Report
Report: Fall 2017 OSAPS Meeting at Miami University, Oxford, OH
The meeting was held in the physics department at Miami University on October 13-14, 2017 in conjunction with the Southern Ohio Section of the AAPT. The theme of the meeting was “Quantum Information”, which was highlighted by four invited speakers. One additional invited speaker was invited by the SOS/AAPT. A total of 167 attendees registered for the meeting and 90 presentations were given.
After brief welcoming remarks by the President of Miami University, Dr. Gregory Crawford, the 1st plenary session kicked off on Friday October 13 with an invited talk “Optimized measurements of states of light at low powers for communications”, by Professor F. Elohim Becerra from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. This was followed by a 2nd plenary talk entitled “The final steps toward neutral atom quantum computers – all you need is light”, by Professor Katharina Gillen-Christandl from Cal Poly State University, Obispo. Participants were then given an open-house tour of all the research labs and facilities in the physics department at Miami University. The lab tours were followed by poster presentations, arranged in three parallel sessions, focusing on Optical Sensing, Condensed Matter, and Applied Physics. The 1st day of the meeting concluded with a banquet and after-dinner plenary talk, intriguingly entitled “What if…?”, given by Professor Shohini Ghose from Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada.
The 2nd day of the meeting, on Saturday Oct 14, started with the contributed talks, arranged in four parallel oral sessions, focusing on Quantum optics and quantum information, Photonics and nanoscience, Optics and astrophysics, and Physics education. This was followed by the 4th plenary talk for the meeting – this talk was sponsored by the SOS/AAPT – “Explicit content and spoilers: What we know about solving problems”, by Professor Tom Fisher from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. The final plenary talk was delivered by Professor Benjamin Schumacher from Kenyon University, entitled “Quantum flows of Probability and Heat”. The conference received financial support from OSAPS, Miami’s College of Arts and Science, and the Physics Department.
The local organizing committee consisted of Professors Jennifer Blue (SOS/AAPT), Perry Rice, and Samir Bali (Chair). Major administrative support was provided by Ms. Teresa Kolb in the front office of the Miami University physics department.