The Society of Physics Students (SPS) is a national professional association for physics students and others interested in physics. At Union University, our local chapter of SPS often meets every other week to discuss physics, plan outreach events, and just have fun.
Conferences and talks
Two physics faculty and two students attended the APS southeastern section meeting (SESAPS) in Mobile, AL on November 18-21, 2015. Dr. Bill Nettles gave a talk on “Accessing Basic Nuclear Data in LaTeX Documents.” Dr. Geoffrey Poore presented on “Randomizing Homework and Exams with Python, LaTeX, and RandAssign.” Physics major Joshua Edgren gave a talk on “Characterization of the Diagnostics of the Inductively Heated Plasma Generator (IPG6-B)” about his summer research at Baylor University. Physics major Daniel Keylon presented a poster on “Creating a C++ Package to Build and Solve Electron Population Evolution Equations of Rubidium and its Isotopes in the Context of Laser-Atom Interactions” about his summer research at Kansas State University.
Six students and three physics faculty traveled about 200 miles to the 2013 SESAPS conference at Western Kentucky University. Students Jon Eldridge and Ward Howard gave talks about their summer REU research. Jon Eldridge also gave talks at the APS division of Nuclear Physics meeting and at the NSF REU Congress in Washington D.C. His work was published with him as a coauthor in Physical Review C 88, 054311 (2013) in an article entitled “Identification of multi-phonon γ-vibrational bands in odd-Z 105Nb.”
Annual events
In the middle of October, we join with the Chemistry student organization’s celebration of mole week to perform our annual Fire and Lights show, in which physics and chemistry students perform fire- and light-themed demonstrations for the larger Jackson, TN community. Five to ten physics majors typically perform in these demos.
As part of Union's Campus and Community Day in early November, we usually do demo shows at local schools. We have done shows at South Gibson County High School for the past several years.
On Pi Day (March 14), we hand out cupcakes with the digits of Pi on them to passers-by in our Student Union Building around lunchtime. We had 314 cupcakes (plus one with the decimal point) at a recent Pi Day. We also have a Pi Poetry contest for the campus community.
In the spring semester, we often travel to Nashville to attend a Physics & Astronomy Colloquium at Vanderbilt University. For example, we heard theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson on March 27, 2014. We have also attended physics talks in Memphis. On February 6, 2014, we heard physicist Alan Lightman talk on “Science and Religion” at Rhodes College.
- In the fall, we have a spaghetti dinner. In the spring, we have an end-of-year cookout. We also have an induction ceremony for Sigma Pi Sigma, the physics honor society.
Pi Day cupcakes 2013