• The American Institute of Physics is launching the AIP Foundation, a charitable organization to support education and historical programs. The foundation will be officially introduced this Thursday, November 19, in a virtual event at 6:00PM EST. Speakers will include our own Prof. John Mather and astronaut Ellen Ochoa.

You can read more and register for Thursday's event here: https://foundation.aip.org/support-science/index.html

• This year the AIP’s National Task Force to Elevate African American Representation in Undergraduate Physics & Astronomy (TEAM-UP for short) released their report on the experiences of African-American physics students. The task force has been hosting a series of webinars on their work. This Friday, November 20, they will host a webinar at 2:00PM EST to discuss implementation and their recommendations for the physics community. The event will be hosted by Dr. Kate Kirby and Prof. S. James Gates, who recently retired from our department.

 Read more, view previous webinars, and sign up for this Friday’s event here: https://www.aps.org/programs/minorities/webinars/teamup.cfm

The American Institute of Physics celebrated its 90^th anniversary this year.

AIP was first founded primarily as a publisher and an alliance of the American Physical Society, Optical Society of America, Acoustical Society of America, American Association of Physics Teachers, and the Society of Rheology. In the intervening decades, it has expanded to 10 member and 27 affiliated organizations, including over 100,000 individual members.

In addition to its ongoing publishing mission, AIP hosts professional development webinars, promotes the study of physics and the history of physics, and engages with public policy on science.

You can read more about the history and 90^th anniversary in Physics Today.

 Read more: 

• DOI:10.1063/PT.6.3.20211122a

The American Institute of Physics has published results of their national survey of high school physics teachers. Enrollment in high school physics classes has increased over the last 30 years, at twice the rate of increase of overall high school enrollment. Despite this, more and more high schools only offer physics in alternating years, and there has been little growth in the number of high school physics teachers.

 Read more at AIP.org: https://www.aip.org/statistics/reports/high-school-physics-overview-19

UPDATE 1 December 9AM: The structure did not survive the night. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/12/arecibo-telescope-collapses-ending-57-year-run 

The radiotelescope at Arecibo Observatory will be shut down and dismantled, the National Science Foundation determined this month. Arecibo has contributed to astronomical research ranging from the planetary to the extragalactic scale for over 50 years. Recent damage from storms and aging appears unrepairable, and NSF now plans for its careful disassembly for safety reasons.

Read more:

•  Physics Today https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.6.2.20201124a/full/
•  Arecibo Observatory home page http://www.naic.edu/
•  NSF Press Release https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=301674
• Follow updates at the International Asteroid Warning Network http://iawn.astro.umd.edu/ 

Last month, we featured news on the impact of COVID-19 on physics research, including a recent Physics Today article by Mitch Amrbose.

In this month’s issue, they continue the discussion to talk about how COVID-19 is changing job searches in physics. Online video job interviews can be a big change from traditional campus visits, and job offers are sometimes left in limbo along with the budgets that support them.

Read the latest here: https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.6.2.20200911a/full/

Also, be sure to check out this Tuesday’s American Physical Society webinar where Crystal Bailey, Head of Career Programs at APS, talks about how COVID-19 changes the picture for the physics workforce: https://www.aps.org/careers/guidance/webinars/

Amid the vast human crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, by far the greatest worry for all of us is its impact on the life and health of ourselves and others. It can be valuable, though, to also take a step back and look ahead to its long-term impact in other areas, to start planning ahead for what the future may bring.

Physics Today has a new article out on the impact of COVID-19 on physics research; check it out here.

This month, the American Physical Society announced the recipients of their Spring 2021 prizes. The Leo Szilard Lectureship for this year goes to UMD’s Steve Fetter, Associate Provost and Dean of the Graduate School. The award is given every year in recognition of accomplishments by physicists in promoting the use of physics to the benefit of society.

Dr. Fetter is a professor in the School of Public Policy. He received his S.B in Physics from MIT and his PhD in energy and resources from University of California, Berkeley. He was named an APS Fellow in 1994.

The award citation: “For seminal contributions to two US administrations' efforts to minimize the threat of nuclear war, for helping to establish nuclear archeology as a viable and effective method for supporting arms control and countering proliferation, and for contributing expert analysis leading to the UN General Assembly's adoption of the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty.”

• News Release: https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/updates/spring2021.cfm

• Award Homepage: https://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/szilard.cfm

• UMD Graduate School: https://gradschool.umd.edu/about-us/staff/dr-steve-fetter

• Nuclear Security Working Group: https://nuclearsecurityworkinggroup.org/members/dr-steve-fetter/

The US Department of Energy’s STEM Rising program has released a new infographic on STEM careers; click the thumbnail to check it out!

