Contact: (336) 334-5371
Posted 7-25-07
The American Association of Physics Teachers will hold its summer meeting July 28-Aug. 1 at UNCG and the nearby Joseph S. Koury Convention Center.
“North Carolina desperately needs more physics teachers, and this organization is a national leader in training physics teachers,” said Dr. Steve Danford, a physics professor at UNCG. “Having this meeting in Greensboro is something that benefits every North Carolinian.”
The meeting, featuring dozens of workshops and hundreds of presentations, will attract world renowned scientists and more than 1,000 attendees. Although most of its events are open only to registered participants and the media, there is a public demonstration July 31:
• Physics Demonstration Extravaganza
Taylor Theater, UNCG
8:30-9:30 p.m., Tuesday, July 31
Parents are encouraged to bring their children to see the principles of physics in action. See flames “dance” to sound waves, a ping-pong ball be shot through a soda can, and air pressure crush a 55-gallon metal barrel.
One of the meeting’s workshops will focus on the physics of NASCAR:
• NASCAR Research & Development
Room 254, McIver Building, UNCG
8 a.m.-noon, Sunday, July 29
Participants will analyze the performance and safety of vehicles under race conditions. Participants are encouraged to develop new modes of analyzing the data provided by NASCAR’s Research and Development Facility.
And speakers at the Koury Center include:
• Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astrophysicist and Director, Hayden Planetarium, American Museum of Natural History, New York
“Adventures in Science Illiteracy”
2-3 p.m., Monday, July 30
Tyson earned his BA in physics from Harvard University and his PhD in astrophysics from Columbia University. His research interests include star formation, exploding stars, dwarf galaxies and the structure of the Milky Way. He obtains his data from the Hubble Space Telescope as well as telescopes in Arizona, California, New Mexico and the Andes Mountains of Chile. Among his seven books are the memoir “The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist” and “Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution,” co-written with Donald Goldsmith. “Origins” is the companion book to the PBS-NOVA four-part mini-series “Origins,” in which he serves as on-camera host. He has received seven honorary doctorates and the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal. The International Astronomical Union recognized his contributions to the public appreciation of the cosmos by naming an asteroid 13123 Tyson. He is the first occupant of the Frederick P. Rose Directorship of the Hayden Planetarium, where he also teaches.
• Janet Guthrie, President, Guthrie Racing LLC, Aspen, Col.
“Racing as Metaphor”
2-3 p.m., Tuesday, July 31
Before becoming the first woman ever to compete in the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500, Janet Guthrie was a pilot and flight instructor, an aerospace engineer, a technical editor, and a public representative for major U.S. corporations. She graduated from the University of Michigan with a BSc in physics and joined Republic Aviation in Farmingdale, NY, as a research and development engineer working on aerospace programs. Her 2005 autobiography, “Janet Guthrie: A Life at Full Throttle,” was described by Sports Illustrated as “an uplifting work that is one of the best books ever written about racing.”
• George Coyne, Adjunct Professor of Astronomy, University of Arizona, Tucson
“Dance of the Fertile Universe: Cosmic and Human Evolution”
2-3 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 1
George Coyne obtained his PhD in Astronomy from Georgetown University (Washington, DC) in 1962 and the Licentiate in Theology from Woodstock College (Maryland) in 1966. In addition, he has received PhD degrees honoris causa from St. Peter’s University (New Jersey), Loyola University (Chicago), The University of Padua (Italy), the Jagellonian University (Krakow, Poland), and Marquette University (Milwaukee). Since 1966 he has been associated with astronomy programs at the University of Arizona (Tucson) and from 1976 to 1980 he served in various capacities in the administration of the astronomical observatories at that university.
AAPT is the leading organization for physics educators with more than 11,000 members worldwide. Founded in 1930, it is headquartered in the American Center for Physics in College Park, Md.
For more information about the convention, visit http://www.aapt.org/Events/SM2007/index.cfm.
