History of 4CS
Early History of the Four Corners Section, American Physical Society
William E. Evenson and Hans D. Hochheimer
June 9, 2023
In 1997 Harry Lustig, having retired as Treasurer of the American Physical Society (APS) and moved to Santa Fe in 1996, invited APS members from each of the Four Corners states (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah) to meet in Albuquerque at the University of New Mexico on March 22 to consider the formation of a Four Corners Section (4CS) of APS. He arranged for APS to invite 29 representatives of physics departments, government labs and industry plus a representative of the Texas Section as an advisor. A list of organizations represented and the names of participants is attached to this history as Appendix A.
Those who participated were enthusiastically in favor of working toward this new APS Section. They elected interim officers and executive committee (Appendix B) to poll APS members in the region to gauge their support, obtain approval of APS Council for the Section, and organize the first 4CS meeting in 1998. The interim officers elected at this meeting were William (Bill) Evenson from Brigham Young University as chair, J.D. Garcia from University of Arizona as chairelect, David Wolfe from University of New Mexico as vice chair, and Eric Jones from Sandia National Laboratory as secretary-treasurer.
In addition, a committee was formed to draft bylaws that could be presented to APS Council (Appendix B). Harry Lustig’s long experience as an APS officer was invaluable in identifying the essential tasks for APS recognition.
Howard Voss, from Arizona State University, chaired the Bylaws Committee. H. Dieter Hochheimer, from Colorado State University, as a member of the Bylaws Committee, very strongly advocated that a student member be included in the future 4CS Executive Committee. This proposal was not universally welcomed, but it prevailed and has been key to the success of the Section. Due to this attention to students from the beginning, the Section has maintained a focus on student research and has become an important venue for student scientific presentations.
The second priority focus that came out of these first meetings was to include an evening physics talk for the public in 4CS meetings. This, too, has become an important tradition and has expanded awareness and interest in physics through the Four Corners states.
The minutes of the organizing meeting are attached in Appendix C. More details of the tasks ahead in the organizing process are contained in Bill Evenson’s notes in Appendix D.
There was a requirement of 200 members to organize a section. Since section membership was free to APS members, i.e. no extra dues, it was relatively easy to get APS members to join. A list of APS members in the four states was provided by APS, and the interim officers proceeded to contact these members, alert them to the imminent organization of the section and request that they commit to free membership. This was done by colleagues reaching out within their institutions as well as by mass emails (Appendix E). Interim letterhead for the Section was created for use in the organizing activities (Appendix F). We had immediate responses from sufficient APS members that we presented a preliminary application to APS Council at their April 1997 meeting (Appendix G). This application was approved conditional on approval of the final draft of the bylaws by the APS Constitution and Bylaws Committee.
In fall 1997, the interim officers presented to APS Council the bylaws as finalized by the 4CS Bylaws Committee and approved by the 4CS Executive Committee. These bylaws had previously been reviewed by the APS Constitution and Bylaws Committee who had assisted in bringing them to acceptable final form. The interim officers were also able to report that by fall 1997 approximately 400 APS members in the region had responded by email supporting the establishment of the Section. The bylaws were accepted and the Section formally established in November 1997.
The first meeting of the new section was organized at the University of New Mexico in spring 1998. As of February 10, 1998, there were 530 members of the new Section. Members were affiliated with institutions throughout the Four Corners States, with the largest number at any single institution naturally coming from Los Alamos National Laboratory. This made Albuquerque an attractive site for the first meeting. It was scheduled for April 3 and 4, 1998, a Friday and Saturday.
This first meeting established numerous precedents that have guided Section meetings ever since. These include parallel sessions emphasizing student research reports. Inviting both undergraduate and graduate students to participate. Offering student travel grants to the extent of available funding. Judging student papers and giving awards for outstanding papers. Setting a minimal registration fee for students (only $5 for this first meeting!). Opening contributed sessions to all members, students and non-students alike. Including plenary sessions on physics in the region and on frontier topics. Offering a public lecture following the banquet. Much of this was made possible by generous contributions for both meeting expenses and student support from institutions and individuals in the Four Corners states, a practice that continued in future meetings.
140 members registered for the meeting, and 95 attended the banquet. There were 54 contributed talks given in the initial meeting, organized into the following sessions: Fluids; Particles, Fields and Nuclei I and II; Condensed Matter I; Condensed Matter II and Energy; Instruments and Measurement Science; Space; Atoms, Optics and Lasers; Science Education; and Post-Deadline Papers.
The banquet speaker was Prof. Murray Gell-Mann, Santa Fe Institute and University of New Mexico, with title “Nature Conformable to Herself.” Two section members received APS Prizes in 1998 and were also honored at the banquet: J. D. Garcia, University of Arizona, winner of the Edward A. Bouchet Prize; and Joel Moss, Los Alamos National Laboratory, winner of the Bonner Prize.
