WINTER NEWSLETTER
OF THE
SOUTHEASTERN SECTION
OF THE
AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY

LETTER FROM THE CHAIR

Dear Fellow Members of the Southeastern Section of the American Physical Society:  As your section chair for 2003, I would like all of you to consider helping with initiatives in two areas.

First, the Southeastern section is the largest section of the American Physical Society but still does not include the majority of the members of the American Physical Society in the Southeast. We have approximately 1800 members of the Southeastern Section out of over 5000 members of the APS in the Southeast. There are many advantages and no disadvantages for members of the APS to also be members of the Southeastern Section. There are substantial funding reasons from the standpoint of the Section to increasing our membership since we receive a fixed amount of support for Section activities from the APS for each Section member. It costs nothing to each of you to be a member and it is easy to register. Simply go to the APS web site and follow directions. (www.aps.org/) Click on aps units, then Section Homepages, then SESAPS. The SESAPS homepage has "application to join units", which brings the application form. You will need your membership number, which is above your name on a mailing label. I hope all of you who are members will prevail upon your colleagues to join.

Second, in spite of our large section we are under represented at the national level in the various APS committees and offices. This is also true of the various divisions such as the Condensed Matter and Particles and Fields divisions. I hope in the coming year to assemble a slate of interested SESAPS members who are willing to stand for election to the national and division offices and are willing to serve on various committees. Once we know who these individuals are (nominations or volunteers should make their intentions or desires known to me) we would try to mobilize the SESAPS membership to support their candidacies.

Finally, I hope you add the yearly SESAPS meeting dates, Nov. 6-8, to your calendars and as many of you as possible contribute talks or posters or simply attend the meeting. It will be held at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, NC this year. Professor Lee Riedinger, Chair-elect, is program chair and Professor Moorad Alexanian is local program chair.

Brad Cox, Chair SESAPS
Professor of Physics
University of Virginia
cox@uvahep.phys.virginia.edu
434-982-5377 P
434-982-5377 F

The 70th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Section of the American Physical Society (SESAPS) will be held November 6-8, 2003 (Thursday-Saturday) at Wrightsville Beach, NC. Our host for this meeting will be the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, Department of Physics. The local arrangements committee is chaired by Moorad Alexanian who may be reached at (910)-962-3463 (phone). The Program Committee Chair is Dr. Lee Riedinger, Oak Ridge National Lab, P.O. Box 2008,Oak Ridge,TN. 37831-6263, 865 574 4321 (phone), 865 574 8225 (Fax),riedingerl@ornl.gov(E-Mail)

THIS IS THE FIRST CALL FOR ABSTRACTS OF CONTRIBUTED PAPERS: SESAPS will use electronically submitted abstracts for publication in the BULLETIN of the AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY. The deadline for the receipt of contributed papers and abstracts is no later than Friday, August 8, 2003. The entire program will be organized the following week. All abstracts received electronically by the deadline will be published in the November, 2003, BULLETIN of the AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY. All abstracts of contributed papers must be prepared in the standard APS format as specified in recent issues of the APS News. If the abstract is submitted to the APS only on paper, just the title and authors will appear in the BULLETIN.

The scheduled time for your presentation must be obtained from the bulletin WHICH WILL BE AVAILABLE ELECTRONICALLY on the WWW. Meeting rooms will have an overhead projector and chalkboard - to request other audio-visual aids, including 35 mm projectors, please make your request in writing by typing it in the special instructions box of the abstract template. Any questions about the program should be directed to Dr. Riedinger.

CONTRIBUTED/INVITED PAPERS ! Invited papers at this meeting, as in all APS meetings, are given by experts in areas selected by the Program Committee, and these talks are usually of thirty minutes duration. Contributed papers, however, are on topics of the author's choice and are ten minutes in length. On the day following the abstract deadline, all papers are organized into sessions and the sessions into the program of the meeting. This year the Program Committee will continue an idea suggested by an APS member. Some of the contributed abstracts are of such interest that the committee will INVITE THE AUTHORS to give a SPECIAL PAPER of twenty minutes duration on the topic of their abstract at the beginning of the contributed paper session to which their talk is assigned. There will only be a few such papers selected. The invitations will be listed in the printed program of the meeting and will be verified promptly by mail to the authors. If the author(s) would like to be considered for such an invitation, they are asked to type the following statement in the special instructions box: If invited to do so, the author is willing to expand the talk for the above abstract to twenty minutes.

