Message from the Chair

Dr. Maria Longobardi, Chair

Maria Longobardi
Maria Longobardi

Dear FECS members,

It has been an honor and pleasure to serve this first year as Chair of the FECS. I would especially like to thank my colleagues on the Executive Committee whose enthusiasm made my job easy and exciting. Our community is constantly growing, and we are proud to represent currently more than 3000 members, and we hope to continue to attract scientists from all over the world.

The FECS are developing several activities, some of them jointly with other APS units, to provide increased opportunity for inclusion with members of the physics community.

In this newletter, you can find information on the FECS activities during the next APS Meeting.

At the March Meeting, the FECS and the Topical Group on Energy Research and Applications (GERA) will co-sponsor the workshop "The Future of Sustainable Approaches to Energy" and two sessions with our partners at the Forum on Industrial and Applied Physics (FIAP) and the Forum on International Physics (FIP).

In addition, FECS will host a shared reception with the FIP on the evening Tuesday March 6 and another shared reception with FIAP on the evening Wednesday March 7. If you will be at the March meeting, please do come by.

At the April Meeting, we will discuss about physics and society in the session "Getting the Word Out" co-sponsored with our Forum on Physics and Society (FPS) partner. FECS and FIP will also celebrate the two winners of the APS Sakharov Prize for 2018.

More information about sessions will be on the FECS website in the next weeks, and I hope to see you all at our APS meetings.

As I wrote, it has been an honor and privilege to serve the FECS and to play a part in promoting activities, exchange and dialogue opportunities for the community of early career scientists. I am sure that in the next year this work will continue as the FECS grows into new challenges and opportunities.

I send all my best wishes to the Chair-Elect Jason S. Gardner for a fruitful and successful 2018 as Chair; I am sure that the FECS will be in very good hands. I want to thank again Kevin Ludwick for the FECS newsletter and Greg Hamilton for our Facebook group and all the other Executive Committee members for their valuable contributions: collaboration is our strength!

Best wishes to all of you for a wonderful 2018,

Maria Longobardi signature
Maria

Maria Longobardi earned her Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Salerno, Italy in 2010 in experimental condensed matter physics. There she explored the local electronic and magnetic properties of superconductors, oxides and novel materials.

In 2011, she moved to the University of Geneva, Switzerland where her studies focused on the electronic properties of 1D systems at the atomic scale and on the atomics defects of 2D materials. She is currently at the Microbiology Department in Geneva performing interdisciplinary studies on novel hybrid biomaterials and bio-nanomaterials. Maria is also a science communicator and freelance journalist. She has been active in the development of several international programs and outreach/educational activities.

During the past years, she served the APS as International Student Affair Officer and Newsletter Editor for the FGSA (2011-2015) and as Member at Large and Newsletter Editor for the FIP (2014-Current).