APS News

New AAPT-ALPhA Undergraduate Award

New AAPT-ALPhA award will honor the work of undergraduate student contributions to the advanced laboratory.

February 10, 2014

The American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) recently established a new award honoring the work of students building an experiment for their advanced laboratories. The ALPhA award will be given annually to a student or students who as a part of their senior project or thesis, helped to build a new device or experiment for their laboratory, but not necessarily a device never invented before.

The student will be honored with a citation, a plaque, travel expenses to speak at an AAPT meeting and a cash prize of $4,000. In addition the student’s faculty supervisor will receive a citation as well, and travel expenses to the same AAPT meeting.

The society will post more detailed submission instructions in the spring of this year. The deadline to submit a candidate for the first award will be the first day of September, with the award presented at the 2016 Winter AAPT Meeting in New Orleans.

Though this award is entirely operated by AAPT, many APS student members and faculty will likely be eligible for the award.

The physics education equipment company TeachSpin is underwriting the award for five years, while AAPT solicits funds for a permanent endowment.