Overview of the APS April Meeting Sessions

Kevin Ludwick, Newsletter Editor and Secretary/Treasurer

Kevin Ludwick
Kevin Ludwick

The APS April Meeting in Denver, CO was an exciting meeting this year. The FECS sessions focused on science outreach to young people and publishing outside of academia.

FECS co-sponsored a session with the Forum on Physics and Society (FPS), chaired by myself. The session was entitled “Attracting Young People to Science and Science Policy”, and all the speakers were engaging and passionate about what they do. The talks were about educating others in an engaging way and getting them excited about science and its applications to public policy. Brian Jones (Colorado State University) spoke about he effectively communicates to the general public and to his university students the science and facts behind climate change. His Little Shop of Physics tours around doing great science outreach work. David Mauillo (Rutgers University) excitedly spoke about his outreach work that takes him across the country, and he emphasized the effective use of physics demonstrations to get people thinking about science and applications to science policy. He also involved the audience with some live demonstrations. His has many successful outlets for outreach, and his NYC theater presentation That Physics Show is performed around the world. The third speaker, Meredith Drosback, talked about the important work she does with SciLine as its associate director. SciLine is affiliated with AAAS, and its purpose is to match up the journalist who is tasked with covering a story that has connections to a specific science field with an expert in that field, even if the journalist’s deadline is only a few hours away. This effort to improve standards of science communication in journalism is important, and it has been fruitful.

FECS also co-sponsored a session with the Forum on Graduate Student Affairs (FGSA) entitled “Publishing in Areas Outside of Peer Reviewed Journals”. The session was chaired by Tiffany Nichols from Harvard University. The talks highlighted various effective ways of communicating science outside of academic journals to diverse audiences. Brian G. Keating (USC San Diego) talked about his book Losing the Nobel Prize, which is a memoir about the cosmological probe BICEP’s cutting-edge observations of the polarization of the cosmic microwave background, its potential link to cosmic inflation, and its pursuit of the Nobel Prize. The second speaker, Nutsinee Kijbunchoo (Australian National University), spoke about her unique way of publishing science via comics, specifically on the work of the exquisitely precise gravitational interferometer LIGO. Afterward, Jermey N.A. Matthews (The MIT Press) gave a detailed overview of publishing books in the 21st century. He went through strategies for different routes of publishing, whether as a single author or as a part of a collaboration. He also talked about different facets of open access publishing versus for-purchase publishing.

The sessions were entertaining as well as informative and useful. I am looking forward to seeing what future sessions FECS will sponsor at the APS April Meeting. Suggestions for topics and speakers from FECS members are always welcome!

April Meeting Q&A

Q&A during the session on publishing outside academia. (Image: Kevin Ludwick)