Newsletters

Letter from the Chair

Spring brings greenery, flowers, warmer temperatures... and, we hope, nominations for APS awards and APS Fellows. 

FOEP is responsible for selecting the Nicholson awardee and awarding three fellowships.  We rely on the members of APS and specifically FOEP to draw our attention to the outstanding outreach and engagement work being done at all levels across the country. Are there people you know who have done an outstanding job in mentoring, engagement or outreach? Because our interaction cross-section tends to be larger for big R1 institutions, it is especially important to look at the significant range of accomplishments that occur outside these - at HCBUs, Hispanic serving institutions, liberal arts colleges, and tribal colleges, to name a few. Fellowships and awards for outreach and engagement makes visible the often under-appreciated work that is done across the country. Details of the process are available at https://engage.aps.org/foep/honors/prizes-awards, and in this newsletter. Taviare Hawkins and Shannon Swilley Greco are taking the lead on this in their roles as Vice-Chair and Past Chair.

FOEP had a strong presence at the APS March meeting, with one invited and one contributed session. The invited session in particular was a big hit, with a diverse array of speakers. There were talks on successful outreach websites by Nicole Sharp and Emily Edwards. Nicole discussed different aspects of science communication with reference to her journey on the highly successful website FYFD that highlights the excitement and beauty of fluid dynamics research. Emily Edwards talked about The Quantum Atlas, a multimedia resource for a conceptual understanding of the mysterious world of quantum mechanics, how it evolved, and the use of surveys to quantify understanding of quantum mechanical concepts. Abe Asfaw talked about QISKIT, an open-source software for learning how to perform quantum computations and outreach to HBCUs to encourage participation in this new frontier. Kathy DeerInWater, the Chief Program Officer of AISES (American Indian Science and Engineering Society) talked about the successes and challenges for Native American students in STEM and how success was closely connected with cultural awareness. The last talk of the session was by Lindsay Olson, Artist-in-residence at Fermilab, who talked about how she learned science via art and used it to create artworks that communicate science to the public. She incorporated several striking pieces she had created over the years, setting them out in the room and inviting people to come up and view them after the talk. The artworks proved to be very popular, engendering an extended discussion with the artist that stretched well past the end of the session. 

FOEP was a partial sponsor and active presence at the first-ever March Meeting Physics Fiesta, an event that was conceived and organized by Brian Schwartz, Smitha Vishveswara (Chair of DCMP), and myself (Chair of FOEP), with the enthusiastic support and help of numerous co-conspirators. We were united by the belief that thousands of physicists descending on a city should leave a measurable impact on science and budding scientists in the city. Physics Fiesta was planned for the afternoon of Friday, March 18th 2022 at Solorio Academy High School in Chicago. Solorio is a highly ranked, STEM focused public school with a majority minority population. The event included physics "speed dating" in which physicists (identified by their ridiculously colorful cat-in-the-hat hats) were subjected to a barrage of questions by highly enthusiastic students, STEM inspired dances by the school's Mexican Folkloric Dance Group, Los Alebrijes, the famous Professor Lyrical rapping about science, the Latin Jazz band, a variety of Physics activity booths, and casual opportunities for students to talk to physicists. It culminated in a delicious dinner of Chicago deep dish pizza, tamales, and various drinks such as horchata and jamaica. Physics Fiesta was a highly popular informal, fun-filled event, with over 500 high school students and their families, creating long lasting connections between the school and APS. The principal and teachers of Solorio were welcoming, enthusiastic, and worked incredibly hard to make this magical event successful. We hope that this serves as a template for outreach events at future APS meetings.

Shireen Adenwalla
Chair

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Spotlights on FOEP's Nicholson Medal Winner of 2021 and FOEP's Three 2021 APS Fellows

FOEP is delighted to share more about our 2021 Dwight Nicholson Medal Winner Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, who also happens to be the recent Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring winner, and our three 2021 APS Fellows: Gerceida E. Adams-Jones, Chad Orzel, and Ainissa Ramirez.

Dwight Nicholson Medal Winner

Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz
University of California, Santa Cruz

"For innovations in mentoring, such as the Lamat Program, all of which have demonstrated how members of historically marginalized populations can thrive, lead, and advance scientific enterprise in astronomy and related fields."

What was your most exciting experience doing science?

