Winter 2026 Newsletter

FIAP 2025 election results

The results are in for the annual FIAP election and four officers have been elected. Our thanks to all the candidates who ran, and best wishes to these four who won their elections. Thanks also to the Nominating Committee and Deniz Ertas, the Election Coordinator, for their work to complete the election.

Vice Chair: Judith Olson, HRL Laboratories, LinkedIn 
The major responsibility of the Vice Chair is organizing the FIAP sessions for the annual March Meeting / Global Physics Summit program. Judith will be responsible for the FIAP program for the 2027 conference in Atlanta assisted by past FIAP organizers. The Vice Chair progresses each year through Chair Elect, Chair, and Past Chair positions on the FIAP Executive Committee.

Secretary-Treasurer: Lauren Aycock, BAE Systems, LinkedIn
Lauren has served as Secretary-Treasurer for the past 3 years and volunteered to serve again for the next three years. The FIAP Bylaws allowed her to run unopposed. The Executive Committee will benefit from her experience and knowledge about the workings of APS. Thank you Lauren!

Members-at-Large
These people serve on the FIAP Executive Committee and fill a variety of roles in awarding prizes, planning the program at the March Meeting / Global Physics Summit, and providing perspective on issues affecting industrial and applied physics. They will serve for three years ending March 2029:

• Yabin Fan, Western Digital LinkedIn
• R Bharath Venkatesh, ExxonMobil Technology LinkedIn 

Our thanks to all the candidates who ran, and best wishes to these four who were elected.

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Ken Hass Outstanding Student Paper Award - nominations due by mid-February

Every year FIAP awards a $1,000 prize for a paper presented by a student (graduate or undergraduate) at the March Meeting. The student nominated for the award must be the lead author of the paper and must present the paper at the APS March meeting, with a subject matter pertinent to applied industrial physics. The nominee must be a student at the time of the submission deadline for the meeting. A letter of nomination from the student’s faculty advisor or industrial/government lab mentor must be received by mid-February, 2026, and self-nominations are not accepted. Students, talk to your advisor/mentor to see if you can be nominated for this award! More information and details at this link.

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Global Physics Summit March 15-20, 2026 in Denver

The second Global Physics Summit will be held March 15-20 in Denver. Last year was the first time for the GPS which combines the March and April meetings. You can still get Early Registration link until Jan 29! As usual FIAP will host multiple sessions and other activities. Here’s some details:

FIAP Sessions

FIAP Vice Chair Jinghua Guo and other advisors have organized a full program including 8 invited sessions, 1 focus session, and many sessions with contributed papers. FIAP is also sponsoring many other sessions in partnership with other units. Check out the scientific program and plan to learn more about the latest advances in many topics including quantum computing, navigation innovations, and cryogenic cooling. Plan ahead as there are many parallel sessions!

Lunch with Experts and other Career Events

This is one of MANY career-focused opportunities at GPS. At this lunch you’ll talk with an experienced physicist over a simple box lunch. You must sign up at the information desk, and do this early since there’s very limited attendance. FIAP will sponsor several tables. Another annual highlight is the Meet Your Future career panel where a panel of physicists will share their experiences in non-academic careers with plenty of time for questions. The Careers Team will present many other opportunities to learn about Physics Careers. Explore your options!

FIAP Reception

This reception is an annual highlight on Thursday evening. Check the schedule for time and location. It’s a great opportunity for networking and catching up with colleagues. See you there!

Industry Room

Denver will be the second time that the Industry Room will be active. A series of Sessions will be featured in one of two tracks: General Industry and Entrepreneurship. You can find information about these sessions and other industry-focused events on the Industry Events webpage.

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APS 2026 Legislative Priorities and Congressional Visits Day

Each year, APS leadership and the Government Affairs Office roll out key legislative priorities important to the overall physics enterprise for which APS leader and members advocate with policy makers.

This year’s key policy topics are:

1. Federal investment in research and development
2. Visas and immigration for STEM
3. Federal guidelines for competitive graduate student and postdoc compensation
4. Broadening the domestic STEM workforce
5. National Quantum Initiative Act reauthorization

An essential component of APS’ overall advocacy effort happens during the “Congressional Visits Day.” The Congressional Visits Day (CVD) February 3-4, 2026 link kicks off the APS Annual Leadership Meeting, which will take place February 4–6, 2026 link.

The CVD brings together dozens of APS members who visit Capitol Hill to advocate on behalf of the physics community. CVD represents an essential component of APS’ overall advocacy strategy, as meetings between constituents with congressional staffers have proven to be one of the most effective ways by which citizens can influence policy makers. Moreover, personal stories from constituents have long been seen as being particularly effective!

CVD meetings are held in the congressional members’ Capitol Hill offices, typically with members of the professional staff. (Although, occasionally, we get the opportunity to speak one of the members!) Because of the central role in advancing the U.S. economy through physics, stories and anecdotes that FIAP members bring to congress can be especially important. Accordingly, I encourage FIAP members to consider participating in future Congressional Visit Days.

I have participated in CVD several times and found it to be not only professionally rewarding but a terrific way to meet colleagues and enhance one’s professional network. It’s also quite interesting and a lot of fun!

This article was provided by Jim Adams, the FIAP representative on the APS Council and POPA

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APS Jobs Board free listings for internships or summer placements

Do you have an internship, REU, or Fellowship opening in your company, lab, or institute? Soon it will be time to recruit for summer 2026, and the APS Physics Jobs Center is an ideal place to advertise to an audience of physics students. Better yet, there’s no charge! It’s easy to list your position, just follow the directions at this link.

Undergraduate and graduate students can find existing openings at these two links: REU Industry & Nat’l Labs. As I write this, there’s more than 60 internship openings listed! Here’s an additional list of internships with 34 openings at present. Some but not all are found on the previous two links. Career counselors highly recommend an internship as an excellent way to check out areas where students might want to work. Take a look and see if you can find the next step in your path to a physics career!

Note: REU = Research Experience for Undergraduates

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