The meeting will be hosted by The Department of Physics at Virginia Tech at The Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center.

Special Events:

• There will be a contest for the "Best Undergraduate Presentation" and the "Best Undergraduate Poster". Students who wish to enter the contest should click here.


• A Mentoring Workshop held by Monica Plisch of the APS will take place on Thursday afternoon.
  
  Abstract:
  How do you effectively mentor individuals at different stages of their careers? Are you ready to address the NSF's new requirement about mentoring post-docs in your next proposal? Can you learn to become a more effective mentor through training? Scientists often are not prepared for their crucial role of mentoring the next generation. Based on a research mentor seminar developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and modified for physics by the American Physical Society, this workshop is designed to help you start to become a more effective mentor.


• There will be a panel discussion on "The Under-Represented Majority" on Friday afternoon. The panelists are Theda Daniels-Race from LSU; David Ernst from Vanderbilt; Ronald E. Mickens from Clark Atlanta; and Christine Nattrass from UT-Knoxville. An attached poster contains their bios. To submit a question for one of the panelists, please click here.


• Our banquet speaker on Friday evening is Ron Mickens, who will discuss his book on the life of Edward Bouchet, the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in physics from a US institution (1876).

The local organizing committee:

Prof. Leo Piilonen
Prof. Michel Pleimling
Prof. Beate Schmittmann

The program committee is chaired by:

Dr. Roxanne Springer