Chairs Corner Archive 2004
Chair's Corner Archives
2004 - David Hammer
Welcome to the American
Physical Society (APS) Division of Plasma Physics (DPP) web site. I
hope you will find it helpful and easy to navigate. Thanks and
appreciation for the design of the site goes to John Cary (University of
Colorado, and former chair of the DPP Public Information Committee),
Vincent Chan (General Atomics, and DPP Secretary-Treasurer and
soon-to-be Vice Chair), and Saralyn Stewart (University of Texas, and
DPP Administrator). If you would like to see something added to our web
site, please let us know via Saralyn, <stewart@physics.utexas.edu>,
so that we can make it as useful as possible for people. Any
corrections, comments and suggestions for improvements to the layout
will also be welcome.
The DPP officers and
members of the Executive Committee have had a busy year because of many
“little jobs” that had to be done. For example, the DPP reassumed
responsibility for the Nicholson Medal for Humanitarian Service, an APS
award that was originally proposed and defined by members of the DPP to
honor the memory of the late Dwight Nicholson, a well-known and
respected plasma physicist at the University of Iowa. Largely through
the efforts of Herb Berk, George Knorr and Martin Goldman, revised
criteria were developed and even the name of the Medal was changed to
the Nicholson Medal for Human Outreach, so as to avoid overlap
with other APS prizes and awards. Led by George Knorr of the University
of Iowa, and with the help of the APS, we have initiated a fund-raising
campaign to endow the Nicholson Medal. If you would like to contribute
to this endowment, please contact Saralyn Stewart and she will let you
know how to do it.
Another task undertaken
and almost completed, thanks largely to DPP Past Chair Mike Mauel, is
our joining with UCLA to rename the Excellence in Plasma Physics Award
as the John Dawson Excellence in Plasma Physics Award, with the prize to
be jointly sponsored by UCLA and the DPP.
In order to learn about
some of the other accomplishments by the Executive Committee during the
past year, the financial state of the Division, and other noteworthy
information, I encourage those of you who are going to the DPP Annual
Meeting in Savannah, GA,
http://www.aps.org/meet/DPP04/,
November 15-19, 2004, to attend our General Business Meeting on
Wednesday, November 17, starting at 5:15 PM, at the Savannah Convention
Center, Room 105/106.
Speaking of the Annual
Meeting, we are now in the final week of preparation for DPP04 in
Savannah. Chair-Elect Jill Dahlburg, who is also Chair of the Program
Committee for this meeting, has done an excellent job of overseeing the
meeting arrangements and leading the Program Committee in its quest to
provide you with an outstanding technical program. I am very confident
that they have succeeded, and so I am looking forward to the meeting
very much. This year's meeting will maintain our recent,
easy-to-navigate time-schedule and will feature our "best-in-the-APS"
education and outreach program for students and teachers, the 2004
Plasma Science Expo and Science Teacher's Day. We are also
expecting to enjoy the beautiful location of our meeting. Please
remember that the water taxi trips and bus transportation from the
hotels in the main part of Savannah across the Savannah River to the
convention center are free to APS-DPP04 registrants.
I am looking forward to
seeing many of you in Savannah, and I would especially like to encourage
you to attend our Division Banquet to welcome our new Fellows and
congratulate this year's prize and award recipients. The banquet is
Wednesday evening, November 17, about an hour after the end of the
Division’s General Business Meeting discussed above.
As most of you know, the
functioning of the Division of Plasma Physics depends upon the voluntary
service, and considerable energy and enthusiasm, of its members. I would
like to thank all of you who have taken, and are taking, an active
interest in the work of the Division. Specifically, we are all indebted
to the officers and members of the Executive Committee, and the members
of the Program Committee and standing committees. The latter includes
the committees for Women in Plasma Physics, Public Information,
Fellowship, Publications, Education and Outreach, Nominations, and the
award and prize selection committees for the James Clerk Maxwell Prize,
the Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research, and the Marshall N.
Rosenbluth Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award in Plasma Physics.
Speaking from the other side, it has been my pleasure to have the
opportunity to serve as Chair of the DPP this year so that I could repay
this organization for the many benefits it has provided to me and to my
students.
Yours truly,
David Hammer
2004 Chair of the DPP
November 9, 2004