Students selected to US Physics Team; intense training works mental muscles

By Martha Heil
May 16, 2007

College Park, MD -- The United States' top physics students will meet in College Park, MD, in May to receive some of the most intense training a student can undertake.

The American Institute of Physics and the American Association of Physics Teachers, both located in College Park, sponsor a ten-day training camp for twenty-four students at the nearby University of Maryland, where the students conduct lab experiments, take exams, and hear presentations from prominent scientists. The students are part of the International Physics Olympiad, held this year July 13-22 at the prestigious Isfahan University of Technology in Isfahan, Iran.

"The Olympiad is an opportunity to identify and support our brightest students who will be leaders of science and physics, who will help maintain our innovative edge internationally for humankind's progress, but more importantly, preparation for the Olympiad is an opportunity to reach out to expand and engage the base of all those who are taking high school physics," said Toufic Hakim, the executive director of the American Association of Physics Teachers. "We want to engage all students who are taking physics and expand their imagination and their knowledge."

They'll be coached by several physicists: director Robert H. Shurtz, a physics teacher at Hawken School, Gates Mills, OH; Paul Stanley, a physics and astronomy associate professor at Beloit College in Wisconsin; Andrew Lin, a physics student at Yale University; Boris Zbarsky, a graduate student in mathematics at the University of Chicago, and a developer on the open-source Mozilla project; junior coach and 2005 Olympian Elena Udovina; and lab coaches Warren Turner, an associate professor at Westfield State College in Massachusetts and Shaela Jones, a graduate student at the University of Maryland and research assistant in solar physics at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

At the end of the training camp, five students will be selected as the competing U.S. team representatives.

"The Olympiad's international nature allows some of young students to interact with folks from all over the world who share their interest and give them human to human interaction," said Hakim, who is in his first year as AAPT's executive director. "Science and physics become the diplomacy of choice, superseding politics and geography and building bridges across cultures."

On May 23, the students will travel to Washington, DC to for a tour of the area and to meet their Senators and Representatives in person. They will also hold a special awards ceremony honoring Reps. Rush Holt (D- NJ) and Vernon Ehlers (R-MI), who both hold physics PhD's. The students will be thanking Reps. Ehlers and Holt for their support of the physics team for seven years. The students will present a physics-related toy to their member of Congress. Pictures of the students and their members of Congress will be available after the event.

Last year, the team brought home four gold medals and one silver.

The U.S. Physics Olympiad Program was started in 1986 by AAPT to promote and demonstrate academic excellence. The Olympiad is a nine-day international competition among pre-university students from more than 60 nations.

List of events:

May 22-31 -- Students visit University of Maryland for their intensive training camp
May 23 -- Visit Capitol Hill to meet their members of Congress
May 30 -- Five students chosen to represent the US at the international competition
July 21 -- The International Competition's final awards given

Pictures and B-roll

Archive B-roll of Physics Camp available, contact mheil@aip.org
Pictures of the students and their members of Congress will be available after the event.

When the students are available:

Most are email types and would prefer to get initial contact by email. They're most likely to be available for interview before 8 or 9 am, or after 5 or 6 pm, and sometimes at lunch.

Contact:

Martha J. Heil, American Institute of Physics mheil@aip.org 626-354-5613 (cell)
Turner Brinton, American Institute of Physics, tbrinton@aip.org, 301-209-3136

The Team Members