This award provides support to the American Physical Society (APS) for conference planning and student travel to participate in the joint Canadian, US, and Mexican physical societies' graduate student conference (CAM2013), to be hosted by the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Canada, from August 15-18, 2013. The scientific program will include plenary talks by invited scientists in physics sub-disciplines such as Quantum Computing, Particle and Accelerator Physics, Theoretical Physics, Earth and Atmospheric Physics, Atomic/Molecular Physics and Material Physics. The plenary sessions will be followed by contributed talks from the students. There will be two panel discussions titled "Collaborating Across Borders," and "Doing Physics in Times of Austerity," highlighting CAM2013's goal to foster international physics collaboration. A student poster session will round out the scientific program. All student participants will present their research in either a contributed talk or poster session.
By bringing together scientists and students in an informal setting, the conference will also enable students to explore and discuss career options available to young physicists. Through special topical and technical sessions, students will have the opportunity to gain a broader view of physics beyond their own classrooms and research laboratories. The meeting will generate scientific exchange among the student participants, promote international collaborations among young scientists within the North American continent, expose graduate students to sub-disciplines in physics beyond their individual research areas, and promote interdisciplinary research within the sub-disciplines. The meeting's organization is carried out by the students. Overall, it will provide excellent training for next generation of researchers in the U.S.
The 2013 Canadian-American-Mexican Physics Graduate Student Conference (CAM 2013) was organized by the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP), the American Physical Society (APS), and the Sociedad Mexicana de Física (SMF) and held at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, from August 15-18, 2013. The CAM conferences are bi-annual meetings co-sponsored by the three professional societies that are organized by and for physics graduate students. The conferences provide a unique opportunity for physics graduate students from the United States, Canada and Mexico to organize a scientific conference for themselves, with mentorship from senior staff of their respective professional societies. CAM promotes international networking and career development for young scientists, as well as sharing among peers of scientific knowledge gained through students' graduate research. The conferences enable interactions and foster collaborations among young scientists, while exposing them to disciplines of physics beyond their individual research areas as well as various career opportunities. CAM 2013 included scientific presentations by senior scientists and the students themselves, along with two panel discussions on "Physics in Times of Austerity" and "Collaborating Across Borders." These panel sessions helped the international audience of graduate students to better understand the important contributions of scientists beyond laboratory research. The organizers of CAM 2013 also utilized the conferences proximity to the Perimeter Institute to organize an informal dinner and discussion with theorists from the Institute. The CAM 2013 conference offered physics graduate students an opportunity for networking with international peers. Throughout the conference, students discussed their research in both formal and informal settings, and interacted with fellow students and senior scientists from across North America. All participants were required to give an oral or poster presentation. For some of them, the conference was the first time that they had presented their research. The unique setting of the CAM conference—one planned by and for the students—offered the young scientists the chance to begin building interdisciplinary and international networks and collaborations. In the small, student-oriented setting provided by CAM 2013, participants compared and connected their own work with similar efforts in physics departments throughout Mexico, Canada and the United States.
