SAIP Electronic Newsletter No 21 - February 2003 (1) FROM THE EDITOR Judith Ncapayi (Ncapayi@tlabs.ac.za) (2) SILVER JUBILEE MEDAL 2003 Jaynie Padayachee (Jpadayachee@bonbon.net) (3) BENEFICIAL IoP MEMBERSHIP FOR SAIP MEMBERS. Japie Engelbrecht (phajae@upe.ac.za) (4) REPORT FROM THE TRANSFORMATION COMMITTEE Patricia Whitelock (paw@saao.ac.za) (5) SURVEY OF PHYSICS IN SOUTH AFRICA Patricia Whitelock (paw@saao.ac.za) (6) UPDATE ON THE "FUTURE OF PHYSICS IN SA" Patricia Whitelock (paw@saao.ac.za) (7) 48th ANNUAL SAIP CONFERENCE, STELLENBOSCH Piet Walters (pew@sun.ac.za) (8) 4th INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON SURFACE AND INTERFACE SEGREGATION Elmarie Mortimer (elmarie@eaiinfo.com) (9) 9th INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON RADIATION PHYSICS (ISRP-9) and WORKSHOP ON RADIATION BASED ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES Dan Jones (jones@tlabs.ac.za) (10) ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE NEXT TWO CHRIS ENGELBRECHT SUMMER SCHOOLS Hendrik Geyer (hbg@sun.ac.za) (11) MAJOR BOOST FOR THEORETICAL PHYSICS Hendrik Geyer (hbg@sun.ac.za) (12) PHYSICS IS "PHUN" AT SCIENCE CENTRES Mr Derek Fish (dfish@iafrica.com) (13) FET CURRICULUM STATEMENT D. Grayson (Graysdj@unisa.ac.za) ********************************************** (1) From the editor I would like to thank all those members who sent contributions for my first edition of the SAIP newsletter. My particular thanks to Miss Jaynie Padayachee and Dr Patricia Whitelock for all their help and guidance. I would like all the members to take note of the following dates for future newsletters : 12 MAY, 11 AUGUST and 10 NOVEMBER. Deadlines for submission of contributions : 1st day of every month. I will send out a "Call for contributions" email 10 days before the deadline and members are requested to stick to the deadlines. Suggestions on what members may want to see in the newsletter are welcome particularly from my fellow students. ************************* (2) Silver Jubilee Medal 2003 Members are reminded that the closing Date for Silver Jubilee Medal is 28 February 2003.Please contact the Secretary (jpadayachee@bonbon.net)for further details. ************************** (3) Beneficial IoP membership for SAIP members A Companion Society Agreement was reached between the Institute of Physics in the UK, and the SAIP last year.According to this agreement, members of the SAIP can become members of the IoP at very favourable rates. Benefits include : * All affiliated SAIP members may attend IoP conferences at IoP member rates, and have access to the IoP's London headquarters during normal office hours, including access to the Members' Room and Library and other facilities * Monthly copies of the IoP magazine "Physics World" * Access to any three of the IoP's electronic journals for own personal use, with the same number of permitted downloads as IoP members * books published by the IoP at IoP membership rates The annual Affiliation fee for SAIP members to have IoP membership is R 240 for 2003.(There is an additional fee of R80 for Chartered Physicst (CPhys)). All payments to be made to the Treasurer of the SAIP, Prof Japie Engelbrecht.This can be done either by : a)Sending a cheque made out to the "South African Institute of Physics" to Prof Engelbrecht, Physics Department, UPE, Box 1600, Port Elizabeth 6000, or b) By depositing the amount into the SAIP Account at any Standard Bank (Brooklyn Branch, branch code : 01-12-45-12) Account number 017595932, or c) By electronic transfer to the above account. PLEASE inform Prof Engelbrecht of any deposits other than cheque by email (phajae@upe.ac.za) or fax (041-504-2573), including your mail address for delivery of the "Physics World" magazine; otherwise your membership will not be activated. " ******************************** (4) Report from the Transformation Committee SAIP members are reminded that the report of the transformation committee,which was chaired by the Vice President Edmund Zingu, is available via our web page (www.sun.ac.za/physics/saip/reports.htm). Council is due to consider the recommendations of the committee at an extended meeting on 21/22 February and would appreciate any comments from the membership in advance of this meeting. It is quite clear that some of the committee's recommendations will require funding beyond the present means of the society. While finance is obviously a very serious issue, it should not be a fundamental limitation in the implementation of worthwhile recommendations.Ultimately we will have to find ways to finance what needs to be done to make the SAIP an effective, vibrant and representative organization that can respond to the needs of its members. So we would like additional input from you on these recommendations, with some indication of those you favour and those which you do not, and why. This will help us in deciding the best way forward. Please send your comments to the secretary, Jaynie Padayachee (jpadayachee@bonbon.net) for circulation to the rest of council. ***************************** (5) Survey of Physics in South Africa The survey of physics in South Africa compiled by