Minutes of the May 2010 DLS Executive Committee Meeting
(from Anne Kelley, Secretary/Treasurer of DLS)
Blossom Hill 1, Marriott Hotel, San Jose, CA
May 17, 2010
Present: Warren Warren (chair), Steve Cundiff (chair-elect), Carlos Stroud (vice-chair), Nick Bigelow (past chair), Anne Kelley (secretary-treasurer), Bob Jones (member-at-large), Toni Taylor (member-at-large), Paul Berman (member-at-large), Amy VanEngen Spivey (newsletter editor).
Warren called the meeting to order at 10:05 am.
Warren introduced the two new Executive Committee members present: Paul Berman (member-at-large) and Carlos Stroud (vice-chair). The other new member-at-large, Maria Allegrini, could not attend.
The minutes from the Oct. 13, 2010 meeting at FiO/LS in San Jose were approved.
Anne presented a treasurer's report. The net worth of the division has remained relatively flat over the past couple of years due to reduced income from CLEO/QELS and a lower rate of return paid by APS on investments. Our membership is slightly below the 3% of APS nominally required to remain a Division (it is now 2.83%), but this has not changed much in recent years and we have not been under pressure from APS to grow our numbers. There was some discussion of approaches to increasing membership, including outreach to industry; FIAP is the APS division/forum having the second largest overlap with DLS. Nearly half of all DLS members are also members of DAMOP, but the sense is that there is little emphasis on optical physics in DAMOP and the two divisions serve clearly different purposes despite considerable membership overlap.
Anne discussed the Student Travel Grant program. For QELS there were nine fully qualified applicants, of which four awards of $500 each were made. Anne gave preference to oral over poster presentations in selecting among otherwise qualified applicants and this was supported by the committee. Anne noted that last year only one qualified application was received for the fall Laser Science meeting; a number of other applications were received from students presenting in FiO sessions, who are not eligible under the current rules. It was agreed that we need to get more students applying for travel grants to LS. There was discussion of whether we should care about presentation at LS versus FiO as long as the students are DLS members. There were differing opinions on this, but it was decided to allow travel grant awardees to present at either LS or FiO, with preference given to FiO presenters. The committee also voted to increase the maximum student travel grant allocation for FiO/LS to $5000 total (up to $500 per student). Policies governing the travel grants for next spring's CLEO/QELS should be discussed at our fall meeting.
Anne announced the newly elected APS Fellows from DLS. They will receive their certificates and pins at the LS meeting this fall if they choose to attend. There was discussion of allowing new fellows to choose to receive their awards at either LS or QELS; it is too late for this year, but this question should be revisited at the fall meeting. The deadline for fellowship applications is June 15 and we should be sure that worthy candidates are nominated. Carlos is chair of fellowship committee this year, Steve is ex officio, and Warren will appoint the rest of the committee soon.
Warren reported on LaserFest activities. While DLS became involved in LaserFest somewhat later than would have been desirable, Warren and other APS members have been quite active, often behind the scenes, to try to insure that the web site, physical materials generated, and public events are both scientifically correct and meaningful to the public. The original "women in laser science section on the web site has been changed to "faces in laser science, updated to include a number of men, and otherwise diversified. The "what is a laser definition on the web site has also been revised after much discussion. A particularly notable product of LaserFest is the SpectraSound kit (laser pointer + solar cell), selling for $15, which allows one to transmit sound across a room using light instead of a wire. It is hoped that the LaserFest web site will be preserved in archival form after 2010. It is an excellent educational resource.
Nick reported that the NSBP/NSHP (National Society of Black/Hispanic Physicists) meeting, at which DLS had planned to present one or more "best paper awards to students, was cancelled this year because funding fell through. It is hoped that the meeting will be resurrected next year.
