 2017, working with Frank Blitzer and Stephen Jacob Sekula, he co-authored Reality in the Shadows (Or) What the Heck's the Higgs? In 2019, together with Cathie Pelletier, he co-authored Proving Einstein Right: The Daring Expeditions that Changed How We Look at the Universe. In 2006, he completed a DVD series titled Superstring Theory: The DNA of Reality for The Teaching Company composed of 24 half-hour lectures to make the complexities of unification theory comprehensible to non-physicists. In 2012, he was named a University System of Maryland Regents Professor, only the sixth person so recognized in the system’s history. He is a past president of the National Society of Black Physicists, and is a NSBP Fellow, as well as a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Institute of Physics in the U.K. He also is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. In 2013, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, becoming the first African-American theoretical physicist so recognized in its 150-year history. On November 16, 2013, Prof. Gates was awarded the Mendel Medal by Villanova University “in recognition of his influential work in supersymmetry, supergravity and string theory, as well as his advocacy for science and science education in the United States and abroad.” President Obama awarded Prof. Gates the 2011 National Medal of Science, the highest award given to scientists in the U.S., at a White House ceremony in 2013. During 2014, he was named the Harvard Foundation’s “Scientist of the Year.” In 2018, he was elected to serve in the presidential line as Vice President of the American Physical Society, moving to President Elect in 2020. In 2019, he was invited to serve on the American Bar Assoc Steering Committee for the Annual Prescription For Criminal Justice And Forensic Science. In 2020, he will begin serving on the Board of Trustees of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. He continues to broadly engage video documentaries with appearances or cameos. He currently continues his research in supersymmetry in systems of particles, fields, and strings.