For me, the discovery of the GW170817 event was a vindication. Throughout my professional career, I have been constructing the theoretical framework behind element synthesis in neutron star mergers and the associated electromagnetic signatures. Our team discovered the optical light from gravitational wave signal and helped lead efforts to interpret the physics behind the observed light. This discovery provided the first solid evidence that neutron-star smashups are the source of much of the Universe’s gold, platinum and other heavy elements in the Universe and was deemed the Science Breakthrough of the Year by Science Magazine.

What was your most exciting experience being a mentor?

Sharing a lineage of intentions and inspirations with former awardees is startling and deeply moving. In the end, I hope my greatest contribution to science is not any particular discovery but the creation of a new way of thinking that enables a great multitude of students to make their own discoveries.

Please tell our readers about the Lamat Program you created.

The Lamat (“star” in Mayan) Institute is dedicated to transforming STEM by providing opportunities for early career scientists to engage in novel research and creating healthy spaces for scientific inquiry. Our overarching goal over the past decade has been to invigorate the field through training and workplaces that reflect equity-advancing values and allow the full human diversity of our nation to meaningfully and maximally contribute to the field. Key components of the Institute include intensive research instruction through summer internships, a winter computational boot camp, academic counseling and mentoring, astronomy science workshops, and social justice discussions. In addition, a comprehensive mentoring professional development program is designed to encourage mentors and mentees to adopt an anti-racist, critical approach to mentoring relationships; unveil the unwritten rules of academia; and empower mentors and mentees to co-develop a transformative learning space that prepares and inspires mentees for graduate study.

What do you think are the most important things a mentor should do?

Mentors should focus their energy around the principle that all individuals are legitimate creators and agents of scientific knowledge. Each person’s personal, cultural and professional attributes should be viewed as assets. By building mentoring efforts and relationships around this principle, a traditional hierarchical, compensatory (or deficit), and grooming approach to mentoring is displaced. Mentorship is a catalytic factor for unleashing individuals’ potential for discovery, curiosity, and participation in research. As such, mentors should improve the training environment in which that potential is fostered.

What advice do you have for physicists who want to make a difference in diversifying the physics community?

Given that intellect is distributed equally across the entire human population, any deviation from the country’s demographic composition in the field delineates structural inequities along the many pathways to full participation. In addition to providing access and training, the field should work to continuously modernize its core structures, such as our approaches to selection (from standard practices to an equity-based holistic review), mentoring (from master-apprentice models to evidence-based practices such as mentoring networks), teaching (from traditional lecture to inclusive pedagogy and research-based instruction), and community engagement (from unidirectional broader impacts to mutually beneficial community partnerships). Just as our field constantly updates computational resources and software to keep pace with science capabilities, it must also foster the social, psychological, structural, and cultural environment where all who ponder the Universe can share in the production and validation of that knowledge.

Can you say a few words to our readers about reaching out within the scientific community and doing outreach with the general public and why it is important?

The demographics of the field reflect its values. It follows that retention and participation of a community that comes from, interacts with, and returns to a diverse set of cultures, can only be achieved by ensuring belonging for all. To this end, substantial, continuous efforts are needed to enrich the current, established culture of the field by creating a culturally fluent profession that reflects the values of the local spheres we inhabit. As such, we should re-envision current structures for public engagement, where ethical, sustainable and healthy partnerships with local communities are held central. This will ensure both a more inclusive field and continued public support and trust.

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FOEP APS Fellows 2021

Gerceida E. Adams-Jones
New York University

"For publicly addressing inequities in science education in physics and astronomy through the development of curricular materials and community activities, particularly within inner-city communities."

What was your most exciting experience while doing science?

As an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan doing fieldwork on the research vessel the Laurentian, collecting water samples, clocking current speed, and taking core samples of the Huron River.

What has most excited you about doing scientific outreach?

Preparing age-appropriate materials for the young people that attend our workshops. It’s the look on their faces when engaged with our activities that give me the most joy.

What were some of the curricular materials you developed?

The impact that it has had on the community has been significant. We engage them all summer while they are not in regular schools with our workshops including the use of a solar telescope and night scopes. The Amateur Astronomers Association also participates. This has allowed some of our students to get into specialized high schools and attend Saturday workshops at NYU during the academic year. My motto is PCB, “Play, Create, and Build” and that’s not toxic!!

Where is there still need?

There is a great need in the Black and minority communities for scientific engagement with professionals who look like them.

What advice do you have for physicists who want to reach out and do more?

Don’t just stay in the lab or your classroom, get involved with the community in which you live. You’d be surprised how much your knowledge is needed and received. Science doesn’t have to be boring and that’s what students need to experience.