Leaders of Los Alamos National Laboratory (Laboratory Director, John Browne), Air Force Research Laboratory in Albuquerque (Chief Scientist, Janet Fender), and Sandia National Laboratories (Director of Physics and Chemical Sciences Center, Thomas Picraux) reviewed Physics in New Mexico in a Saturday morning plenary Session. A Saturday afternoon plenary on Frontiers of Physics featured speakers from the Four Corners States reporting on current exciting work: Advances in PV Research at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, CO by Satyen Deb; Cosmic Ray Experiments in Utah by David Kieda; Developments in Nonlinear Systems in Arizona by Raymond Goldstein; and Quantum State Manipulation with Trapped Ions by Quentin Turchette and the Wineland Group at NIST in Boulder.
The Organizing Committee for this successful meeting deserves great credit for their work in the short time between formal establishment of the Section and deadlines for meeting arrangements. This committee consisted of Eric Jones (Sandia National Laboratories), Harry Lustig (APS), Scott Nutter (Eastern New Mexico University), Andrea Palounek (Los Alamos National Laboratory), and David Wolfe, Committee Chair (University of New Mexico).
The meeting in Albuquerque started the Section with enthusiasm and extended interest among students for participation in a scientific meeting that was not too distant, was not expensive, and was eager to include students and give them opportunities to present and participate.
Maintaining momentum, the second meeting of the Four Corners Section was held October 16- 17, 1998 at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, by which time the membership had grown to 625. In the course of organizing this meeting, commitments were received by Section officers for annual contributions for student support and meeting support from Sandia National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Additional local contributions were received to support the meeting from Moxtek and BYU.
The fall 1998 meeting continued the practices of the spring meeting and, with the benefit of several additional months for organization, expanded the opportunities and participation. The Executive Committee determined that future annual meetings would continue in the fall, so the spring 1998 kick-off meeting in Albuquerque is the only spring meeting in the history of this section.
There were 73 contributed and invited papers at the 1998 Provo meeting, of which about onethird were by students. The Provo Daily Herald, the Salt Lake Tribune, the Salt Lake Deseret News and the BYU Daily Universe (Appendix H) had all published articles about the meeting, including an announcement of a public lecture after the banquet at the Provo Marriott. This lecture was presented by Prof. Kip Thorne of Cal Tech on “Gravitational Waves: A New Window on the Universe.” It was very well-attended, bringing in a large group of interested townspeople outside the physics community. They were well rewarded as Prof. Thorne addressed interested, well-educated non-physicists perfectly.
Following the pattern of the spring meeting in Albuquerque, the fall meeting had a Friday plenary session on Physics in Utah, including Nanoscale Electronic Measurements by Clayton Williams, University of Utah; EUV Multilayer Mirrors by David Allred, Brigham Young University; and Physics R&D for Solid Rocket Motor Materials by Lee Pearson, Thiokol. A Saturday afternoon plenary featured current physics in the Four Corners States: Science Behind the Pictures from Hubble by Jeff Hester, Arizona State University; Reducing Asteroid and Comet Impact Hazard by David Crawford, Sandia National Laboratory; Recent Experiments in Bose-Einstein Condensation by Jason Ensher, University of Colorado; and Advances in Plasma Physics by Todd Haines, Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The fall 1998 meeting was also the occasion for further development of a system for judging student papers and giving awards for outstanding presentations. This work was led by Andrea Palounek, and development has continued in all subsequent years to provide fair, efficient judging and significant recognition (including monetary awards) for outstanding presentations by undergraduate and graduate students. Appendix I contains Registration Forms for the two 1998 meetings, showing the low cost registrations and banquet fees and inviting students to register for the Student Prize Competition.
At the Provo meeting, the 4CS Executive Committee arranged to coordinate exhibits from the four states of the Section at the 1999 APS Centennial meeting in Atlanta. In addition, they set the date for the fall 1999 4CS meeting in Tucson and accepted a proposal from Colorado State University to host the fall 2000 meeting.
Reminiscences from Hans Dieter Hochheimer
Let me start with the year 1997, when we met in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to follow the suggestion of Harry Lustig, to found a new section covering Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah, and call it the Four Corners Section of the American Physical Society. I remember still very well the discussions I had with Fred Mueller, Los Alamos National Laboratory, who was opposed to my suggestion to include a student in the Executive Committee. We did not solve this problem at the meeting, but were able to agree to found the section and elected Bill Evenson, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah as the first Chair of the Section and organize the first meeting at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
At the founding meeting in Albuquerque: Left: My wife Renate, Howard Voss, Arizona State University and his wife Helen.
In 1998 Bill Evenson organized the second meeting at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, which was definitely one of the best meetings I have attended and probably laid the cornerstone for the success of the Four Corners Section.
Since I think that pictures will make our history more interesting and show the flavor of our meetings, here are a few:
Bill Fairbank (right) with three of our Colorado State students at the fall 1998 section meeting at BYU. Jennifer Burris (second from right) became Prof. at Appalachian State University, now Provost at Lenoir-Rhyne University. Steve Rehse (left) became Prof. at Case Western University. Jennifer and Steve won a student award for their presentation at this meeting.
Bill Fairbank advertising the Colorado State University Physics Program at the fall 1998 meeting at BYU.
Craig Taylor (U of Utah) and Howard Voss (Arizona State U) at the Las Cruces meeting in 2001.
Student award winners at Las Cruces meeting, 2001. Eric Jones (Sandia National Laboratory and 4CS Secretary-Treasurer) on the right.
Waiting for a session to begin. Las Cruces meeting, 2001.
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