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Agenda Preview

Plenaries

• AAPT Symposium on Physics Education and Public Policy

  • • AAPT Symposium on Physics Education and Public Policy

    • PL05
    • Tue 01/06, 2:00PM - 3:30PM
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    • Type: Plenary
    • Policymakers formulate decisions everyday that impact curriculum, standards, funding, and many other aspects of physics education at all levels. AAPT works with a number of partners to keep policymakers informed on the views of physics educators and to suggest appropriate policy options within the Association’s sphere of influence. This session brings together individuals who play pivotal roles in helping to shape policies and who provide information to policymakers. We hope to provide a look at the process of policy making as well as actions you might make to contribute to decisions about policies affecting physics and STEM education.

• AIP Gemant Award – presented to Sean Carroll

  • • AIP Gemant Award – presented to Sean Carroll

    • PL06
    • Mon 01/05, 7:00PM - 8:00PM
    • 
      
    • Type: Plenary
    • Sean Carroll is a physicist at the California Institute of Technology. Raised in Yardley, PA, he received his PhD in 1993 from Harvard University, and has worked at MIT, the Institute for Theoretical Physics at UC Santa Barbara, and the University of Chicago. His research focuses on theoretical physics and cosmology, especially the origin and constituents of the universe. He has contributed to models of interactions between dark matter, dark energy, and ordinary matter; alternative theories of gravity; violations of fundamental symmetries; and the arrow of time. Carroll is the author of The Particle at the End of the Universe, From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time, and the textbook Spacetime and Geometry: An Introduction to General Relativity. He has been awarded fellowships by the Sloan Foundation, Packard Foundation, and the American Physical Society. He frequently consults for film and television, and has been featured on television shows such as “The Colbert Report”, PBS’s “Nova” and “Through the Wormhole” with Morgan Freeman. This event will be held off-site at the Fleet Center. Buses will leave the Grande Foyer of the Sheraton 6:15 p.m. Tickets available at the AAPT Registration Desk.

• Homer L. Dodge Citation for Distinguished Service

  • • Homer L. Dodge Citation for Distinguished Service

    • PL04B
    • Tue 01/06, 10:30AM - 12:00PM
    • 
      
    • Type: Plenary

• Karl Mamola

  • • 2015 Oersted Medal

    • PL04
    • Tue 01/06, 10:30AM - 12:00PM
    • 
      
    • Type: Plenary
    • AAPT, TPT, and Me
      AAPT established The Physics Teacher more than 50 years ago as a magazine for high school teachers. Over the decades, the publication has evolved in a number of important ways, and I was privileged to play a part in that evolution. I will describe some of the important preparation I received for that role and share some of the insights I gained during my 13 years as editor. I’ll outline the history of The Physics Teacher, leading to its eventually becoming a peer-reviewed journal serving a very broad audience. I will also discuss TPT’s role in the physics teaching community and the important positive influence it has had on the evolution of AAPT. I’ll conclude with some observations and conclusions drawn from my more than 40 years of teaching experience.

• Plenary I (Adrian Bejan, Duke University)

  • • Plenary I (Adrian Bejan, Duke University)

    • PL01
    • Sun 01/04, 7:30PM - 8:30PM
    • 
      
    • Type: Plenary
    • Evolution, Life and Sustainability, As Physics: What the Constructal Law Is, and How It Gives Us a New Worldview Why is “sustainability” such a natural urge, in each of us? In this lecture I draw attention to the law of physics of design evolution in nature (the Constructal Law) that provides the scientific basis for sustainability. The human urge is about greater flow access with freedom to change, to evolve. This urge is universal. Design evolution happens, it is natural, animate, inanimate and human made. Evolutionary designs that illustrate this tendency are river basins, vascular tissue, animal locomotion (fliers, runners, swimmers), athletes, power technology evolution, and city and air traffic flow patterns. All the flows needed to sustain human life (food, transportation, heating, cooling, water) are driven by the purposeful consumption of power, and as a consequence the wealth of a country (the GDP) is directly proportional to its annual consumption of fuel. Sustainability comes from greater freedom to change the flow architecture that sustains life, from water and power, to the evolution of science, technology, law and government. Life is flow, and flow leads to better flow over time.