Examples of Pre-k and Elementary School Activities:

Examples of Middle School Activities:

Examples of High School Activities:

And setting up night scopes:

Engaging community members as role models:

Photos courtesy of Gerceida Adams-Jones

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Chad Orzel
Union College

"For informing the public about physics with an approachable and accessible style, through social media and the publication of popular books that provide insight into physics and science."

What was your most exciting experience while doing science?

One of the experiments I did as a grad student was on time-resolved collisions between ultra-cold xenon atoms, which was suggested by Phil Gould of the University of Connecticut. His group had just done a similar experiment, and while visiting the lab where I worked at NIST he said "You guys should try this, I bet it would work well with your system." I filed that away, and a few weeks later when I needed to do something really tedious to fix one of the lasers, I said "I don't feel like doing that, I'm going to spend this afternoon doing that experiment Phil suggested, instead." I figured it would be kind of a brief aside in my eventual thesis.

When I got it working, there was a second peak in the signal where I had expected only one, and it took a whole day to convince ourselves that it wasn't just a garbage effect. Once we realized the actual explanation (the expected peak was single ions, the second one ionized molecules), we realized that there was a TON of information we could extract from that signal, and it turned into its own full thesis chapter. The two post-docs on the project and I spent about three months on it all told, and every now and then, they would tease me about the start of the whole thing, saying "A one-afternoon experiment, huh?" It was the first project that I was really the lead on, and ended up as a first-author paper in Phys. Rev. Letters. The referee on the paper said the nicest thing I've ever seen in a referee report, along the lines of "The only argument I have with this paper is where the authors say there is a lot of further work to be done; I think this paper covers everything." That was a huge thrill.

How long have you been communicating physics and material science to the general public?

I got into reading the first generation of blogs back in 2000-2001, when I was a post-doc, and when I started at Union in the fall of 2001, I thought about starting one. Most of the blogs I was reading were just about politics, though, and I said, "I don't really have any relevant expertise here, and nobody needs just another guy spouting off opinions." Then I ran across Derek Lowe's original blog (he's still going, at In the Pipeline, now hosted by Science magazine) where he talked about pharmaceutical chemistry from the perspective of somebody working in the industry. That made me say "Ah-ha! I can write about physics, and being a professor..." and led to the start of my original blog, Uncertain Principles, in late June 2002. In Internet geological terms, this is after the asteroid killed off the dinosaurs, but close enough to it that the dust from it was still making colorful sunsets.

Your citation lists many different methods of communication. Do you have a favorite? Which method do you think is most effective overall? Which, if any, methods that are more effective for particular groups of the public?

All the different things I've done-- blogs, books, social media, public talks, the occasional tv appearance-- are fun, in different ways. I'm probably best suited to blogs and books, because writing prose has always come relatively easy to me. I also really enjoy giving live lectures, because there's a without-a-net quality to that that's a real kick. I struggle with Twitter because I'm badly phase-matched to it as a medium-- it rewards in-the-moment engagement, but the time of day when I'm most available to do social-media stuff is early in the morning when very few people are on Twitter, and the time when most Twitter users are active is in the evening, when I'm turning into a pumpkin. Video is also tricky-- I've made a few short videos myself to put on YouTube, but it's a very fussy business, and enormously time-consuming.

Probably the most impactful thing I did was writing a series of four videos on quantum physics for TED-Ed, which then were animated by professionals. Every now and then, I have reason to look one of them up on YouTube, and the number of views they've racked up is just astonishing. I think those get used in schools, so they've really reached a ton of young people. Video is extremely hard to do, but incredibly powerful when done right.

What was your most exciting experience communicating science?

I've done a lot of fun individual events, but it's really hard to top the weird sequence of events that led to my first book. I had done a silly blog post where I talked to my dog about quantum electrodynamics in, I want to say, January of 2007, and that went over reasonably well. I went back to the talking-dog thing on a day in May of that year, with a post about the Many-Worlds interpretation, and that one got linked by Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing, and 50,000 people read it that weekend. A few days later, I got an email from a guy who said he was an agent, and would like to talk to me about doing something with that, and my initial reaction was "Ha, ha, that's funny," but then I googled his name, and discovered that this was legit-- there was a profile article about how he worked with an agency doing exactly this, finding people on the Web and connecting them with other opportunities. So I set up a call with him, then he put me in touch with a literary agent, and we were off.

I didn't initially think the talking-dog thing had enough legs, as it were, to stretch out to make a whole book, but on reflection, it turned out to be more flexible than I expected-- we actually got two books out of it. And having done those set up the subsequent books, and now it's a whole career.

