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