October 2, 2002 — About 100 lectures on astrophysics, gravitation, solid state physics, tiny nanostructures and other topics are on the schedule for the American Physical Society’s Four Corners regional meeting Oct. 4 and 5 at the University of Utah.
News reporters are invited to cover the lectures and other events, which are expected to draw 150 physicists from Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, says David Kieda, a conference organizer and professor of physics.
College and high school students may attend any of the sessions without paying the customary registration fee, Kieda says.
The public is invited to attend the following events:
— At 6 p.m. Fri. Oct. 4, Nagin Cox, a systems engineer at NASA”s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., will deliver a keynote lecture titled, “The Galileo Mission to Jupiter: The Daring Return to Io, Moon of Volcanoes and Fire,” about the Galileo spacecraft’s exploration of Jupiter and its moons, including Io, the most volcanic body in our solar system. The lecture will be in room 101 of the James Fletcher Bldg. at 115 S. 1400 East.
— After a banquet for conference participants only, the public may attend physics demonstrations by U physics lecture lab demonstration specialist Ziggy Peacock. That will occur at approximately 8:30 p.m. Friday at the I.J. & Jeanné Wagner Jewish Community Center, 2 North Medical Drive, Salt Lake City. Kieda says Peacock illustrates physics principles with clever demonstrations, and “some of them explode and make big noises.”
— From 10 p.m. until midnight Fri. Oct. 4, a star party will be held – weather permitting – for the public and conference participants at the observatory in the Physics Bldg., located just south of the James Fletcher Bldg. Even if weather is poor, there will be tours of the observatory.
— At 5 p.m. Sat. Oct. 5 in room 101 of the James Fletcher Bldg. will be a series of technical talks during “The Jack Keuffel Memorial Session: History of Cosmic Ray Research in Utah.” The session is named for late U physicist Jack Keuffel, who founded the university’s astrophysics research program. The session will include talks by U physicist Gene Loh on The Fly’s Eye cosmic ray observatory on Utah’s Dugway Proving Ground and by U physicist Pierre Sokolsky on the upgraded observatory known as High-Resolution or Hires Fly’s Eye.
A complete list of scientific sessions and lectures may be found at:
www.physics.utah.edu/~4c2002
To pull up complete listings, click on “Program” on the left side of the screen, then click on “Epitome” in the center of the screen, then click on each session title for a complete list of speakers and topics for each session.
The two-day American Physical Society meeting will dovetail with the First International Workshop on Air Fluorescence, a meeting of cosmic ray researchers that will take place 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sun. Oct. 6 through Tues. Oct. 8 in room 100 of the Intermountain Network and Scientific Computation Center (INSCC), which is located due north of the Park Bldg., the university’s administration building.
