APS Spring Meeting Incorporates CAM'97

Beginning in 1994, the APS, the Sociedad Mexicana de Fisica (SMF) and the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) agreed to hold periodic joint meetings for the purpose of bringing together the North American physics community. Held concurrently with the usual program of the Joint APS/AAPT April Meeting in 1997, CAM97 (for Canadian-American-Mexican physical societies) represents the third in a series of these joint meetings. The first was held in Cancun in September 1994, followed by a second meeting, held in Quebec City, June 1995, in conjunction with the 50th anniversary congress of CAP.

At CAM97, physicists from the three North American Societies participated in a variety of sessions and forums on science and society. A special plenary session honoring these cooperative ventures was held on the first day of the meeting (see page 8). Entitled "The Future of Science and Technology in North America," the session's keynote speaker was Dr. Mary L. Good, under secretary for technology of the U.S. Department of Commerce's Technology Administration. Good stressed the need for initiating and strengthening partnerships among the public and private sectors and academia as a means of enhancing US participation in the rapid globalization of today's R&D climate. She was followed by remarks from the three CAM Society presidents: Dr. Carmen Cisneros (SMF), Dr. Beverly E. Robertson (CAP) and Dr. D. Allan Bromley (APS).

A special reception honoring the CAP and the SMF was held at the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution on Saturday evening of the second day of the meeting. Exhibits included commemorative displays celebrating the 100th anniversary of the electron and the 50th anniversary of the transistor. The reception was open to all meeting registrants and featured a short program which included remarks by the three society presidents and reminiscences about J.J. Thompson, discoverer of the electron, from Dr. Samuel Devons of the Nevis Laboratory at Columbia University and Dr. Norman F. Ramsey of the Lyman Physics Laboratory at Harvard University.