The American Physical Society is the second largest organization of physicists in the world. It publishes the highly-regarded Physical Review and Physical Review Letters. It’s Mission Statement:
The American Physical Society strives to:
- Be the leading voice for physics and an authoritative source of physics information for the advancement of physics and the benefit of humanity;
- Provide effective programs in support of the physics community and the conduct of physics;
- Collaborate with national scientific societies for the advancement of science, science education and the science community;
- Cooperate with international physics societies to promote physics, to support physicists worldwide and to foster international collaboration;
- Promote an active, engaged and diverse membership, and support the activities of its units and members.
June 19, 2009
The Division of Atomic, Molecular & Optical Physics (DAMOP) was the first division founded by the APS. Research in AMO physics had led to some of the most groundbreaking discoveries in the field, not least of which is our current understanding of quantum physics and how matter behaves at the atomic and subatomic levels. As a grad student, the annual DAMOP meeting was the first Physics conference I ever attended, an experience I will never forget. Although I currently work in the private sector (though I also still adjunct), my employer allowed me to maintain my membership in the APS, which I wouldn’t otherwise have been able to afford on my own.
As a current member, I received the following e-mail yesterday.
Change of Venue for the DAMOP 2018 Annual Meeting
Dear DAMOP members:
In March 2016, in a bill designated as HB2, the state of North Carolina enacted legislation that prevents transgendered individuals from using public restrooms of the gender with which they identify. Shortly thereafter, the DAMOP executive committee began a discussion about whether Charlotte was an acceptable location for the DAMOP 2018 annual meeting.
There was concern that it would not be a welcoming environment for all DAMOP members. In particular, the NC law (HB2) seemed to run counter to the APS Code of Conduct for APS Meetings. New York and Connecticut have responded by instituting travel bans for state employees; moreover, such a ban, which will affect DAMOP members at public universities in those states, is being considered in other states.
The DAMOP executive committee also considered counterarguments to moving the meeting, related to the appropriateness of (1) DAMOP effectively making a political statement, and (2) the city of Charlotte being effectively punished by our reaction to a law that is outside of its control.
Having weighed these developments and concerns, an overwhelming majority of the executive committee voted to move the DAMOP 2018 meeting from Charlotte to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The consensus view is that it is of paramount importance for all DAMOP members to be able to attend the DAMOP meeting without violating either their own conscience or state laws. Cancellation of contracts incurs a moderate financial penalty that will be split between DAMOP and APS. The site being considered in Fort Lauderdale is a convention center that should be a good venue for the DAMOP 2018 annual meeting.
Learn more about this decision in this APS News Update and press release.
DAMOP Executive Committee
The excerpt in the title of the post is taken from the press release:
“It is imperative for APS to continue to uphold its longstanding policy of not locating conferences in places where some members would risk legalized discrimination or criminalization for simply being themselves,” said Michael Falk (Johns Hopkins University), chair of the committee that authored the LGBT climate report. “The situation in North Carolina is untenable for trans physicists who would not only be at risk when making use of restroom facilities in conference venues but also at airports, hotel lobbies, restaurants and other establishments in the course of their visit to North Carolina.”
Although some might find the idea of Scientists taking a very political stance as being controversial, they are only the most recent of a trend of similar statements. after Louisiana passed legislation pushing Creationism and Intelligent Design into schools, a national organization of Biologists announced they would boycott the state.
In a lot of ways, science is all about challenging human biases, doing our best to protect ourselves from letting these biases bend the results away from truth, through the process known as the scientific method.
It’s a kind of scientific integrity, a principle of scientific thought that corresponds to a kind of utter honesty—a kind of leaning over backwards. For example, if you’re doing an experiment, you should report everything that you think might make it invalid—not only what you think is right about it: other causes that could possibly explain your results; and things you thought of that you’ve eliminated by some other experiment, and how they worked—to make sure the other fellow can tell they have been eliminated.
Details that could throw doubt on your interpretation must be given, if you know them. You must do the best you can—if you know anything at all wrong, or possibly wrong—to explain it. If you make a theory, for example, and advertise it, or put it out, then you must also put down all the facts that disagree with it, as well as those that agree with it. There is also a more subtle problem. When you have put a lot of ideas together to make an elaborate theory, you want to make sure, when explaining what it fits, that those things it fits are not just the things that gave you the idea for the theory; but that the finished theory makes something else come out right, in addition.
In summary, the idea is to try to give all of the information to help others to judge the value of your contribution; not just the information that leads to judgment in one particular direction or another.
From there, it is a logical extension to acknowledge that humans can be biased in other ways outside the science fields as well; so there is a similar urge to overcome the biases we see in the rest of the world.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the DAMOP and APS community for standing with the LGBT community, and demonstrating integrity and upholding the values of equality and basic human decency.
If you would also like to show some support, you can tweet the APS, or send them an email.