Warren discussed the preliminary schedule and logistics for the 2010 Laser Science meeting (October 24-28, in Rochester). Warren pointed out that currently the DLS chair appoints the following year's LS program chairs, who will serve after the person who appointed them has rotated to past chair. This results in a lack of communication and continuity. It was agreed that starting this year, the chair-elect (currently Steve) should appoint the following year's LS program chairs with advice from the current DLS chair (Warren) and the EC. Also, the program chairs will be asked to stay on in an advisory capacity as "general chairs for the following year. There was some discussion of people who might be asked to serve as 2011 LS program chairs. It was also noted that this year's LS symposia are rather narrowly defined and many DLS members would not find a home for their work in any of the symposia. There was discussion of having some running symposia that would be more general and constant from year to year, to help build a community of people who attend LS regularly.
There was a visit from OSA staff: CEO Liz Rogan, meetings manager Chad Stark, COO Jayne Somes-Schloesser, and President-elect Chris Dainty. The FiO/LS and CLEO/QELS meetings were discussed. They do not yet have definite numbers for CLEO/QELS, but pre-meeting estimates were similar to 2009 except that the short course program this year has not been very successful. The current plan is for CLEO/QELS to continue to alternate San Jose/Baltimore through 2014. Exhibitors who have been polled are split about 50-50 on whether they prefer east or west coast.
Mike Raymer (DLS rep to CLEO Steering, DLS rep to and chair of JCQE, and member of OSA board of directors), Nick, and Warren led a discussion of CLEO/QELS and its future. There was a lengthy discussion of the history of CLEO/QELS and the downward trend in profits caused by a downturn in exhibitors which led the co-sponsors (OSA, APS-DLS, and IEEE) to hire consultants to review CLEO. The consultants recommended growing the exhibit by having more applications, expanding the program committee to encompass applications, and putting applications programming on an equal footing with the "science programming. The CLEO Steering Committee will vote tomorrow on adopting the recommendations of an ad hoc committee to "rebrand CLEO/QELS as a single conference called CLEO with four parts. The previous QELS will become CLEO:QELS Fundamental Science while the applications part, previously PhAST, will become CLEO: Advanced Developments. In principle, the CLEO Steering vote is only advisory and the sponsors all have to approve in order for CLEO 2011 to follow this format. There was considerable discussion of whether there is a well defined, cogent plan which the vendors will support, and whether DLS can exert leverage by withholding support until there is such a plan. There was also discussion of whether, if CLEO drops the QELS name, DLS could take QELS and make it a separate meeting or co-locate with some other meeting. Anne was charged with finding out from Joe Serene whether we have a long-term contract to collocate QELS with CLEO.
Steve reported on the New Laser Scientists meeting to be held this fall in Rochester, starting immediately after FiO/LS ends. Steve is chair and Dan Stamper-Kurn from Berkeley is co-chair, to be chair in Fall 2012. Steve has received 49 nominations and has started sending out invitations, hoping for a final attendance of about 20. Three program managers have committed to come.
Steve led a discussion of the possibility of combining the LS meeting with the DAMOP meeting, which will now be run by APS in a convention center. The sense of the group was that the goals of DLS and DAMOP are sufficiently distinct, and the connection with FiO sufficiently valuable, that moving toward shifting the LS meeting from FiO to DAMOP is not a good idea. An alternative suggestion was made to have DLS organize a few sessions at the March meeting, which will be held in Dallas in 2011. It was suggested that this might help DLS increase membership. DAMOP has its own annual meeting but also organizes sessions at the March meeting. Nick (from the DAMOP side) and Toni (from the APS side) were charged with finding out the mechanics of how this is done and reporting to the committee for further e-mail discussion. If we decide to do this, we should come up with some funds for student travel grants and invited speaker travel as we do for LS.
Amy reported that the next Newsletter will be published in late July and any items for it should be sent to her by the middle of July. There was general agreement that Amy's first Newsletter, published in January, looked very good.
Warren reported that he and Steve will speak at the upcoming AAPT meeting in Portland, with expenses split between AAPT and DLS.
There was some discussion of the statement on the APS Council's statement on climate change and the accompanying controversy.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:18 pm.