2010 U.S. Physics Team Welcomed to Training Camp

For Immediate ReleaseCollege Park, MD, May 24, 2010--They came from Iowa and Ohio, Oregon and Massachusetts. Five came from California, two from New Jersey, and one from Connecticut. Students from the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic, the Midwest, the Southwest, and the Pacific coast are beginning ten days of rigorous academic training, interactive learning, and friendship building as they prepare to test themselves on the world stage.

They are the top twenty high school physics students in the United States, selected through an examination process that included such upper level skills as the Lagrangian Formula of Mechanics, Differential Calculus for Electricity and Magnetism, and Complex Variables, skills usually learned at the end of the undergraduate experience.

They were welcomed to the University of Maryland, College Park campus by AAPT Executive Officer, Warren Hein and AIP Executive Director, Fred Dylla. Officers and staff from AAPT, AIP, APS, and the University of Maryland were on hand for the camp kick off.

Meet the U.S. Physics team at http://www.aapt.org/physicsteam/2010/team.cfm . Get to know their coaches, Paul Stanley, Academic Director; Warren Turner, Senior Lab Coach; Qui Zi Li, Assistant Lab Coach; and Academic Coaches, Jia Jia Dong, David Fallest, and Andrew Linn at http://www.aapt.org/physicsteam/2010/coaches.cfm .

In addition to learning a year of physics in two weeks, the team members will visit their congressional representatives on Capitol Hill, tour the National Air and Space Museum, and visit the Albert Einstein statue at the National Academy of Science. At the end of the camp, they will be tested again and five of the team members will be selected to travel to Zagreb, Croatia, representing the United States in the International Physics Olympiad, July 17 — 25, 2010.

Funding for the U.S. Physics Team is supported through donations from concerned individuals and organizations. Contributions are entirely used to support the selection, training, and travel of the team. Donations to the U.S. Physics Team are accepted at www.aapt.org/physicsteam/donate.cfm .

The US Physics Olympiad Program is a joint initiative of AAPT in partnership with the member societies of the American Institute for Physics (AIP): Acoustical Society of America , American Association of Physicists in Medicine , American Astronomical Society , American Crystallographic Society , American Geophysical Union , American Physical Society , AVS , Optical Society America , and the Society of Rheology .

MORE ON THE WEB Main website of the U.S. Physics Team: http://www.aapt.org/physicsteam/2010 History of the physics team, including past winners: http://www.aapt.org/Contests/olympiad.cfm

The official website of the 2010 International Physics Olympiad: http://ipho2010.hfd.hr/

About AAPT

The American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) is an international organization for physics educators, physicists, and industrial scientists--with more than 10,000 members worldwide. Dedicated to enhancing the understanding and appreciation of physics through teaching, AAPT provides organizational and sponsorship support to the U.S. Physics Team in partnership with the American Institute for Physics and its member societies (http://www.aip.org/aip/societies.html ).

For more information: Contact Marilyn Gardner, Director of Communications, mgardner@aapt.org, (301) 209-3306, (301) 209-0845 (Fax), www.aapt.org.

They came from Iowa and Ohio, Oregon and Massachusetts. Five came from California, two from New Jersey, and one from Connecticut. Students from the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic, the Midwest, the Southwest, and the Pacific coast are beginning ten days of rigorous academic training, interactive learning, and friendship building as they prepare to test themselves on the world stage.