Society of Physics Students

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Exciting times are coming for SPS. Tuesday, February 19th at 8PM, we will be holding our annual elections! There will be good food and good times. If you are interested in becoming a member of the executive board, please submit a brief paragraph declaring your interest, qualifications, and plans for next year to me (jbehrman@college) by Saturday, Feb. 16, at 11:59pm.

We will then email these statements out to the club so they can read them before the meeting. (Note we have combined the Treasurer position with the Event Coordinator position. If it interests you, be sure to apply!)

All members of SPS are eligible to apply for SPS board, whether you’re a freshman, sophomore, or junior!

Co-Presidents (2): Act as liaisons to the department, set agenda, oversee event planning.

Secretary: Take funny minutes at meetings, draft publicity emails, and keep everything in some semblance of organization

Event Coordinator: Point person for the planning and funding of events. Figures out what needs to get done with the rest of the board, then assigns tasks and organizes, following up to make sure everything gets done in time. Communicates with other clubs (like STAHR, MIT SPS, and the Engineering Society) to help planning process.

For those of you who haven’t been to our events yet, the Physics Journal Table, founded last fall, is sponsored by the Harvard Physics Department and the Harvard-Radcliffe Society for Physics Students (SPS). The table meets biweekly over dinner to discuss the latest  physics research, introduce students to a wide range of physics topics and to hear presentations mostly by undergraduate students, and occasionally by graduate students, faculty, and others. All students, regardless of preparation or concentration, are welcome to attend, discuss, and present; we aim to make it a fun, laid-back learning and social experience. Last semester we had Christian Anderson presenting “measuring and manipulating individual quantum system” and Jo Behrman presenting “Marie Curie is haunting you: Women in Physics”.

Topics so far:

• Marie Curie is Haunting You: or, Why Aren’t There More Women in Physics? (Joanna Behrman)
• 2012 Physics Nobel Prize: Measuring and Manipulating Individual Quantum Systems (Christian Anderson)

• We host informal lunches with the weekly colloquia speakers (Mondays, noon, Jefferson 251).
• We have a mailing list which advertises lots of other goodies. The address for the official mailing list is sps-list@hcs. You can subscribe to the list and view its archives online. We also have a more informal, discussion-based mailing list, sps-open@hcs. You can subscribe to sps-open here. We recommend subscribing to both to receive information about all upcoming events and other announcements.
• You can also keep abreast of upcoming events and keep in touch through our Facebook Page
• We organize occasional Cool Physics talks given by undergraduates. If you’re interested in giving a talk, please email your favorite SPS officer (listed on the right).

We also…

• … have liquid nitrogen parties! (We call them ….Partycles…)
  • … have movie nights! Often with pizza, and always fun!
    • … hold afternoon teas for the undergraduate women!
    • … send a delegation to the Ig Nobel Prizes every year.
    • … publish the SPS Guide to Physics at Harvard.
    • … have a Buddy System to help out underclassmen.
    • … help students find out about Research Opportunities.
    • … challenge other groups to vicious games of ultimate frisbee, dodgeball, or poker. We crush all who stand in our path.
    • … offer tutorials on such subjects as LaTeX and graduate school admissions.
    • … serve as a general liaison between undergraduates and the Department.

Keep up to date with SPS events!