Also, check out some of these upcoming opportunities they’ve shared with us to explore or expand STEM career at all levels:

• On Thursday October 29, DOE hosts a Virtual Career Fair where you can learn about their Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships (SULI) and Community College Internships (CCI) programs

• The Mickey Leland Energy Fellowship (MLEF) program for under-represented and minority students in batchelor’s and master’s programs in STEM to engage in energy research projects at national labs

• For experienced teachers, consider the Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship (AEF) program, where teachers can apply their hands-on classroom experience to science education policy

With the growing attention on energy and climate change, there has been some renewed interest in the uses of nuclear power. Here are some new educational resources available for exploring this subject in class or independently.

• The Navigating Nuclear website is a joint project of the American Nuclear Society and Discovery Education. They present the new Nuclear Reimagined Virtual Field Trip video, with a pdf educator guide and links to further resources.

• At the other end of the process, the Physics Central Physics Buzz blog presents The Steps to Closing a Nuclear Power Plant, exploring Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island plant as it’s one year into its multi-year project of shutting down and cleaning up. Physics Central is an outreach project of the American Physical Society

• Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) has released one of their OpenCourseWare online classes, Understanding Nuclear Energy.

UMD’s own Dan Lathrop was quoted in a new article in Physics Today on the experiences of physicists in the COVID-19 pandemic, and the toll of both the stress of the illness itself, and of the changed work environments, on our mental health. It’s important that we take care of ourselves, and of one another, in these difficult times – both individually and as institutions. We’ve compiled a few helpful links below.

 Read More:

• Stressed? Depressed? You are not alone, Toni Federer, Physics Today

• Coping with Stress, CDC

• COVID-19 Care & Support Resources, UMD Counseling Center

• UMD Sutdent Affairs: Mental Health First Aid Training

And don’t forget, for the duration of the pandemic, the Physics Today archive is free to read. Find it at https://physicstoday.scitation.org/journal/pto

Physics Today has published their top 10 science policy stories to watch in 2021.

Some are obvious, of course – the pandemic and post-pandemic recovery, and the announced increasing role of science in federal decisionmaking in the new administration. Other things to keep an eye on: climate change and climate policy; changes in how science is funded and in immigration and visa policies affecting scientists; and potential new directions in space exploration.

 Read more at Physics Today DOI:10.1063/PT.6.2.20210128a

Relatedly, keep an eye on the American Institute of Physics Federal Science Leadership Tracker, which keeps you up to date on who’s who in science policy positions in Congress, the White House, and the many federal offices that connect to the physical sciences.

 Find it at https://www.aip.org/fyi/federal-science-leadership-tracker

Some brief highlights of space technology news this week:

•  NASA’s latest test of the SLS rocket engines ended early this past weekend, prompting investigations. These engines are the core driving component of the planned Artemis lunar mission. It appears that the issue is not with the engines themselves, but with the testing code for the engine’s steering hydraulics. A date for revised testing has not yet been set.

 Read more at Science Alert and space.com

• Meanwhile in commercial launches, SpaceX is setting new records this week for spacecraft reusability. A launch planned for today will be the eighth flight of the first stage of this Falcon rocket, which just returned from its previous flight less than six weeks ago. The rocket will carry more Starlink communication satellites, which have aroused controversy for their potential impact on light pollution and space debris in the event of failure.

Read more at Ars Technica

Three recent articles related to science education may be of interest to our readers.

• The first, an article in The Physics Teacher by Andrew G. Duffy of Boston University, introduces his collection of new simulations for use in teaching physics. Many of these have been indexed in our own Directory of Simulations as well, and it is very much worth checking out his collection site https://tinyurl.com/HTML5sims and given the article a read to learn more about their development. https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1119/10.0006921

•  The next article, in Physics Today, is a collaboration by Brad Conrad of SPS, AIP research fellow Rachel Ivie, and Patrick Mulvey and Starr Nicholson of AIP’s Statistical Research Center. They explore the latest results on how COVID-19 has impacted undergraduate physics students, and steps we can take to support them. They note that the impact has been greatest on already underrepresented groups. https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.6.5.20211102a/full/

• The third, an article in Science in School by Ed Walsh of Collins Learning in the UK, explores the art and science of demonstrations and their use in the classroom. https://www.scienceinschool.org/article/2021/art-science-demonstration/