Dear FIP Members,

As the 2020 Chair of the APS FIP (Forum on International Physics), I would like to briefly present the current activities and projects of the Forum, which has been, of course, significantly affected and concerned, as any other APS Unit, about the development of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, in my quality of Chair-Elect, I had the pleasure to organize, together with the FIP Program Committee, the 2020 March and April Meetings, which had to take place in Denver and Washington DC. The program of the invited FIP sessions at the March Meeting had foreseen the participation of many distinguished speakers from Asia, Europe and the US on topics such as international physics with accelerators (XFEL, neutron spallation sources, plasma driven accelerators, etc.) and physics for development (SESAME project in the Middle East, fundamental physics and accelerator science in developing countries, especially in Africa, etc.). Also, a joint session on early-career scientists' international achievements, in particular in Europe, had been organized in collaboration with FECS (Forum on Early Career Scientists).

The cancellation of the March Meeting due to the COVID emergency took us by surprise, but for the April Meeting, which was timely transformed into a virtual meeting and turned out to be per se more successful than expected, we have been able to hold appealing FIP sessions which all gathered a very good audience. Two sessions focused on current projects and roadmaps of international physics with accelerators in the nuclear and the particle physics sectors, respectively, both in the US (with neutrino beams and heavy-ion beams) and abroad (at CERN, in Japan, etc.). The third FIP session was devoted to funding top-quality research in physics (in particular in Europe, through the European Research Council-ERC). It also included a final, touching talk by Ayşe Erzan (Istanbul Technical University), one of the winners of the 2020 APS Sakharov Prize for peace and human rights.

In its Executive Committee online meeting in April this year, FIP has decided to focus its 2020 activities on "Physics for Development", in line with the desired international engagement of the APS. To this purpose, FIP has increased its funding contribution to the International Travel Award Program (IRTAP) to support research collaboration between physicists in developed and developing countries. It has also increased its funding of the Distinguished Student Program (DSP) to support overseas students to attend APS meetings, targeting special scientifically emerging regions of the world.

I would also like to emphasize the recent establishment of the FIP Outreach & Communication Committee (OCC), as a task force to improve FIP's visibility through its newsletter, web page and social media, to promote at large its many activities and initiatives, and to find efficient means to campaign for member recruitment at the international level, namely from big international laboratories to various kinds of institutions and centers around the world, including developing countries. To this end, many actions have already been taken.

• The newsletter has been relaunched with a new graphics layout, as you can see from this issue, and will be published from now on online only.
• Some expert voluntary help has been found to keep our web and social media pages updated, in collaboration with the APS staff.
• With the support of the Committee on International Scientific Affairs (CISA), a series of recorded and live online FIP colloquia have been planned on a variety of cutting-edge topics, from top world experts towards developing country audiences, starting in the fall of 2020 and targeting at first some specific countries in the Middle East.
• A project to produce a short (few minutes) video to promote FIP's international engagement has been sketched; This could be appropriately used as an introductory video for the above FIP colloquia and any FIP session at APS meetings.

The series of FIP colloquia, called "Physics Matters – Video and Live colloquia as Physics for Development initiative in COVID times," aims to disseminate scientific culture at large and among the young (starting from graduate students), with particular emphasis on the role of women in science. Appropriate centers (universities, labs) in Jordan, Iran, and Pakistan are being identified and appropriate ways to ensure good video connections. FIP considers very important to act in COVID times promptly and is eager to take advantage of this outreach program of the contribution of other APS Forums, in particular: Early Career Scientists (FECS), Graduate Student Affairs (FGSA), Outreach and Engaging the Public (FOEP).

As you will read in this newsletter issue, FIP has been involved recently in the initiative launched by the APS Topical Group on Medical Physics (GMED) of an APS Online Community for COVID Resources/Research. In this respect, you can also find in this newsletter an article about an international collaboration project started in Italy, on the development and manufacturing of a new medical ventilator system.

Finally, let me say how deeply the international community has been moved by the recent episodes of violence happening in the United States and concerning black people. FIP strongly supports the "Statement Condemning Racism" by the 2020 APS Presidential Line, Speaker of the Council, and CEO (Philip H. Bucksbaum, Sylvester James Gates, Jr., Frances Hellman, David Gross, Andrea Liu, and Kate P. Kirby) of June 2, 2020, which condemns systemic racism and racial injustice of any kind that persist in the US and across the world.

Also, as Forum on International Physics, we were very concerned by the announced change of immigration rules in the US, luckily recently rescinded, which may have affected and penalized international students studying off-campus because of the pandemic emergency. FIP supports the position taken by the APS Leadership on this matter too since international students are an essential part of our community.

Let me end by thanking the FIP Chair-Elect (Alan Hurd), Vice-Chair (Joe Niemela), Past-Chair (Elena Aprile), all the members of the FIP Executive Committee, and last but not least the APS Director of International Affairs (Amy Flatten), for their wonderful help in this special year 2020.

Italy was one of the first countries to be affected by the COVID-19 emergency. Living in Bologna, I will never forget the nice and encouraging messages I have received from my friends and colleagues from other countries, and in particular from the United States, during the difficult months of Italian lockdown at the beginning of the year. Now the difficulty is general and it's my turn to express my closeness to all: let's all stay (virtually) together.

Luisa Cifarelli
Chair – Forum on International Physics (FIP)
University of Bologna, Italy
e-mail: luisa.cifarelli@unibo.it