Greetings!

Wow! I think there are 5 different zone meetings scheduled this weekend all over the country; google'em to see where, or just check out the SPS website. I hope you get a chance to go to one soon. Most are featuring Physics Jeopardy---a lot of fun.

Below you'll find a whole slew, a huge passel, a whopping helping, of physics opportunities---be brave---slay a few of the slew, partake of the passel, heap on a helping for yourself! Brief items first, then some details follow, respectively.

Take care,
Gary

1)  First call for chapter reports
2)  Nominate your advisor as outstanding
3)  Summer research jobs at www.the-nucleus.org
4)  Physics Jeopardy in St. Louis, April 14
5)  Comp. Physics? Gordon Conference funding
6)  Honor society induction time
7)  Congress for SPS at Fermilab, Nov. 6-8, 2008
8)  Acoustics scholarships
9)  Tutors needed---get paid, feel good
10) Need a mentor for that hard career decision?
11) VOTE! Make your chapter's voice heard in SPS elections

More details follow below:

1)  First call for Chapter Reports! If you submit your chapter report by April 15th and your chapter has a significant outreach effort then you can also submit it as an entry in the SPS Blake Lilly Award.

2)  Nominate your advisor for the Outstanding Chapter Advisor Award.There's a $5000 prize and an April 15th deadline---see details here.

3)  Hundreds of summer research opportunities for physics students, in dozens of fields, at www.the-nucleus.org

4)  Did someone say Physics Jeopardy?. at the April APS meeting? CHECK out the APS April meeting in St. Louis (April 12-15). It is free to undergraduates and there will be Physics Jeopardy, student presentations, great plenary talks, and lots of other students getting in on the physics fun...check it out at http://www.aps.org/ , and there's a zone meeting at Wash U in St. Louis on Saturday as well, join us!

5)  Travel support available for premiere computational physics Gordon conference; see http://www.grc.org/ for general info about Gordon Research Conferences, see http://www.opensourcephysics.org/GRC/index.html  to find out more about this particular GRC and click on "Support" for info about the travel support programs.

6)  Sigma Pi Sigma inductions are in the air---INQUIRE about the physics honor society, Sigma Pi Sigma, on your campus. Spring inductions are imminent nationwide, your chapter should be planning now, and current chapters have received their all-knowing Sigma Pi Sigma green folder with induction materials in the mail already! SPS, which is the professional society for physics students and their mentors, and Sigma Pi Sigma, which is the honor society of physics, are linked, but distinct groups within the American Institute of Physics' portfolio of student programs. Discuss your chapter's eligibility and your own with your advisor when you get a free moment.

7)  And speaking of the physics honor society...They are inviting you to Congress!   I mean, of course, the Sigma Pi Sigma Congress of physicists at FermiLab this coming November 6-8.It's a rare physics meeting that brings together students, faculty, and physicsts who have moved into other sectors of the real world, and the Congress does better than most.and SPS is invited! Read about the Congress here.  Your chapter can apply to be SPS Reporters and get some travel funding. The Sigma Pi Sigma Congress...It promises to be the physics event of 2008. And this might be the time to apply for those elusive student government travel funds on your campus so get cracking! By the way, if you're planning an induction this spring, be sure to highlight the 2008 Sigma Pi Sigma Quadrennial Congress at your ceremony and identify your chapter's "One & One" voting delegates. We'll be glad to send you Congress posters and even t-shirts to give away at your induction. Contact Kendra Rand at krand@aip.org if you're interested. If you're a Sigma Pi Sigma alumnus, now is a great time to contact your chapter and see how things are going, and to volunteer as a "One & One" voting delegate at the Congress. If you'd like current contact information for your chapter, please contact  Kendra Rand at krand@aip.org .  At the Congress, attendees will formulate recommendations for action by the Society and its members on issues of scientific citizenship. These will be taken to a vote of endorsement. Each chapter in attendance will receive up to two votes, ideally one vote to a student delegate and one vote to an alumnus delegate. Therefore, all chapters are encouraged to send a minimum of "One & One" to the 2008 Congress, one student and one alumnus.  Of course, every chapter should send as many students and alumni as possible to engage the important questions of scientific citizenship! Visit the Congress website for more on the "One & One" Campaign and the latest meeting information.

8)  The Acoustical Society of America makes available various funding opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students as well as for acoustics professionals. The deadline(s) for receipt of applications/nominations for the 2008 Stetson Scholarship in Phonetics and Speech Science, the 2008 Rossing Prize in Acoustics Education, and the 2008 Graduate Fellowship for Minorities is 15 April. In addition, the application for the  Robert W. Young Award for Undergraduate Student Research in Acoustics has just been posted, with an application deadline date of 1 August 2008. Full details, including eligibility requirements and application forms, can be found here.

9)  Already, over 100 SPS members have started the tutor sign-up process---keep it going, I think it's worth it, and so do the others that are now tutors. So, be an on-line physics tutor; it's the perfect part-time physics job!---SPS has partnered with Tutor.com to bring better physics to more students across the country. If you're interested in becoming an on-line physics or math tutor, apply here.

10) SPS has expanded it's partnership with MentorNet so that now all SPS student members can be partnered with a mentor regardless of which school they attend! If you want to bounce things off of an experienced mentor for a few months or more, check out MentorNet and the new partnership arrangement with SPS,

11) That's all, just VOTE! Make your chapter's voice heard in SPS elections.

Gary White
Director, Sigma Pi Sigma and Society of Physics Students
Assistant Director of Education
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse
College Park, MD 20740
Tel: 301-209-3007
FAX: 301-209-0839