Members of the American Physical Society from across Washington D.C., Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia will gather in Morgantown, W.Va. for the annual Mid-Atlantic Section meeting this weekend.

This year’s meeting will be hosted by the Department of Physics and Astronomy at West Virginia University, and is expected to bring in more than 300 physicists, professors, graduate students and research scientists from national labs, said Edward Flagg, assistant professor of physics and advertising chair for the meeting’s organizing committee.

Speaking topics ranging from optics to energy technologies and general relativity.

Wayne Knox, professor at the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester, will help celebrate the 2015 International Year of Light and Light-Based Technology.

The 100th Anniversary of General Relativity will be celebrated by plenary speakers Stephan Schlamminger, of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and Alex Wolszczan, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University.

Karen Rabe, professor of physics at Rutgers University, will speak about recent topics in condensed matter physics, such as multiferroicity and high-temperature superconductivity.

“The plenary talks are always a really good part about the meetings,” Flagg said.

“Science is a very specialized field, it’s difficult to really take advantage of a presentation if you’re not an expert in it. A plenary talk is much more general, and even if you aren’t an expert you can get a lot out of them. Those are probably the most interesting things to go to.”

Tours will also be given of WVU’s campus and facilities.

The American Physical Society is a non-profit membership organization working to advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics through its outstanding research journals, scientific meetings, and education, outreach, advocacy, and international activities. The organization represents more than 51,000 members, including physicists in academia, national laboratories, and industry in the United States and throughout the world.

For more information, visit http://midatlanticaps2015.wvu.edu/

-WVU-

as/10/23/2015

CONTACT: Devon Copeland, Director of Marketing and Communication, Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, West Virginia University, 304-293-6867, Devon.Copeland@mail.wvu.edu

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