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10/8/1999
Congratulations to the NC State chapter of the Society of Physics students, which has been awarded an Outstanding Chapter Award for 1998-1999. John Blondin serves as the Chapter Advisor.
Congratulations to Stephen Lokitz, recipient of a Teaching Assistant Recognition Award from the American Association of Physics Teachers for 1999-2000.
L. H. Thomas Lecture to be held Monday, October 25, at 4:00 PM in 124 Dabney Hall. Horst L. Stormer, Nobel Laureate in Physics (1998), will speak on "Fractional Quantum Numbers and other Tales from Flatland". A banquet will follow.
Banquet tickets are $25 per person, available from Jennifer Outlaw. Make checks payable to Chris Gould.
Scientists Blend Polymers To Create New Thin-Films. Congratulations to Harald Ade and Andy Winsett on their July Nature article on thin film research. Tim Lucas of NC State news services wrote up the story for University Science, a weekly on-line summary of exciting new results across all disciplines. See the story at unisci.com.
APS recognizes Research in Physics Education: At its meeting of 21 May 1999 the following resolution was adopted by the APS Council: "In recent years, physics education research has emerged as a topic of research within physics departments. This type of research is pursued in physics departments at several leading graduate and research institutions, it has attracted funding from major governmental agencies, it is both objective and experimental, it is developing and has developed publication and dissemination mechanisms, and Ph.D. students trained in the area are recruited to establish new programs. Physics education research can and should be subject to the same criteria for evaluation (papers published, grants, etc.) as research in other fields of physics. The outcome of this research will improve the methodology of teaching and teaching evaluation. The APS applauds and supports the acceptance in physics departments of research in physics education. Much of the work done in this field is very specific to the teaching of physics and deals with the unique needs and demands of particular physics courses and the appropriate use of technology in those courses. The successful adaptation of physics education research to improve the state of teaching in any physics department requires close contact between the physics education researchers and the more traditional researchers who are also teachers. The APS recognizes that the success and usefulness of physics education research is greatly enhanced by its presence in the physics department."
Travel - new streamlined procedures now that the blue form has been made obsolete.
Step 1: Authorization. Prior to the trip, fill out the Physics department internal pre-authorization form. This is required for all out-of-state travel, even if there is no cost to the University. The form can be printed from the Physics Department web site (www.physics.ncsu.edu/department/travel_form.html), and copies have been distributed to all faculty and staff. The form remains on file in the Physics office and is the official record that your trip is preauthorized. If you do not fill out this form ahead of time, and do not get the Department Head's approval, you are not covered under any of the University's liability policies. We will not back date these forms, so please get them in ahead of time. For trips on grant money, the PI's approval and the FAS number are required. The form also goes up to the College research office to verify availability of funds. If they detect a problem, the PI is contacted directly. Travel in-state is automatically covered on the University's liability policies, but we suggest that for all trips of more than a few hours outside the Triangle, the form be filled out anyway. Please note: signing off on this form does not obligate the Department to pay for the trip; reimbursement is handled in step 2.
Step 2: Reimbursement. Bring all receipts and documentation to the person who handles your travel. The information will be entered on a web form which you will have to sign to make official. The signed form then goes to the Department and, if necessary, the College for approval. To expedite the process, be sure to provide again: the starting and ending times of the trip, the purpose of the trip, the grant number, and (for foreign travel) the exchange rates on the ending date.
Social Events Coming Up - Graduate Student appreciation lunch/dinner (location to be announced) and end of the semester drop-in party in the R. R. Patty Room.
Compact II Responses to the College. The 3 year plans proposed by Physics for the College compact initiatives relating to nanoscale science, high performance computing, Oak Ridge partnerships, and WebAssign are now posted on the Departmental web site. The URL is www.physics.ncsu.edu/department/compact.html
Recent and Upcoming Travel:
Harald Ade: To Davis and Berkeley, CA, to give a seminar at UC Davis and participate in the ALS user meeting in Berkeley.
To Shanghai, People's Republic of China, to participate in an international review panel for the scientific and technical program of the Shanghai National Synchrotron Radiation Center, a third generation synchrotron facility to be completed in 2004.
To Brunnen, Switzerland, to give invited presentation at the 2nd international Swiss Light Source Workshop.
Chris Gould , Diane Markoff: To Asilomar, CA, for the Fall meeting of the Division of Nuclear Physics of APS.
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