Get Ready: PhysCon ’19 is Making Waves in Providence
Steve Feller, Collin Flynn, and Patrick Kralik. Photo courtesy of Steve Feller.
The three pictures in this announcement are wonderful reminders about PhysCon 2016, held in Silicon Valley. In the first picture below, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, discoverer of pulsars and honorary chair of both the 2016 and 2019 congresses, visits with students and me. What a thrill for these participants! How exciting it was to be able to chat informally with a true heroine of science.
Below that is a picture of the Coe College contingent, 39 strong. What an experience we all had—what memories and camaraderie resulted. Over a year later, we are still buzzing over the wonderful speakers, workshops, tours, and friends we made. We are ready to come, in force, to Providence, Rhode Island, for PhysCon 2019, November 14–16, 2019. Almost 1,200 people, mostly students, attended in 2016 and we expect 1,500 total attendees in 2019. Our theme? Making Waves & Breaking Boundaries.
PhysCon is a very special chance to network, give a poster, hear a plenary talk from one of the best in physics, gain self-confidence, make lifelong friends among colleagues from around the nation and abroad, and, frankly, to become excited by and engrossed in state-of-the-art physics.
The Coe College 39 at PhysCon 2016. Photo courtesy of Steve Feller.
For example, imagine the excitement of learning about supersymmetry from Dr. Jim Gates during a plenary talk and then having an intimate conversation with him after about his incredible ideas. That happened at PhysCon 2016.
What makes this event particularly special for undergraduates is that it is specifically designed for them. There is no other meeting like it in physics. Undergraduates will be front and center on the national stage.
As Sigma Pi Sigma members, you have a unique opportunity to support this event and current physics and astronomy students. We encourage you to reach back to your chapters to encourage their attendance, give to support the Congress Student Travel Fund at donate.aip.org, or even plan to attend yourself to serve as a mentor to today’s students. Check Radiations, The SPS Observer, Physics Today, and the congress website (