So, really, the most exciting moment was probably that realization that "Wait, this is really a thing that people are interested in!"

Why do you think your work sharing science to a broader audience is important?

As we've all learned the hard way over the last couple of years, many of the biggest challenges facing modern society have their roots in scientific issues-- pandemic disease and climate change chief among them. Understanding these issues, and weighing options for both personal action and public policy requires a certain degree of comfort and confidence in the institutions of science, but more importantly the PROCESS of science. I think science outreach, broadly defined, is essential for producing this, providing a way for people who don't think of themselves as scientists to get enough of a sense of the subject to have confidence that the process of science really does lead to an accurate and useful understanding of the world. If I can get a literature major to understand a bit of something as seemingly esoteric as quantum mechanics-- and, more importantly, how we came to know that it's real-- then that can help them look a little more favorably on scientific findings and recommendations that are a little closer to everyday experience.

And, you know, on a much less lofty level, this stuff is just REALLY COOL, and I enjoy sharing that with people.

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Ainissa Ramirez

"For innovative and sustained efforts to share and communicate the excitement of physics and materials science with the general public through popular science books, print media articles, on-line videos, and television, radio and podcast appearances, and public lectures."

What was your most exciting experience while doing science?

I used to work at Bell Labs and one of my favorite things to do as a freshly-minted materials scientist was sit at the lunch table and listen to what different scientists were working on. There was one day when one physicist was complaining about how he could not get optical fibers to stick to surfaces. Right after lunch, my boss, my coworker and I went to the lab to play with solders to see if we could get them to bond to oxides. A few hours later we had something that worked! What we created we later called a universal solder and it made some waves in the news. I enjoyed the thrill of discovery and I also enjoyed that my knowledge of phase diagrams was put to work. In a lot of ways, materials science came to life for me at Bell Labs.  

How long have you been communicating physics and material science to the general public?

Several decades now. I began in earnest in graduate school when I was at Stanford, starting with demonstrations for middle schoolers for Expand Your Horizons at San Jose State. I think the science communication bug really took hold when I was an AAAS Mass Media Fellow at Time Magazine. The day I contributed to a headline, my love for translating science became a permanent fixture in my life.  

Your citation lists many different methods of communication. Do you have a favorite? Which method do you think is most effective overall? Which, if any, methods that are more effective for particular groups of the public?

My favorite means of science communication is the method I am currently working on, which is writing books like my latest The Alchemy of Us and my forthcoming children’s books about science. If we want to move the needle we need more inclusive and understandable science books for kids. That is why I am spending time in this space. I will admit that writing for kids is the most challenging method of all the ones I have employed to share science with the public. But it is the most important. If we excite young people of all backgrounds, we are cultivating a future full of diverse scientists. This means that the scientific questions addressed will be more representative of the world’s needs and the resulting solutions will be more robust. Writing children’s books is my small way of making the future a better one.

What was your most exciting experience communicating science?

I think when I was on the stage of the Apollo with Neil Tyson. We were talking about something science related and then I mentioned the Oxford comma. For some reason the audience responded, so I got up from my seat and said,  

“When I say Oxford, you say comma.” 

“Oxford”

“Comma” 

“Oxford”

“Comma.” 

It was the coolest and nerdiest thing I have ever experienced and I loved every moment. I loved connecting with this audience because I felt like I was with my tribe. Sure, we talked about science too, but nothing tops connection.

Why do you think your work communicating science is important?

My work is important because I provide people a different pathway to experience science. Overall, I want to engage, educate, and inspire. So I take a different tack than the usual offerings, because I want to reach those who might have decided that science is not for them. I reach them by writing books where the science is nestled in a historical framework or I write children’s books that highlight Black inventors, so that children of all stripes gain a fuller picture of who does science. All in all, I want everyone to see themselves in the world of science. There is a lot of work for me to do.

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The Importance of Nominations and How to Prepare a Good Nomination

By Roxanne Hughes and James Kakalios

The recent pandemic has taught us many things, two of which are the importance of communicating quality scientific research while engaging the public and recognizing those in our community who are doing extraordinary outreach work, so that their value is visible to the physics community.

The Forum on Outreach and Engaging the Public helps the American Physical Society to recognize individuals who are doing this work. We have two major annual awards: the Dwight Nicholson Medal for Outreach and the FOEP APS Fellows.

