A Message from the Chair
Since DMP published the Summer 2018 Newsletter, our Chair-Elect, Nitin Samarth, has been doing an amazing job working with his team of Focus Topic organizers to put together the exciting slate of Focus Topic sessions and other events that DMP will be hosting at the APS March Meeting, which takes place in just a few weeks. I encourage you to attend as many of these events as you can in your busy March Meeting schedule.
DMP principally contributes to the March Meeting through the organization of Focus Topic sessions. Roughly 20% of the submitted abstracts to the March Meeting 2019 were submitted to DMP-led Focus Topics, and in this Newsletter you will find links and details describing the numerous DMP sessions and events in Boston. DMP is leading 20 Focus Topics and is co-sponsoring 16 others, in addition to some invited sessions and a special National Quantum Initiative Outreach session on ‘Enabling Quantum Leap’, which in total is over 250 sessions. DMP also sponsors three invited symposia during the week, including a Monday morning prize session (B60) in which speak the recipients of the McGroddy Prize for new Materials, Claudia Felser, Andrei Bernevig, and Xi Dai, the Adler Lectureship awardee, Giulia Galli, and the Valley Prize awardee, Julia Mundy. The IUPAP C-10 Young Scientist Prize winner, Ming Yi, will be giving an invited talk in one of the Focus Topic sessions (A10), also on Monday morning. Toni Taylor has organized our annual "Physics for Everyone" symposium, which is taking place Wednesday midday (L36), around the theme of "Physics of Natural Phenomena". Speaking will be Rodman Linn, Kerry Emanuel, Sarah Kapnick, Rachel Abercrombie, Brad Lipovsky. The third invited session, being held on Thursday midday (S42), recognizes Millie Dresselhaus’ scientific legacy in nanoscience; the invited speakers are Charles Lieber, Chun Ning Lau, Antonio Helio Castro Neto, Mauricio Terrones, Gang Chen. I strongly encourage you to support our invited symposia and our Focus Topic sessions.
DMP will be recognizing our award winners and the new APS fellows nominated through DMP on Tuesday evening, March 5, from 5:30-7:30 in Grand Ballroom D at the Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel. We also recognize the achievements of junior scientists through the Ovshinsky Travel Awards, the IUPAP C-10 Young Scientist Prize, and the Richard L. Greene Dissertation Award in Materials and Condensed Matter Physics. The annual DMP business meeting follows immediately after in Room 253C in the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (BCEC), which is just across East Side Drive from the Westin. Topics to be discussed in that meeting include the Focus Topics for the 2020 March meeting, including any new proposals for Focus Topics – this is your opportunity to help set the agenda for the 2020 March meeting.
Talking of new Focus Topics… now is the time to propose new Focus Topics for next year’s March meeting, by contacting Toni Taylor, who will be the DMP Program Chair for the 2020 March Meeting in Denver. A DMP focus topic provides a structure to gather contributed and invited talks together in a series of coordinated sessions that foster increased discussion on a specific area. DMP Secretary/Treasurer Charles Ahn following the instructions provided later in this Newsletter. Please consider suggesting invited speakers to these Focus Topics when the selections and organizers are announced; the Focus Topics are central to DMP’s role in the March meeting.
I would also like to ask for your help in highlighting the accomplishments of DMP membership. DMP recognizes major accomplishments in materials physics through the David Adler Lectureship Award and the James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials. Please consider advancing a deserving colleague for one of these prestigious awards and I would ask you to consider diversity when making your nominations. Application packages are due 6/3/2019. See the APS Prizes, Awards and Fellows pages for details of the nomination processes.
New APS Fellowship nominations are also on the horizon, with DMP requesting the nomination packages by 5/1/2019. You can find information on how to nominate your colleagues. Rachel Goldman, who will join the DMP officers as Vice-Chair immediately following the March Meeting will chair the selection process and looks forward to your suggestions.
None of these activities happen without the contribution of an army of volunteers, including Focus Topic organizers and the DMP Executive Committee. I would particularly like to thank Nitin Samarth, the DMP Program Chair for the 2019 March Meeting, for his efforts: please support Nitin by attending the outstanding program of talks and sessions assembled for this year’s meeting. In my role as DMP Chair, I would have been lost without the advice and example of Daniel Dessau, the DMP Past Chair who will be rotating off the DMP Executive Committee. My thanks also go to Sam Bader, DMP Councilor, who represents the perspective of materials physics at the APS Council, and to the DMP ExComm Members at Large who are completing their terms, Scott Chambers and Michelle Johannes, who provided invaluable contributions to the Focus Topic organization. I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome the newly-elected members of the DMP Executive Committee: Vice-Chair-elect Rachel Goldman, and Members at Large elect, Kyle Shen and Oana Jurchescu.
It has been an honor to serve as DMP Chair this past year, and I thank all of you for the opportunity.
Amanda Petford-Long, DMP Chair