August 2026 Newsletter

Dear DPF members,  

Dear DPF members,

Please find below the monthly DPF newsletter for August 2026. This newsletter will be archived on the DPF website. If you would like an announcement included in the September 2026 newsletter, please contact the DPF Secretary/Treasurer. Please keep requests to 300 words and submit them by the 10th of the month for consideration.

DPF supports a Slack instance where you can make contact with other particle physicists and get rapid communications on community issues.  Contact Bob Bernstein, rhbob@fnal.gov, for an invitation.

DPF is the primary community organization for particle physicists in the United States.  You can directly support our activities by making a donation at this link.

Best wishes,

Ken Bloom, DPF Secretary/Treasurer, kenbloom@unl.edu

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Call for nominations for the DPF Executive Committee

The APS Division of Particles and Fields Nominating Committee requests your assistance in identifying candidates to stand for office in this fall’s DPF elections. This year, we will be electing people to these offices:

Vice Chair (1 position, 2027, then Chair Elect in 2028, Chair in 2029, and Past Chair in 2030)

Executive Committee Member-at-Large (2 positions, 2027-2029)

Early Career Member-at-Large (1 position, must be a postdoctoral researcher, 2027-2028)

Student Member (1 position, must be a graduate student who has passed their doctoral candidacy exam and is in good academic standing at their institution, 2027)

We invite you to nominate outstanding colleagues to be on this year’s ballot. Nominations should be submitted here by August 15, 2026. Self-nominations are welcome. 

Guided by our core values, APS encourages nominations that reflect the full range of talent, distinction, and experience in our field, and supports broad canvassing for professionals across diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and expertise.

All elected candidates will begin their terms on January 1, 2027. More details about current officers and related governance information can be found on the DPF Website. Governance of DPF is an important act of service to our community, and we thank you in advance for helping identify excellent candidates.

Mitch Soderberg (on behalf of the DPF Nominating Committee, msoderbe@syr.edu)

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Nominations for APS Prizes and Awards Due Soon!

Nominations for APS Dissertation Awards are due August 31, 2026. You need to be a member of DPF and APS to nominate. 

The Mitsuyoshi Tanaka Dissertation Award recognizes exceptional early-career scientists who have performed original doctoral thesis work of outstanding scientific quality and achievement in experimental particle physics.

The J. J. and Noriko Sakurai Dissertation Award recognizes exceptional early-career scientists who have performed original doctoral thesis work of outstanding scientific quality and achievement in the area of theoretical particle physics.

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Nominations Requested for CPAD Vice Chair

CPAD (https://cpad-dpf.org/) is the Coordinating Panel for Advanced Detectors.  It was formed by DPF to promote, coordinate and assist in the research and development of instrumentation and detectors for high energy physics experiments.  This is a call for nominations for the Vice-Chair of CPAD.  A Vice-Chair with complementary research interests to the current Vice-Chair (upcoming Chair) would be of particular interest.  Nominations can be submitted here through August 21.

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DPF26 Wrapup

A very successful 2026 Division of Particles and Fields meeting was held at Fermilab on July 20-24, 2026.  The local organizers did a fantastic job!  There were 657 registrants, 35 plenary presentations, more than 460 submitted abstracts, and 10 parallel session tracks.  A lively poster session joint with the 59th Fermilab Annual Users and Affiliates meeting (https://indico.fnal.gov/event/73552/) was held on Thursday. Other highlights were the public lecture by Mark Thomson, CERN Director-General on Monday and the joint "Future of HEP" panel on Friday.

The presentations are available at https://indico.fnal.gov/event/72820/.

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Announcement of the “Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science” Video Contest

We announce the 2026 edition of the Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science Video Contest.  We invite early-career scientists -- students and postdocs -- to make a 5-minute video explaining some topic in the realm of nuclear and particle physics.  There will be cash prizes for 3 winning videos. The deadline for submissions is August 16, 2026.  Please see the rules and contest schedule at:

https://www.annualreviews.org/page/ARNPS_VideoContest

We are the editors of the journal "Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science".  As the title indicates, we publish each year a volume of 25-page invited reviews on important topics in this area.

There is much discussion these days about how both journals and review articles are becoming out of date in the era of internet media.  How will we teach one another about new developments in our science?  For this, we senior people need your help.  We will appreciate it if you tell us your suggestions, but it is better if you show us.

This is the aim of the ARNPS Video Contest.   Please make a 5-minute video explaining to your peers some point of physics within the realm of Nuclear and Particle Science. Your video should be correct and informative, but we hope it will also be innovative both in its content and in its presentation. 

We emphasize that (1) this contest is specifically for early-career scientists, and (2) these videos are not intended for public outreach ("Physics SLAM"s) but rather for peer-to-peer scientific communication.   This is the second year of the contest.  The videos from the 2025 winners are posted at:

https://www.annualreviews.org/page/ARNPS_VideoContest_Results

Good luck!  We are eager to see your presentations.  

Best wishes,

Michael Peskin   (mpeskin@slac.stanford.edu)

Wick Haxton      (haxton@berkeley.edu)

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Next Community Meeting: December 3-4, 2026

Our third DPF virtual community meeting will be held December 3 and 4, 2026.  It will again be joint with DNP.  We have the confirmed availability of DOE and NSF staff.  More details will come this fall.

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