APS April Meeting Convenes in St. Louis

Approximately 1200 physicists are expected to attend the 2008 APS April Meeting, to be held April 12-15 in St. Louis, Missouri. The scientific program, which focuses on astrophysics, particle physics, nuclear physics, gravitation and cosmology, will consist of three plenary sessions, approximately 72 invited sessions, more than 100 contributed sessions, and poster sessions. This year the meeting will be held in conjunction with a conference sponsored by HEDP (High Energy Density Physics) and HEDLA (High Energy Density Laboratory Astrophysics).

APS units represented at the meeting include the Divisions of Astrophysics, Nuclear Physics, Particles and Fields, Physics of Beams, Plasma Physics, and Computational Physics; the Forums on Education, Physics and Society, International Affairs, History of Physics, and Graduate Student Affairs; and the Topical Groups on Few-Body Systems, Precision Measurement and Fundamental Constants, Gravitation, Plasma Astrophysics, and Hadronic Physics.

In keeping with the more generalist tone of the April Meeting, ten exciting plenary talks will highlight the technical program.

Numerous special events are also planned for the April Meeting, including a high school physics teachers’ day, a student career panel and networking reception, a students lunch with the experts, a “meet the APS journal editors” reception, the presentation of APS prizes and awards, a reception sponsored by the APS Committee on Minorities in Physics (COM) and Committee on the Status of Women in Physics (CSWP), and a special symposium celebrating the 50-year history of Physical Review Letters.
 
The Division of Particles and Fields has scheduled several special invited sessions and is planning evening sessions on the theme “A New Era in US Particle Physics.” April Meeting program chair Natalie Roe pointed out that in the next few years, accelerators in the US will be shutting down, the Large Hadron Collider will be turning on, and planning is underway for the International Linear Collider. “It’s a time of transition in particle physics,” she said.

The abstract submission deadline is January 11; post-deadline abstracts received by February 8 will be assigned as poster presentations on a space-available basis. Early registration closes on February 22.