AAAS Sections

Physics (B)

Business Meeting of AAAS Section on Physics (“Section B”)

Washington DC February 18, 2011

Agenda

Call to order by the Chair

1. Secretary’s report

Section budget and spending

Results of 2010 election of new officers

New Fellows in AAAS -- 2011

New Fellows in 2012 — suggestions? local emphasis?

2. Status of Sections in AAAS:

Report on Thursday’s Dinner Meeting of Section Officers

Report on Friday’s Section Officers meeting

Report on “Committee on Sections” recent meeting

Actions to improve status of Sections within AAAS, and results.

3. 2011 & 2012 Annual Meetings:

Review of physics symposia at 2011 meeting

Views on 2011 program arrangements

Ideas for symposia and lectures at 2012 meeting — local emphasis?

4. Other business:

Suggestions for new Section Officers (to pass to Nominating Committee)

Report on Section web site and newsletter

Adjourn

Minutes

The meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM by Charles Clark, Chair.

1. Secretary’s report:

   Rolf Sinclair, Secretary, reported on several items of business:

   2010 budget: [2010 allocation] $6,100 + [2009 carryover $6,100] = $12,200

   The Section budget was spent in CY 2010 as follows:

   Travel for speakers to 2010 meeting	$3,837.62
   Student registration at 2010 meeting	240.00
   Expenses of business meeting	353.76
   Total	$4,431.38
   Remaining funds for 2010	$7,768.62

   2011 budget: [2011 allocation] $6,200 + [allowed carryover from 2010] $6,200 = $12,200

   The results of the 2010 election of Section Officers: As of February 21, 2011 (at the end of the 2011 Annual Meeting) Allen Goldman (Minnesota) becomes the new Chair-Elect, and Edmund Bertschinger (MIT) is the new Member-at Large. Allen Gibson becomes Chair, and Charles Clark moves on to be the Retiring Chair. Our congratulations to the new officers, and our thanks to Bill Appleton (former Retiring Chair) and Sally Dawson (former Member-at-Large) for their help and guidance. New members of the Section Nominating Committee are Malcolm R. Beasley (Stanford) and David K. Campbell (Boston University), replacing Robert Redwine and Toni Taylor. We thank the new members for joining this Committee, and the former members for their service.

   We note that John Negele (MIT) had to resign recently from his position as Council Delegate because of a serious accident, and his place was taken by Pierre Meystre (U. Arizona). Our thanks to Peter for stepping in on short notice.

   Thirty-eight members of the Section B electorate were elected to Fellowship in AAAS, becoming effective at the 2011 Annual Meeting. This included six from abroad (UK two, and one each from Austria, Germany, Russia, and Spain). We congratulated two new Fellows who attended this meeting (Walter Kutschera and Frances Ross).

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2. Status of Sections in AAAS:

   Approximately thirty Section Officers met for dinner on Thursday evening February 17. Among the subjects discussed were: obtaining a FaceBook page (or something similar) so Section Officers could exchange ideas and comments among themselves; improving the way the Sections are given their budget allocations; the AAAS Committee on Sections, which has recently met after a few-year hiatus. A lengthy memo by Clark and Sinclair on “Improving the Annual Meeting” was circulated and discussed.

   The Committee on Sections met (by telephone) recently. This Committee had not met for several years. Unfortunately the agenda was limited to relatively minor items concerning the selection of Fellows in AAAS, the actions of Section Nominating Committees, and the Bylaw Committee. We will urge this Committee to discuss more consequential and pressing matters concerning the relation of the Sections to the Annual Meeting, and to ask the Sections in advance of future meetings for contributions to the agenda.

   As the preceding two items reflect, little progress has been made in giving the Sections the necessary information to make decisions regarding the Annual Meeting, nor to improve the review process for symposia by improving the involvement of the Sections.

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3. 2011 & 2012 Annual Meetings:

   The 2011 Annual Meeting had a total of 19 symposia that could be called “frontier basic research” in the various disciplines included in the AAAS. Of these, seven were in physics. (This was out of a total of ca. 150 symposia in the meeting.) This is a significant improvement over the 2010 meeting, and perhaps follows from the sharp criticism the 2010 meeting drew for its lack of basic science.

   There followed a general discussion of symposia for the 2012 meeting (Vancouver, Canada, 16-20 February 2012). Some that were proposed for submission (with organizers) were:

   • Research at TRIUMF (Gene Sprouse)
   • Linac Coherent Light Source; ultrafast imaging (Sandy Fetter)
   • The 100th Anniversary of the Discovery of Cosmic Rays (Walter Kutschera)
   • The Physics of Extreme Ice Sports (Charles Clark, Rolf Sinclair)

   We do encourage further submissions, particularly those with a strong international flavor and/or aimed at involving Canadians.

   PLEASE: If you are involved in preparing symposia for 2012, or even know of any in physics being prepared, please notify Rolf Sinclair. Our access to information regarding symposia is limited and we may not know of them otherwise.

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4. Other business:

   Norman Chonacky brought the welcome news that the Section B website is up and running. Norman reported that its location is a bit obscure: Go to http://www.aaas.org/, click tab “About AAAS”, click sidebar “Organization/Governance”, click sidenote “Sections”, scroll down to “Section B Physics”, and there is “Visit the AAAS Section B Web site”! The only thing posted there as we meet now is the announcement of this meeting, but we’re getting there. Our thanks to Norman.

The meeting adjourned at 9:00 PM.

Respectfully submitted,
Rolf Sinclair, Secretary, AAAS Section on Physics (“Section B”)

In attendance: Charles Clark, Chair; Murray Gibson, Chair-Elect; Rolf Sinclair, Secretary; Sandy Fetter and Gene Sprouse, Committee Members-at-Large; Alan Chodos, Norman Chonacky, David Coward, Ed Derrick, Katharine Gebbie, Bo Hammer, Alan Hurd, Walter Kutschera, Michael Lubell, Paul Mackenzie, Neeti Parashar, Paul Peercy, Frances Ross, and Ned Sauthoff.

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