The 129th Topical Symposium of the New York State Section of the APS will be held in-person at the University at Albany on Saturday, April 6, 2024. The theme of the symposium is Structure of the Universe. Several topics related to this theme will be covered at the symposium, including dark matter detection, galaxy formation, supernova physics, and gravitational waves. The keynote speaker for the symposium is Heidi Newberg, who is a Physics Professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She will give the presentation entitled The Milky Way Galaxy is in Disequilibrium?
On Monday, April 8, 2024 a total eclipse of the sun will pass through Upstate New York. This is a rare event. In fact the next total solar eclipse that will pass through North America will not occur until Aug. 23, 2044. In preparation for this event, Mindy Townsend, who is the Dudley Astronomer at Siena College, will give a talk about eclipses and will give further details about the April 8th eclipse. The title of her presentation is Under the Shadow of the Moon: Eclipses (Then and Now), and Why They Are Still Worth Dropping Everything For. Each attendee at the symposium will receive a pair of eclipse glasses.
If you plan to attend the symposium, please register by Friday, March 29, 2024, so that the conference organizers can plan for the amount of food and refreshments that will need to be ordered. You do not need to be a member of the APS to register for the symposium. Abstracts are being solicited for poster presentations in all physics and physics-related areas, not just astronomy and astrophysics. Students who give a poster presentation at the symposium receive free registration. Awards will be given for the best poster presentations at the graduate student, undergraduate student, and high-school student levels. Student travel grants are available for students traveling from areas outside the Capital District. The deadline for submitting a poster abstract and for applying for a student travel grant is Friday, March 29, 2024. Detailed information about applying for a student travel grant can be found at Student Travel Grant.
Local Organizing Committee:
Susan DiFranzo
Department of Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, Hudson Valley Community College
Email: s.difranzo@hvcc.edu
Carl A. Ventrice, Jr.
Department of Nanoscale Science & Engineering, University at Albany
Email: cventrice@albany.edu