Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2008 Joint Spring Meeting of the Texas Sections of APS, AAPT, and Zone 13 of SPS
Volume 53, Number 1
Thursday–Saturday, March 6–8, 2008; Corpus Christi, Texas
Session PL1: Plenary Session I |
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Chair: Dan Suson, Purdue University at Calumet Room: Omni Corpus Christi Hotel Marina Tower Riviera I |
Friday, March 7, 2008 8:20AM - 9:10AM |
PL1.00001: The Role of Colleges and Universities in the Preparation of Future Teachers Invited Speaker: For the past seven years the Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC) project has been working to address the dramatic shortage of qualified teachers of physics and physical science in the United States. It has done this by experimenting with and refining models of teacher education programs, by disseminating information about innovative programs to the physics community, and by working directly with physics departments to engage them in a full spectrum of activities necessary to educate and encourage future teachers. PhysTEC sites, institutions with significant project support to develop model teacher education programs, have more than doubled the number of physics teachers produced annually. Sites have developed and refined models of recruiting, early teaching experiences, mentoring, and more. The project has developed a national coalition, PTEC, which provides information and advocacy for improving physics and physical science teacher education. PTEC now has over 100 institutional members, and conducts an annual national meeting and other conferences to support members to develop teacher education programs. PhysTEC is a project of the American Physical Society (APS), the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) and the American Institute of Physics (AIP). [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, March 7, 2008 9:10AM - 10:00AM |
PL1.00002: Science on the Texas Petawatt Laser Invited Speaker: We are presently nearing the completion of the construction of a high peak power, ultrafast laser which will deliver powers well in excess of 1 petawatt (1015 W). This laser, the Texas Petawatt Laser, will be the highest power laser in the world when complete in the coming weeks. In my talk, I will report on the progress of the laser, including the technology used to access such high powers and peak irradiances. When complete, the laser will deliver 150 fs pulses with pulse energy exceeding 200 J. Using pulse shaping technology and broad band amplification on the front end, this laser will demonstrate petawatt technology in Nd:glass amplifiers at a pulse duration shorter than other Nd:glass-based petawatt facilities around the world. With this unique pulse characteristic, the Texas Petawatt will have application in a number of scientific areas. These applications include bright, ultrafast neutron generation and the study of hot dense plasmas with pressures exceeding 1 Gbar. The laser will also produce focused intensities exceeding 1021 W/cm2, intensity at which light-matter interactions take on many exotic characteristics. I will present an overview of many of these science applications with a particular eye toward describing the first campaign of experiments planned for this year. [Preview Abstract] |
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