Baltimore to Host 2006 APS March Meeting

More than 6000 physicists from around the world will descend on the Baltimore Convention Center for the 2006 APS March Meeting, to be held March 13-19 in Baltimore, Maryland. It is the largest annual gathering of professional physicists in the country.

This year, the scientific program will feature more than 90 invited sessions and 550 contributed sessions, on topics ranging from condensed matter physics, materials physics, high polymer physics, chemical and biological physics, fluid dynamics, laser science, computational physics, industrial and applied physics, and atomic, molecular and optical physics, as well as numerous other subfields. Special scheduled events include the annual prize and award session, a one-day workshop on professional skills development for women physicists, a panel discussion with AIP and APS journal editors, and a High School Teachers' Day on Tuesday, March 14.

In addition to the regular technical program, there will be eight half-day tutorials offered on Sunday, March 12, on spintronics; molecular magnetics; current interpretations of quantum mechanics; thermoelectric energy conversion; solid state implementations of cavity QED; spallation neutron sources; forefront methods and limits of lithography; and polymeric templating. There will also be a special workshop, sponsored by the APS Forum on Education, on teaching quantum mechanics with interactive computer-based tutorials. The workshop is free to all registrants.

On Saturday, March 11, the APS Division of Polymer Physics will host a special short course on polymers in existing and emerging patterning technologies, with a specific focus on the materials requirements. The ability to create high-resolution, periodic patterns within a polymer thin-film is the basis of photolithography in microelectronics processing, and polymers are among the best candidates for next-generation lithography technologies.

From a science policy standpoint, Baltimore is a particularly advantageous location for one of the largest physics meetings of the year. In addition to the usual “Contact Congress” booths at the meeting, the APS Office of Public Affairs (OPA) is organizing Congressional visits for Wednesday and Thursday, March 15-16, so that attendees from districts and states all over the US will have the opportunity to meet with their Congressional representatives. Those interested in participating may contact Kimberly Regan, science policy fellow, OPA, regan@aps.org, or sign up online at