Mar 12 2010
The March Meeting of the American Physical Society (APS) -- the largest physics meeting of the year -- will take place from March 15-19, 2010 in Portland, Oregon at the Oregon Convention Center and the Hilton Portland and Executive Tower Hotel.
Journalists are invited to attend the meeting free of charge. Registration information may be found at the end of this release.
Traditionally the March APS meeting has been a major venue for presenting the scientific principles and techniques behind many of the high-tech devices of today and tomorrow -- such as superconductors, lasers, bio-detection, cloaking, smart materials, DNA sequencing, and microchips. This tradition will continue at this year's meeting. Scientists from around the world will present more than 7,000 papers on a wide variety of discoveries in the areas of condensed matter physics, new materials, chemical and biological physics, fluids, polymers, and computational physics.
A number of sessions will address the role of physics in industry and the impact of physics on national security, climate change research, and energy storage. The increasing ability to study social behavior will be manifest in sessions on human dynamics (session D7) and auto traffic (H8). The relatively new APS Topical Group on Energy Research and Applications (GERA) will host sessions on energy conversion (session A11), energy storage (B11), and sustainability (T4).
This year is also the 50th anniversary of the laser's invention, a milestone that is being recognized by the yearlong celebration of "Laserfest," a series of events that emphasize the laser's impact throughout history and highlight its potential for the future. These include sessions B5 and J8 at the March meeting.