International Affairs

The APS Office of International Affairs urges all APS units to consider the needs of our international colleagues who nearly 25% of the Society’s non-student membership and whose numbers continue to grow.  We stand ready to assist you in pursuing your unit’s international connections and interests.  We welcome your involvement with some of our existing programs and encourage you to share with us any initiatives that you believe would prove beneficial to the international physics community.

International Travel Grant Award Program

The APS International Travel Grant Award Program (ITGAP) promotes international scientific collaborations between APS members and physicists in developing countries.  Grant recipients receive up to US$2,000 for travel and lodging expenses for international travel while visiting a collaborator for at least one month.  One or both partners in the collaboration must be a member of at least one of the APS units that supports ITGAP. 

  ITGAP Website

India-U.S. Travel Program

Visa Information

The APS visa website provides international visitors and U.S. conference organizers with information on matters related to U.S. visas.  This site serves as a resource for updates on U.S. visa policy as well as links to information on how to apply for a visa  and estimated visa wait times. 
  APS Visa Information

Lectureships

Each year the APS Committee on International Scientific Affairs (CISA) invites the APS units and committees that organize sessions at the annual March and April APS meetings to submit nominations for lectureships that are awarded each year.  The lectureships support travel for distinguished speakers during sessions at those two meetings.

• Beller Lectureship
  The Beller Lectureship was endowed by the estate of Esther Hoffman Beller for the purpose of bringing distinguished physicists from abroad as invited speakers at APS meetings.
    Beller Lectureship website

• Marshak Lectureship The Marshak Lectureship, endowed by the late Ruth Marshak in honor of her late husband and former APS president, Robert Marshak, provides travel support for physicists from developing nations or Eastern Europe who are invited to speak at APS meetings.
    Marshak Lectureship website
  

Journal Distribution

The American Physical Society offers access to its journals to scientists in developing countries via several different programs.
  APS Journal Access for Developing Countries

• Free online access for institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa & Bangladesh
  Not-for-profit institutions located in eligible countries can register to gain access.  This offer is made available through the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications' (INASP) Programme for the Enhancement of Research Information phase 2 (PERii). 
    PERii Website 
  

• ICTP Electronic Journals Delivery Service
  APS participates in the Electronic Journals Delivery Service (eJDS), which is administered by the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP).  Scientists at institutions in developing countries receive individual mathematics and physics journal articles via e-mail. APS also provides ICTP with a limited number of CD-ROMs to distribute to academic and research institutions in developing countries.
    eJDS Website 
   
• FIP Journal and Book Exchange Program
  The Forum on International Physics (FIP) maintains a list of prospective donors and the books and journals that they have available for donation. 
    FIP Website
   
• Consortia
  APS has established multi-institutional agreements (consortia) in many countries to help broaden access to institutions that might otherwise be unable to afford or gain access to APS journals.
   
• Iraqi Virtual Science Library
  APS is one of many publishers that are partners in the Iraqi Virtual Science Library (IVSL).  The IVSL provides Iraqi universities and research institutes with free access to millions of full text articles from over 17,000 premier scientific and engineering journals and their archives, in addition to technical content and educational resources. 
    IVSL Website

Matching Membership Program

The Matching Membership Program was established in order to make APS membership available to physicists living in developing and hard-currency-poor countries.  A half-price membership is available to those who have an individual or institution who will sponsor them and provide payment.  Applicants who are unable to pay and who do not have a sponsor may request APS support; free membership is available to individuals on a limited basis.  Enrollment is limited to 1.5% of the current APS membership level. 
  Matching Membership Program Website

Human Rights

APS is committed to the human rights of physicists.  Through its Committee on International Freedom of Scientists, APS monitors and advocates for the rights of individual scientists in the United States and around the globe.  The Society also awards the Andrei Sakharov Prize every two years to a scientist “to recognize outstanding leadership and/or achievements…in upholding human rights.”  The APS is also a members of the AAAS Science and Human Rights Coalition. 
  APS Human Rights Information

Contacts

• Dr. Amy K. Flatten
  Director, International Affairs
  Phone: (301) 209-3236
  flatten [at] aps.org
  
  
• Ms. Michele Irwin
  International Programs Administrator
  Phone: (301) 209-3237
  irwin [at] aps.org