The Dwight Nicholson Medal for Outreach

The Dwight Nicholson Medal for Outreach recognizes the humanitarian aspect of physics and physicists created through public lectures, public media, teaching, research, or science-related activities. Recognition consists of a stipend of $3,000, the Nicholson medal, and a certificate which includes the citation for which the recipient has been recognized. The Nicholson Medal was established in 1994 by the Division of Plasma Physics and the Forum on Physics and Society. It was originally named the Nicholson Medal for Humanitarian Service. This medal recognizes individuals who have:

1. successfully stimulated the interest and involvement of the general public on the progress in physics, or
   
   
2. created special opportunities that inspire the scientific development of students or junior colleagues, or has developed programs for students at any level that facilitated positive career choices in physics, or
   
   
3. demonstrated a particularly giving and caring relationship as a mentor to students or colleagues, or has succeeded in motivating interest in physics through inspiring educational works.

Most of us have met a person that played an important role, either conveying the excitement of science or supporting and mentoring us in our careers.

Please take the time to consider and nominate one of these exemplary candidates.

Nominations are active for up three years.

Nominators do not have to be APS members. Participating in a nomination is considered serving as a nominator, serving as a co-sponsor, or writing a letter in support of a nomination submitted by another individual. Self-nominations are not allowed.

The nomination must include: 

• A letter evaluating the nominee’s qualifications and how the nominee has gone above and beyond in meeting one or more of the three criteria above. Competitive letters include reference to long-term investment in outreach or mentoring and examples of how these efforts are exemplary. (This should be no more than 5,000 characters).

In addition, the nomination should include: 

• A biographical sketch.
  
  
• A list of the most important publications.
  
  
• At least two, but not more than four, seconding letters. These should highlight the work of the nominee as it relates to public engagement and/or mentoring.
  
  
• Up to five reprints or preprints. 

Nominations are evaluated by the FOEP Nicholson Selection Committee, reviewed by the APS Council of Representatives. Final approval is determined by the APS Council of Representatives.

FOEP APS Fellows

FOEP’s purpose is to advance physics outreach and public engagement activities, and to disseminate knowledge of, and strategies for, effective outreach and public engagement efforts and programs in order to spread a passion for physics to the general public. Outreach is a broad enterprise, spanning academia, industry and national laboratories, as well as freelance professionals such as writers, journalists, bloggers, video makers, and podcasters. Outreach activities are often overlooked and undervalued. It is therefore important to consider and propose people who have an exceptional track record in this area. Only APS members can be nominated for fellowship through FOEP; they do not need to be members of FOEP. The deadline for Fellowship nominations is usually in May. This means that if you know of a candidate who is an incredible example of physics outreach, then you must reach out to them to make sure they are an APS member, or encourage them to become a member, so that you can nominate them.

We encourage nominators to think of candidates who have been historically ignored for fellowships. Think of candidates who are doing outreach and engagement work in circles not often highlighted such as small private colleges, HBCUs, Hispanic serving institutions, community colleges, and private industry. We strive to have a diverse group of nominees and encourage the nomination of members of all underrepresented groups (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender, LGBTQ+, disability status). In order to accomplish this goal, we rely on our members to help us recruit and nominate fellows.

The nomination process consists of:

• Providing the nominee’s contact and professional information.
  
  
• Writing nomination letters documenting the accomplishments of the nominee and explain why they are deserving of the FOEP APS Fellowship.

Competitive nominations include detailed descriptions of the exemplary work the candidate has accomplished in public engagement and outreach. Note that it is the responsibility of the nominators to provide a compact and complete nomination.

Nominations are evaluated by the FOEP Fellowship Committee, reviewed by the full APS Fellowship Committee, and finally submitted for approval to the APS Council. Nominations for APS Fellowship expire after two years. When the next nomination cycle begins, nominators with a nomination eligible for carryover consideration will receive a reminder to review, make updates if desired, and recertify the nomination. Nominations will only be reconsidered if the nominator recertifies the nomination prior to the deadline. If a nomination is expired, the nominator may submit a new nomination.

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Physics Outreach & Engagement is a non-peer-reviewed newsletter of the Forum on Outreach and Engaging the Public, a forum of the American Physical Society. It provides information and news related to the Forum and provides a medium for Forum members to exchange ideas. Opinions expressed are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the APS or of the Forum. If you would like to submit an article, commentary, letter, review, or contact us about another issue, please reach out to us through the APS Engage system https://engage.aps.org/foep/home.

The Forum on Outreach and Engaging the Public can be found on the web at http://www.aps.org/units/foep/index.cfm