THE REGISTRATION FEE STRUCTURE HAS CHANGED. Registration will be $40.00 for SESAPS and other APS members, $55 for nonmembers, $5 for retired physicists and $20 for graduate students. Undergraduate students, awardees and banquet speakers will not pay the registration fee, and the latter two do not pay the banquet fee.

A MEETING OF THE SOCIETY OF PHYSICS STUDENTS will be held in conjunction with the SESAPS meeting and will include a student paper session where the Marsh W. White Award will be presented for the best paper given at that session.

TRAVEL SUPPORT WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR STUDENTS THIS YEAR. Students will be pleased to learn that modest travel grants will again be available for those presenting research papers at the SESAPS sessions. SPS students giving papers in the SPS sessions only are not eligible for travel support. An application is included in this letter.

SUGGESTED NOMINATIONS FOR SECTION OFFICERS should be sent to the Secretary at the address given at the end of this letter for consideration by the Nominating Committee, which is made up of the Executive Committee.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE ELECTION WINNERS. The new vice chair is Calvin Howell of Duke University. The new executive committee member who will serve from 2003-2006 is Dale Sayers of North Carolina State. Larry Cain of Davidson was reelected as treasurer for a five year term. The names and addresses of all Executive Committee members are in this newsletter, and members are urged to contact the committee with their suggestions and concerns. Do not forget to urge your colleagues to join SESAPS as it is free if they are APS members.

PROCEDURES FOR SESAPS AWARDS

The following procedures were adopted at the November meeting by a vote of the executive committee.

1. Each committee will consist of three members: the previous award winner, one member appointed for a two year term by the chair of the section, and the returning member from the previous year's committee, who will serve as chair. In making the appointment to an award committee, the section chair will attempt to establish a balance in geographical distribution, and between Ph.D. and B.S. granting institutions and among research fields where appropriate. Any number of committee members may be previous award winners of the award.

2. Each committee will be charged by the chairman of the section to select a recipient and communicate the result only to the chair of the section by September 15. The information to be communicated is:

a. The name and institution of the recipient.
b. The name and institution of the nominator.
c. A short citation ~ 15 words.

3. The chair of the section will notify the winner and the nominator by October 1, and indicate that the nominator usually introduces the winner at the banquet. Should there be more than one nominator, only one introduces the winner. At the same time, the chair informs the secretary of the winner, the nominator and the citation.

4. The nominations for all awards will be sent to the Vice Chair of the section by June 1. Four copies are required. Unsuccessful nominations will be destroyed as soon as the winners are chosen. Any nominator who wishes to renominate an unsuccessful candidate will have to update the nomination and resubmit it as if it were a new nomination.

Time Table

Receipt of nominations by Vice Chair June 1
Transmission of report of committee report to Chair of section Sept. 15
Notification of winners and nominators Oct. 1

All nominations are to be sent to the Vice Chair of the section, who will then distribute them to the appropriate committee.

Dr. Calvin Howell
Dept. of Physics
Duke University
Box 90308
Durham, NC. 27708-0308

Committee chairs this year are: Beams: Dr. Jim Reidy, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Univ. of Mississippi, University, Ms. 38677; Pegram: Dr. David Haase, Dept. of Physics, North Carolina State University, Box 8202, Raleigh, NC. 27695; and Slack: Dr. Joe Ferguson, Department of Physics and Astronomy, P.O. Box 5167, Mississippi State Univ., Mississippi State, Ms. 39762

Provisional Minutes 2002 Executive Committee Meeting

Minutes of the Executive Committee Meeting October 31, 2002

Attending the meeting were: Larry Croft, Chair; David Ernst; Ron Mickens, past chair; Brad Cox, Chair elect; Ken Hardy, Secretary; Larry Akers; Joe Hamilton, APS representative; Larry Cain, treasurer; Lee Riedinger; Vice Chair.

