Noah Finkelstein, University of Colorado Boulder, Forum on Education Councilor

APS is seeking to continue to enhance and expand its meetings…
Specifically as per our strategic plan, “we will improve APS meetings to better respond to the emerging needs of the various communities involved, especially students and early- career scientists, and to provide optimal experiences for all participants.” We are creating more synergies between APS meetings and Physical Review Journals; embracing new technologies; exploring nontraditional ways of meeting. To these ends, APS has a new Meetings Director: Hunter Clemens 
 And there is plenty of opportunity to provide feedback on/ suggestions for new meetings structures: Annual Leadership meeting (see below), April and Mar meetings forums, at our April, Sept and Nov council meetings… As your councilor please feel free to send suggestions my way.

You may note a new national meeting. From our strategic plan: In order for members and others to appreciate the exciting discoveries in physics, notable developments in the physics community, and the many successful APS programs, we will explore new and better ways to communicate and interact more effectively. Specific actions will include: There is a new Leadership Meeting Jan 28-31, 2020 in DC, coupled with Congressional Visit Days Jan 28-29, and a Keynote from Nobel Laureate Steven Chu. Jan 30.

Organizational Updates have been made:
APS has a variety new staff and reorganized two key departments. The Careers, Diversity, Education and Public Engagement programs have been consolidated into one department, now known as the APS Programs Department headed by Monica Plisch. We have organized an APS Project Development unit that includes a variety of large-scale initiatives, such as : STEP-UP, EP3, IGEN, and a Graduate Student Network. APS Project Development is headed by Ted Hodapp.

Work from the newly formed Ethics Committee is underway – establishing tools, website, and conducting survey(s).

A Working group on Climate (of departments) is underway. The traditional (and successful program of site visits hosted by CSWP and COM, running since 1990), is being updated include more voice and clearer expectations for visits. This committee welcomes input.

A new Forum of Diversity and Inclusion was discussed and voted on

Policy work continues:
Relevant updates to POPA statements focus on education (supporting physics teaching (k12), undergraduate research, and physics education research), and ethics and values. All of these are focused on updating wording and modernizing language.

The Office of Government affairs has been assessing and addressing the challenges in international graduate student study in US institutions. Outside of the top tier, physics departments across the U.S. have suffered an average 2-year decline in international applications of -22%.

To that end, OGA is working on public campaign and legislation to support international graduate student engagement, including dual intent visa (a way to stay after graduate school) and a pathway to obtaining a Green Card.

Finally APS hosts an Innovation fund. In its first year, 4 projects were funded

• More Humane APS Meetings through Machine Learning (Tim Atherton, APS IT): Using machine learning and natural language processing to improve the meeting experience by identifying talks on subjects the attendee wants to see
• APS Network of Diversity Leaders(Ed Bertschinger, Geoff Potvin, Monica Plisch): Convene representatives from 30 physics departments to form a national network that develops and shares equity/diversity/inclusion practices and strategic plans
• Informing and Activating the U.S. Physics Community in Nuclear Threat Reduction (Stewart Prager, Steven Fetter, APS OGA): Build a team of individuals to travel and engage the physics community (information and advocacy) on nuclear threat reduction
• U.S.–Africa Initiative in Electronic Structure(OmololuAkin-Ojo,Richard Martin, Renata Wentzcovitch, APS Int’l Affairs): Organize two week-long workshops (Rwanda, Africa / Columbia Univ., New York) on electronic structure simulations – an area of research that is readily available to anyone with internet connectivity

Next years competition will be announced soon (or has been announced – keep an eye out)... likely Mar 15 submission of ~1 page summary followed by invited proposals.

If you have items you wish to communicate to Council, please contact me.

Noah Finkelstein
Council of Representatives
FED, FOEP, GPER
noah.finkelstein@colorado.edu

Disclaimer – The articles and opinion pieces found in this issue of the APS Forum on Education Newsletter are not peer refereed and represent solely the views of the authors and not necessarily the views of the APS.