Journey to the First SPS Chapter of India
Meeting date: Saturday, April 16, 2016 to Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Location: Salt Lake City, UT
Host: American Physical Society
Reported by: Arpan Sharma, Veltech University Chapter
At the 2016 April Meeting of the American Physical Society (APS), I was honored to accept the first charter for an SPS chapter in India. Our chapter is at Veltech University, which is located in the city of Chennai.
Arpan Sharma poses with the charter for the Vel Tech University SPS chapter, which he received at the APS April Meeting. This is the maiden SPS chapter in India.
Veltech University currently has three national SPS members conducting research in computational fluid dynamics, biophysics, and smooth particle hydrodynamics. Partnering with juniors studying astrophysics, we came up with an antigravity chamber, planetary models, and satellite prototypes that we use to motivate students to take physics classes and live a life full of scientific adventure.
I was at the APS April Meeting to present my research on the purging of hydrogen in the space shuttle with analysis on interaction through smooth particle hydrodynamics. My journey from Chennai to Salt Lake City took 28 hours and included a 5-hour delay in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The trip was long, but the experiences I gained at the meeting were remarkable. After coming from a place with high temperatures, the weather in Salt Lake City was especially great.
Arpan Sharma is pictured by his poster with Maria Spiropulu, chairman of the APS Forum of International Physics.Photos courtesy of Arpan Sharma.
I attended many sessions at the meeting, among which my favorite was a session that included talks by Arthur B. McDonald and Takaaki Kajita, who shared the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on neutrinos. This session helped me understand the setup for the neutrino detection and how it confirmed neutrino oscillation.
There were also many events for undergraduates, including discussions on career opportunities for physicists, the presentation of the Future of Physics Days awards, and a contest to write a caption for a t-shirt. I enjoyed meeting the other students in these very active sessions.
During my poster presentation, I was delighted to meet the administrative body of the APS Forum on International Physics, who provided me with the funding to travel to Salt Lake City. I also spoke to many scientists about my research and appreciated their feedback and comments. It made me feel good about my work and raised my confidence for continuing my research in graduate school.
Attending the APS April Meeting was a memorable experience that made me optimistic about the opportunities ahead. It was a fun trip and one of my favorite journeys ever.