The minutes of the 2001 meeting were read and approved with misprints corrected. The Marsh White award is $200, not $1000, and a meeting support item is $1000.

A discussion was held on a memo from Glen Edwards on greater use of electronic communication in SESAPS. It was decided that the news letter will still be hard copy, since it is available on the web at about the time it is mailed. The early abstract deadline is still a problem, it was decided that the summer newsletter will be mailed as close as possible to July 1st., and the winter letter about January 31.

Larry Akers reported on the resolutions committee. Three members passed away this year. Herman Boyd of Walters State and E. Raymond Whitlock of Mississippi College. Ray Andrew of Florida died last year.

Next years meeting (2003) will be held at the Holiday Inn SunSpree resort on Wrightsville Beach, November 6,7 and 8, 2003. (Thursday, Friday and Saturday) The room rates are $89 for oceanfront, $79 for standard. Their phone number is 910 256 2231. The local arrangement chair is Moorad Alexanian, University of North Carolina, Wilmington, NC 28403 phone 910 962 3463. There was a brief discussion of meeting expenses. The 2004 meeting will be held in Oak Ridge. The local arrangements are being handled now by Lee Riedinger.

Ten students were supported this year for a total expenditure of $2820 in travel grants. It was emphasized that the student must present the paper in a SESAPS session. This is emphasized on the application form. Ron Mickens reported on the archives. Any member who has materials should send them to the Neils Bohr Library, at the American Institute for Physics. Joe Hamilton, our APS council member, wants names of SES members who are willing to sit on the APS committees. A list of these committees is on the APS web site.

Problems involving the awards were discussed. The new procedure is that the nominations will be sent to the vice chair of the section. The dates remain the same. Four complete copies are required. Files of the nominees not selected for the award will be destroyed. A new file must be submitted for the nominee to be considered the following year. A discussion of the composition of the committees was held. The following is to be added to the procedures in the Tom Gallagher document " In making the appointment to an award committee, the section chair will attempt to establish a balance in geographical distribution, and between Ph.D. and B.S. granting institutions and among research fields where appropriate. Any number of committee members may be previous award winners of the award." It was stressed that all communication with the winners will be through the chair of the section. The committee chairs will be informed.

The election winners were Calvin Howell, Duke, Vice Chair. Dale Sayers, N.C. State, Executive Committee, and Larry Cain, Davidson, Treasurer.

The budget was discussed. We are spending about $2500 more than we take in. It was resolved to increase the registration fees. They are:

Undergraduate $0
Retired $5
Graduate Student $20
Members $40
Non Members $55.

Minor changes were made in the budget. The revised budget:

Chairman $100
Secretary $3000
Treasurer $100
Banquet Speaker $500
Bull. APS $6630
Student Travel $2500
Workshops $0
Meeting Support $1000
Marsh White $200
Misc. $300

Total $14330

The meeting adjourned 7:30 PM

Respectfully
Ken Hardy, Secretary

SOUTHEASTERN SECTION OF THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 2002

APPLICATION FOR STUDENT TRAVEL SUPPORT TO THE SESAPS MEETING

The student must be a presenter at a SESAPS session

NAME:____________________________________________________________

ADDRESS:_________________________________________________________

CITY:__________________________________ STATE:_______________

ZIP:___________ EMAIL:____________________________

SCHOOL:__________________________________________________________

UNDERGRADUATE/CLASS:_____________________________________________

GRADUATE/CLASS:__________________________________________________

ABSTRACT TITLE:________________________________________________________

AMOUNT REQUESTED ($250 MAX)___________________________________________

PURPOSE OF REQUESTED FUNDS:____________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

RETURN BY 15 OCTOBER TO:

WALTER CROFT
DEPT. OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY
MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY
PO BOX 5167
MISSISSIPPI STATE, MS 39762