December 2025 Newsletter

2026 GCCM Executive Committee Election Results

 Thank you for voting in the recent GCCM election. A total of 155 ballots were cast from 658 eligible ballots (23.56%). The election has now closed, and we are happy to share the results. We congratulate newly elected officers: 

• Vice Chair: Raymond Smith, Lawrence Livermore National Lab 
• Member-at-Large: Kyle Cochran, Sandia National Lab 
• Member-at-Large: Ryan Hurley, Johns Hopkins University 

Officers will take office January 1, 2026 We would like to thank all candidates for standing for election and for their willingness to serve. Thank you to all GCCM members for your participation in this election and your continued engagement with the unit. 

We gratefully recognize the dedication and contributions of our outgoing Executive Committee members. Thank you to Minta Akin (Past-Chair), Matt Beason (Member-at-Large), and Patricia Kalita (Member-at-Large). 

Please consider joining the GCCM Executive Committee in 2027! Elections will open in mid-2026 for positions of Vice Chair, Member-at-Large, and the Early Career/Student Member-at-Large. 

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Meetings

SCCM 2025 

Thank you for joining us at SCCM 2025, the 24th International Conference on the Science of Compression in Condensed Matter! It was an incredible week in Washington DC, where over 600 enthusiastic attendees came together to share knowledge and insights through more than 700 presentations and posters. A big shoutout to our amazing conference co-chairs for making this event a success: Scott Crockett, LANL, Pat Kalita, SNL, Bill Proud, Imperial College London, Damian Swift, LLNL with Communications Lead, Tom Lockard, LLNL. 

Mark your calendars for SCCM 2027 in Chicago! 

SCCM 2027 will be held jointly with the 30th meeting of the International Association for the Advancement of High-Pressure Science and Technology (AIRAPT) in Chicago on June 20th-25th, with student/early career program being planned for June 18th-20th. The conference chairs will be Nenad Velisavljevic (LLNL/APS-HPCAT), Amy Lazicki (LLNL) and Brian Jensen (WSU/APS-DCS) and the early career program chair will be Matthew Brennan (LANL). 

SCCM 2025 Proceedings 

We received 79 submissions to this year’s proceedings. Submissions have undergone initial quality control, sent for peer review, and we are beginning to receive the first round of reviews. A significant number of papers have not yet had a reviewer accept, and we are actively working with the conference chairs and the technical committee to identify additional reviewers. To help keep the review process on schedule, we kindly ask that community members respond promptly to review requests, whether or not you are available, so we can quickly identify alternative reviewers if needed. We greatly appreciate the community’s support and effort in making the proceedings a success. 

APS Global Physics Summit 2026 Monday–Friday, March 16–20, 2026; Denver, Colorado 

Matter at Extreme Conditions Focus Sessions co-sponsored (GCCM, DCOMP, DMP). 

The APS Global Physics Summit 2026 March Meeting will be yet again the largest physics research conference in the world, uniting 15,000 scientific community members across all disciplines of physics. 

64 abstracts accepted in GCCM sessions 

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Awards

2026 APS Student and Dissertation Award Winner 

Dr. David Chin has been selected as the winner for the 2026 GCCM Student and Dissertation Award. David is currently an Assistant Scientist at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics at the University of Rochester. 

For his dissertation, David developed an EXAFS flat crystal spectrometer capable of measuring high-resolution x-ray spectra. He designed and built the spectrometer from the ground up and successfully deployed it to probe the electronic structure of Fe2O3 at pressures up to 800 GPa. David will receive the award amount of $2000 through APS. The award was chaired by Sakun Duwal (SNL). The committee members included Eric Brown (LANL), Daniel Eakins (U. Oxford), Rebecca Lindsey (U. Michigan), and Anirban Mandal (LLNL). 

2026 Neil Ashcroft Early Career Award for Studies of Matter at Extreme High Pressure Conditions 

Danae Polsin, Laboratory for Laser Energetics Staff Scientist and URochester Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, has received the American Physical Society’s 2026 Neil Ashcroft Early Career Award for Studies of Matter at Extreme High-Pressure Conditions. The award cites Polsin’s work “For pioneering experiments mapping the evolution of electronic and ionic structural complexity of alkali metals to terapascal conditions.” The award was chaired by Malcolm McMahon (Edinburgh). The committee members included John Tse, Yogesh Vohra, Eric Y. Ma, Suhithi Peiris, Agnes Dewaele, and Yanming Ma. 

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APS Units Task Force: At a Glance

APS has launched a Units Task Force to conduct a comprehensive review of its 50 units in 2026 to ensure they are well-structured, effective, and aligned with the APS mission. The Task Force will report through the Governance Committee to the APS Board and Council, evaluate unit purpose, governance, bylaws, and organizational risk. Member input will be an essential part of the Task Force’s review. Shared perspectives will support meaningful engagement and long-term success of APS units. Its goal is to provide clear, practical recommendations that strengthen leadership experiences, improve consistency and efficiency, reduce risk, and enhance scientific and member impact while preserving the independence and creativity that make APS units vital to the community. 

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In This Issue:

• 2026 GCCM Executive Committee Election Results
• Membership
• Meetings
• Awards
• APS Units Task Force: At a Glance