Sergio E. Ulloa

It is an honor and pleasure to welcome you to the spring 2013 Newsletter, as this year’s Chair of the Forum on International Physics.  Our Editor, Ernie Malamud, has prepared a great issue with articles from many a contributor and diverse points of view.

International Developments
FIP continues to promote and support the International Travel Grant Award Program.  With support from many units in APS and the invaluable leadership of the Office of International Affairs, the ITGAP program increased the number of awards in the most recent cycle last year from 3 to 5, thanks to additional financial contributions from FIP and APS.  The number of meritorious proposals is high and more awards are certainly warranted.  We are glad that this program continues strong and with excellent outcomes.

As you may know, APS is also in the midst of an expansion in the number of International Councilors.  The current two (of the planned four) are Annick Suzor-Weiner (French Embassy in Washington DC) and Marcia Barbosa (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, UFRGS, in Brazil).  We have extended invitations for them to join our FIP meetings whenever possible and offered our help in communicating with the FIP membership.  We are very excited by these developments, as they strengthen the international mission of the APS.  I urge you to heed the yearly call for nominations of new officers, including the election of a new International Councilor.  It is important that we nominate excellent candidates to join those already elected and enhance the voice of international concerns within the APS Council.

Thank You and Welcome!
The start of the year brings new faces to the FIP Executive Committee. We welcome to the Chair-line, Ed Berger from Argonne National Laboratory, who is Vice-Chair in 2013 (and will continue on to be Chair-Elect, Chair and Past-chair in subsequent years).  We are also glad to welcome two new Members-at-Large, Christine Darve from the European Spallation Source, and Alejandro de Lozanne from the University of Texas at Austin; they will serve until December 2015. We look forward to their enthusiastic input in the Executive Committee.

FIP is also fortunate to have Noemi Mirkin, University of Michigan, re-elected as Secretary/Treasurer for another 3-year period. We are thankful for her years of excellent service carrying out the tasks performed in this position as well as overseeing the Forum's finances.  We are glad she has agreed to continue providing this service.

I also want to thank the departing members of the Executive Committee for their efforts with FIP: Past Chair Harvey Newman, Caltech, and Members-at-Large Giulia Pancheri, INFN-Frascatti, Italy, and Alberto Santoro, UERJ, Brazil.  Harvey Newman has provided strong leadership and his enthusiastic efforts will be felt in the community for some time: He has spearheaded a fantastic effort to support travel of international students to meetings of the APS.  The FIP membership will be hearing about this great pilot program in the near future.

Congratulations!
We are proud that Sultana Nahar, Ohio State University, has been recognized for her outstanding outreach efforts to scientists in third world countries, especially Muslim women.  She is the 2013 recipient of the John Wheatley Award and will receive her recognition at the April Meeting in Denver.  She will also present at that time a talk describing her work.  We are glad that she is recognized for her strong efforts, which continue in the future as a Member-at-Large of FIP.

This Year
FIP has been active in organizing sessions for the 2013 March and April Meetings.  We have put together several interesting sessions on different aspects, all with a strong international flavor.  Please find a description of these sessions elsewhere in the Newsletter.  We hope to see you at these symposia and invite you to bring up proposals for sessions at future meetings.  A short email to FIP Chair-Elect (and Program Chair) Ercan Alp (eea@aps.anl.gov) with your suggestions would be most welcome.

I look forward to a year of new efforts at FIP.  I believe it is important that we listen to your ideas and concerns.  A great opportunity to meet is at the upcoming FIP reception, which will take place during the 2013 March Meeting in Baltimore.  Apart from meeting many FIP members, and meet and congratulate some of the newly elected APS Fellows nominated by FIP, the reception gives us the opportunity to gather with colleagues from several overseas physics groups who share many of our interests. See the announcement in this newsletter.  We look forward to seeing you there!

For those not attending the March Meeting, I invite you to drop an email to me (ulloa@ohio.edu) or any of the Executive Committee members.  We want to hear your ideas for initiatives, newsletter articles, or anything else in your mind.  We look forward to hearing from you!

Sergio UIloa is a Professor in condensed matter theory at Ohio University.  His interests, apart from international affairs, include electronic transport and spintronics in nanometer scale structures. He is currently enjoying a sabbatical leave at the Dahlem Center for Complex Quantum Systems at the Freie Universität in Berlin.

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