The Division of Laser Science
DLS held its annual meeting in conjunction with the Optical Society of America’s Frontiers in Optics annual meeting in San Jose California from October 16 through the 20th. John Pendry of the Imperial College of London delivered one of the plenary lectures on Monday about new theoretical methods to achieve microscopic resolutions smaller than the wavelength of visible light. Ferenc Krausz from the Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik delivered the other plenary lecture, about new laser pulse techniques that can capture electron motion over tens of attoseconds.

The Division of Nuclear Physics
DNP held its fall meeting at Michigan State University from October 26 through the 29th. Wednesday afternoon’s plenary talk featured four speakers highlighting the career of Dennis Kovar, recently retired Associate Director of Science for High Energy Physics and former Associate Director of Science for Nuclear Physics in the Department of Energy, as well as remarks from Kovar himself. Thursday afternoon’s panel on trends in nuclear physics featured Kai Hebeler of Ohio State University discussing how renormalization group methods have offered new insights into the structure of neutron stars and nuclear many body forces. Helen Caines of Yale University presented on Wednesday morning the first results from the ALICE experiment at the LHC showing data largely consistent with RHIC and SPS results that matter created in high energy collisions behaves much like a strongly interacting perfect liquid.

The Texas Section
TSAPS held its meeting at Texas A&M University-Commerce in conjunction with the American Association of Physics Teachers from October 6 through the 8th. Mustapha Ishak-Boushaki from the University of Texas at Dallas delivered the unexpectedly timely plenary session outlining theories governing the expansion of the universe just three days after the Nobel Prize for physics was awarded for the discovery of cosmic acceleration. Texas A&M professor Robert E. Tribble’s talk on Saturday outlined efforts around the world at different locations and facilities to better understand the origin, evolution and structure of the visible matter in the universe.

The New York Section
NYSS similarly met jointly with the New York section of AAPT at SUNY College at Oneonta on October 7 and 8th. Its overarching topical theme was “Superconductivity and its Applications.” Gianfranco Vidali from Syracuse University and Matthew Sullivan from Ithaca College both gave talks on Friday morning going over the history of superconductivity. Britton Plourde of Syracuse University gave a talk on Saturday morning about the future possibility of superconducting circuits and quantum computing.

The Ohio Region Section
OSAPS held its annual meeting at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, on October 14 and 15th. The meeting’s theme was “Applied Physics.” Carl Brune from Ohio University described in his talk how nuclear physics has found many applications at the National Ignition Facility. Ron Kaitchuck from Ball State University highlighted what he found to be some of the most beautiful and breathtaking images produced by the Hubble Space Telescope.

The Southeastern Section
SESAPS held its meeting in Roanoke, Virginia from October 19 through the 22nd. On Friday, Patrick Huber looked past current experiments at Double Chooz, Daya Bay, T2K and NOvA towards the next steps needed to probe the nature of the neutrino mass hierarchy. On Thursday, Thomas Handler gave an overview of the role that physicists have historically played in policy making and what that role may be in the future.

The Northwest Section
NWS held its meeting at Oregon State University from October 20 through the 22nd. On Friday, Jose Reyes outlined the design of a new type of nuclear reactor by NuScale Power that has been gaining attention after the Fukushima disaster for its inherent resistance to meltdown. Andrei Kounine from MIT presented a report on Saturday of the performance of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer recently installed on the International Space Station to measure high energy particles.

The Four Corners Section
4CS met at the University of Arizona in Tucson on October 21 and 22nd. The Friday night banquet session featured a talk by Peter H. Smith from the University of Arizona looking back at the controversy about the claims of fossilized life on the infamous Martian meteorite in 1996.

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Editor: Alan Chodos

November 2011 (Volume 20, Number 10)

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Articles in this Issue
Physical Review X Out of the Gate
APS Helps Deconstruct the iPad on Capitol Hill
Nobels Honor Discoveries of Accelerating Universe, Quasicrystals
Redesigned Website Merges Physics and Focus
Fermilab Plans to Up the Intensity
Science Journalism Can Save Lives
Meeting Briefs
Ig Nobels May be not so Crazy After All
Letters to the Editor
The Back Page
Members in the Media
This Month in Physics History
The Washington Dispatch
International News
Focus on APS Sections