Leff Is AAPT’s Vice President

At the conclusion of the American Association of Physics Teachers meeting held last month in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Harvey S. Leff took office as vice president for 2005, succeeding Kenneth Heller; Richard Peterson is the society’s current president (see Physics Today, February 2004, page 73 ; February 2003, page 72 ). Leff will serve as president-elect in 2006, president in 2007, and past president in 2008.

Professor emeritus of physics at Caltech, Leff has been a member of the physics department there since 1983, and was department chair from 1983 until 1995. He began his physics career in 1963 as a postdoctoral research associate and professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. From 1971 to 1979, he chaired Chicago State University’s department of physical sciences, and during that time he spent a year as a visiting professor at Harvey Mudd College of Science and Engineering in Claremont, California. He also was a scientist and energy policy analyst at Oak Ridge Associated Universities in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, from 1979 to 1983.

Leff received all of his degrees in physics: his BS from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago in 1959; his MS from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, in 1960; and his PhD from the University of Iowa in Iowa City in 1963. He is interested in the foundations of thermal physics and has been involved for many years in promoting secondary-school and college science education.

In his candidate’s commentary for the AAPT election, Leff said, “AAPT enriches my life in many ways. Its journals … are primary reading sources and great vehicles for publishing.” He added, “I love national and section meetings, which stimulate my mental juices. At national meetings, plenary sessions cover exciting physics, workshops provide innovative teaching ideas, and exhibitors display current equipment and textbooks. These and other significant strengths of AAPT are unique and precious.”

Also taking office at the end of AAPT’s winter meeting were Mary Beth Monroe, who was elected to her third two-year term as secretary, and John L. Roeder, who began a three-year term as member-at-large high-school representative. Monroe is a math and physics instructor at Southwest Texas Junior College in Uvalde, Texas. Roeder teaches physics at the Calhoun School in New York City.