Meeting Briefs

New England Section Fall Meeting

The APS New England Section held its annual fall meeting November 2-3 at Keene State College in Keene, NH, jointly with its corresponding geographical section of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT). The conference's theme was the confluence of chemistry and physics, featuring talks on such diverse topics as condensed matter, surface science, thin films, and nanotechnology. Invited speakers gave lectures on trapping and storing light in atoms, novel applications of X-ray crystallographic techniques, electrical transport in carbon nanotubes, imaging phase transitions, and fullerenes in the polymeric state. The evening's banquet speaker was Indiana University's George Ewing, who spoke on the physics and chemistry of ice. There were also lectures on cross-disciplinary education, including a presentation by APS Director of Education and Outreach Fredrick Stein on the fledgling PhysTEC program (see APS News, November 2001).

Four Corners Section Fall Meeting

The APS Four Corners Section also held its annual fall meeting the first weekend in November at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, NM. While technically a general meeting, four focused sessions were organized for papers in condensed matter physics, physics education, earth and space science, and nuclear and particle physics. There was an afternoon special demonstration session. And the evening featured a lecture by 1997 Nobel prizewinner Steven Chu on his development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light, as well as a presentation on the physics of dance by Kenneth Laws of Dickinson College (see APS News, November 1999), illustrated with the help of a professional ballet dancer.

Southeastern Section Fall Meeting

The APS Southeastern Section held its annual fall meeting November 4-6 at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA. The program featured a broad range of topics, including recent advances in particle physics, quantum optics, condensed matter, chaos, quantum information and physics education. In keeping with the section's longstanding tradition, Sunday evening also featured a program of physics demonstrations