• Plenary II: Eugene G. Arthurs, SPIE, The International Society for Optics and Photonics

  • • Plenary II: Eugene G. Arthurs, SPIE, The International Society for Optics and Photonics

    • PL03
    • Mon 01/05, 2:00PM - 3:00PM
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    • Type: Plenary
    • How Light Has Changed Our Lives As Nobel laureate Ahmed Zewail puts it,“Light is life”. Our existence and evolution have depended on and been shaped by light from the Sun. It is only a few centuries since we used optics to augment vision, helping us understand biology and the universe, and about 150 years since Maxwell built on millennia of studies to advance our understanding of the nature of light. Planck and Einstein were not the first to propose the idea of light as made up of particles, but they added the modern quantum concept. And now our understanding of the production, control, and detection of light have brought us the broadband internet, the ubiquitous affordable large area color rich displays, medical systems that promise both personally optimized medicine through genomics, and new imaging weapons for the war against diseases. The list is much, much longer, and during 2015, The International Year of Light, we hope to get a better sense of how much we already rely on light and the rich promise for future masters of light.

• Presidential Transfer

  • • Presidential Transfer

    • PL04C
    • Tue 01/06, 10:30AM - 12:00PM
    • 
      
    • Type: Plenary

• SPS Outstanding Chapter Advisor Award - Randy Booker, University of North Carolina Asheville

  • • SPS Outstanding Chapter Advisor Award - Randy Booker, University of North Carolina Asheville

    • PL02B
    • Mon 01/05, 10:30AM - 11:00AM
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    • Type: Plenary
    • Dr. Booker is a tireless champion for SPS at the University of North Carolina Asheville, serving as his local chapter advisor and as a member of the SPS National Council. Through his unmatched teaching and mentoring, he has impacted the lives of countless students and has seen the SPS chapter recognized for excellence repeatedly. Randy received his Ph.D. from Duke University, and has taught at UNC Asheville since 1986, where he received the Distinguished Teacher Award in 1992. He served as department chair from 2000-2010, and currently teaches modern physics, upper-level experimental physics, and astronomy. His research interests include the microwave spectra of molecules found in the Earth's atmosphere and the interstellar medium. For seamlessly picking up where the classroom efforts leave off to ensure the success of students, Randy Booker is truly an SPS Outstanding Chapter Advisor.

• SPS Outstanding Chapter Advisor Awards, Adrian Dingle, Westminster Schools in Atlanta

  • • SPS Outstanding Chapter Advisor Awards, Adrian Dingle, Westminster Schools in Atlanta

    • PL02C
    • Mon 01/05, 10:30AM - 11:00AM
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    • Type: Plenary
    • As a high school chemistry teacher since 1990, Adrian Dingle has hands-on experience getting young people interested in science in general and chemistry in particular, helping kids see that science is involved in both the wondrous and the everyday. The first ten years of his career were spent in and around London, teaching chemistry in a number of different public and private institutions. In 2000 he moved to the United States, and he has been teaching at The Westminster Schools in Atlanta, Ga. since then. His outside work includes projects for Barnes & Noble SparkNotes, Shmoop, The Discovery Channel and many others. In his recent book, How to Make a Universe with 92 Ingredients: An Electrifying Guide to the Elements, from publisher OwlKids, he tackles questions such as what gives comets their tails and how matches ignite. This book is the winner of the 2014 American Institute of Physics (AIP) Science WritingAward in the Writing for Children category. More about the book and Adrian can be found at website: http://www.adriandingleschemistrypages.com

• Thomas L. O'Kuma

  • • 2015 Melba Newell Phillips Medal

    • PL02
    • Mon 01/05, 9:30AM - 10:30AM
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    • Type: Plenary
    • Growing with AAPT Like many AAPT members, I can link the growth of my professional career to being active in AAPT. Since becoming a student member of AAPT in 1969, I have seen AAPT change, slightly in some ways and dramatically in others. Through AAPT and its sections, I and many other members have grown with AAPT. From my perspective, growing with AAPT has transformed physics education and how I do physics education. Involvement with TYC21, NTFUP, SPIN-UP/TYC, PTRA, NFE, and many other AAPT projects have helped many others and me. In this address, I will share how being active in AAPT has not only been fulfilling, but also how it has affected my career and other AAPT members.