Science writers should mark their calendars now for what will be the grandest physics meeting ever. The American Physical Society (APS) will celebrate its 100th anniversary at a giant meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, March 20-26, 1999.
Combining its two annual meetings (normally held in March and April) into one, the APS will regale its members---7,000 to 10,000 will be in attendance---and the public with an unprecedented schedule of speakers and events, which will be summarized here. More information, including abstracts for the great bulk of the sessions (which generally are not directly related to the centennial), will become available as the meeting approaches.
APS
With 40,000 members, the APS is the largest professional society of physicists
in the world. It
publishes many notable journals, including Physical Review Letters. Its
headquarters are at the
American Center for Physics in College Park, Maryland. The APS was founded in
1899.
PRESSROOMS: VIRTUAL AND REAL
A pressroom will be operated at the Centennial meeting during March 21-26, 1999.
Complimentary press registration will allow reporters to attend all scientific
sessions. Press
conferences will be held all week on subjects ranging across the whole of
physics. The
pressroom facilities will include phones, a fax machine, and outlets for laptop
computers with
modems. In addition, a "virtual pressroom," featuring various lay-language
papers, press releases,
press conference summaries, and other information, will become available during
January. In the
meantime, one can monitor preparations for the meeting at this website:
http://www.aps.org/meet/CENT99/vpr/general.html
NOBEL LAUREATE GATHERING
Fifty to sixty Nobel laureates will attend a luncheon on March 20. This
represents the greatest
gathering of Nobelists outside of Sweden, and the largest meeting ever of
physics prize-winners
anywhere. At the lunch, the laureates will meet with physics teachers from every
state in the US
and with a large contingent of students from Georgia. Journalists who wish to
attend this special
event should contact Phillip Schewe well in advance of the meeting. An exhibit
of background
materials related to the impact of Nobel-Prize research will be mounted at the
meeting.
Furthermore, many of the laureates will be speaking during the week at sessions.
CENTENNIAL PLENARY TALKS
Scheduled for March 22 and 23: "Physics of the Very Big and Very Small," by
Steven
Weinberg, University of Texas; "The Impact of Physics on Medicine and Biology,"
by Harold
Varmus, director or the National Institutes of Health; "Physics and the
Information Revolution,"
by Joel Birnhaum, Hewlett-Packard Labs; "Physics and Technology," by Mary L.
Good of
Venture Capital; "Physics and Materials," by Richard Smalley, Rice University;
and "Physics and
the American Culture," by Martin Klein of Yale University.
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
National political figures such as the President and Vice President have been
invited to speak.
GALA EVENTS
Nobel Laureate luncheon (March 20); reception and banquet for representatives of
physical
societies from around the world (March 20); formal dinner at the Fernbank Museum
(March
21), opening centennial session (March 21); Centennial Welcome Reception for all
members
(March 22). (Some of these events need reservations.)
SPECIAL CENTENNIAL SYMPOSIA
The following are some of the special symposia (and merely a fraction of the
distinguished
speakers) scheduled for the week beginning March 21: laser applications (Steven
Chu, Anton
Zeilinger); atomic clocks (David Wineland); breakthroughs of women in physics
(Martha Krebs,
head of the DOE office of energy management); chaos (Mitchell Feigenbaum);
Einstein's legacy
(Robert Kirshner, David Spergel, Joseph Taylor, Kip Thorne); electronic
structure and
semiconductors (Federico Capasso, Richard Webb, Horst Stormer); physics and
national
defense (Hans Bethe, Sidney Drell, Charles Townes); the impact of computing on
physics
(Ernest Moniz); the impact of immigration on US physics (Hans Bethe, Steven Chu,
Aron
Pinczuk); the impact of lasers (Arthur Schawlow, Nicolaas Bloembergen, William
Phillips);
industrial physics (William Brinkman, Paul Horn); research performed by minority
physicists
(Shirley Jackson, Michael Nieto); accelerators and the rise of high energy
physics (Wolfgang
Panofsky, Steven Weinberg); precision measurements (Gerald Gabrielse, Theodor
Hansch, Carl
Weiman); science policy (Rep. Vernon Ehlers, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Neal Lane,
Rita
Colwell); the search for the ultimate structure of matter (Leon Lederman, T.D.
Lee, Burton
Richter, Edward Witten); pattern formation (Jerry Gollub, Harry Swinney);
developments in
instrumentation and measurements (Gordon Moore); unsolved problems in
astrophysics
(Geoffrey Marcy, Roger Blandford, Michael Turner)
PHYSICS FESTIVAL
Entitled "Mastering the Mysteries of the Universe," a series of exhibits and
events for the
students and the citizens of Atlanta will occur about town during the week of
the meeting and the
week before. These include physics displays and demonstrations for students
(area schools); a
colloquy between journalists (including some Pulitzer-Prize winning science
writers) and some
Nobel-laureate physicists (Emory University); a conference on fractals, art,
medicine, and
physics (Georgia Tech University); a conference on physics and the mind (Georgia
State); an
exhibit on black physicists (organized by Clark Atlanta University); and a
number of talks on
popular subjects (e.g., the physics of Star Trek, the physics of sports, the
physics of beer, and
the physics of dance) intended for students, teachers, and the public.
21ST-CENTURY DIALOGUES
Several dialogues between distinguished scientists, intended for a large public
audience, are
currently being scheduled.
PRESS TOUR
Visits to several local university labs.
OTHER EVENTS
One session will be devoted to a panel discussion among presidential science
advisors (March
22). A plenary session will concentrate on international physics concerns (March
20). The
meeting exhibition will feature, in addition to the usual manufacturers and
publishers, displays
created by each of the APS units including divisions (e.g., nuclear physics,
condensed matter
physics, particle physics, etc.), topical groups (e.g., magnetism), forums
(e.g., history of physics,
education), committees (e.g., the status of women in physics, minorities).
TIMELINE WALL CHART
A timeline of 20th century physics discoveries, consisting of 11 panels (each
40" x 26"), will
make its official debut at the meeting. Copies of the timeline will be sent to
each high school and
college in the country. Journalists attending the meeting will receive a copy.
For more information contact Phillip Schewe, 301-209-3092, pschewe@aip.acp.org, or Ben Stein, 301-209-3091, bstein@aip.acp.org, at the American Institute of Physics.