Maciej Soltynski of the Institute for Futures Research can be downloaded the SAIP web page (www.sun.ac.za/physics/saip/reports.htm). This will provide one source of information to the study of the Future of Physics in South Africa. Council will consider its response to this document at an extended meeting on 21/22 February and would appreciate any comments from the membership in advance of this meeting. Minor typological errors and spelling mistakes will be noted, if necessary in an addendum, but at this stage we are particularly interested in broader comments about the document. Is there anything of substance that is factually incorrect or any area of importance to physics that is omitted from the report? Please send your comments to the secretary, Jaynie Padayachee (jpadayachee@bonbon.net) for circulation to the rest of council. ************************** (6) Update on the "Future of Physics in SA" We have now completed phase 1 of the process of a "Forward Look at Physics in South Africa". Meetings have been held at five centres, Western Cape (iThemba LABS), Eastern Cape (UPE), the North (NRF) and KZN (UN) as well as a discussion at the AGM in Potchefstroom in September of last year. My apologies to the physicists of Bloemfontein, whom we had intended to visit, but didn't make it. Many thanks to Prof Swart for holding a discussion meeting at the University of the Free State and passing on the conclusions of that meeting to us. A meeting was held at NRF on 21 January involving members of the NRF, Prins Nevhutalu, Gudrun Schirge and Anke Radel together with the following members of Council: Edmund Zingu, Jappie Engelbrecht, Simon Connell and Patricia Whitelock. We agreed that the idea of a Forward-look and associated review, had received widespread support from the academic physics community and that we must now proceed as rapidly as possible to the next phase. This involves holding a National Meeting at which the Management/Policy Committee and the Technical Committee would be set up. This meeting will bring together the academic physics community and other major stakeholders including government and industry. Dr Rob Adam, Director General of the Department of Science and Technology has agreed to participate in this meeting and to encourage his colleagues from government to do so. The combination of SAIP council and the above mentioned members of the NRF will continue as a steering committee for the process. The NRF has prepared a budget for the National Meeting and the International Panel for the Future-Look study which has been submitted to Dr Adam. We are working on refined terms of reference, letters of invitation and a programme for the meeting. Date for National Meeting: 16 May 2003 Let me remind you that the objective of this exercise is to identify strategies that will revitalize physics and redirect it towards national development objectives. There should not be any expectation that this process will lead to more money without significant changes in approach or direction. It is still possible to comment on any aspect of this process on the interactive web page set up by the NRF: http//delta.nrf.ac.za/physics/ My thanks to all of you who have entered the discussion to date. Some of the comments which were received before the interactive page was set up can be seen on the SAIP web page, which is linked to the NRF one. ***************************** (7) 48th annual SAIP conference, Stellenbosch The Department of Physics at the University of Stellenbosch celebrates its Centennial year in 2003. As part of the festivities the 48th annual conference of the SAIP will be held at the University of Stellenbosch from Wednesday 25 to Friday 27 June 2003. A winter school on Lasers and Applications will be held in conjuction with the conference on Tuesday 24 June 2003. Residence (hostel) accomodation will be available within easy walking distance from the conference venue. A range of other accomodation facilities is available from the website of the Stellenbosch Tourism and Information Bureau (http://www.istellenbosch.org.za). The Organising Committee has invited six eminent physicists as plenary speakers. Five of them are from abroad, one a 2001 Nobel Laureate, Carl Wieman from the University of Colorado. The first circular will be sent out in February and will be available on the web (http://www.sun.ac.za/saip2003). Registration forms will be sent out during March with the second circular. Online registration will be available. ***************************** (8) 4th International Workshop on Surface and Interface Segregation The 4th International Workshop on Surface and Interface Segregation (IWSIS-4) is taking place from the 17th - 22nd August 2003 at iThemba LABS near Cape Town. Detailed information on this workshop is available at http://www.iwsis.org. ************************** (9) The 9th International Symposium on Radiation Physics nd Workshop on Radiation Based Analytical Techniques. The 9th International Symposium on Radiation Physics (ISRP-9) will be held at the Protea Hotel President from 27-31 October 2003. This triennial event is being organised jointly by the International Radiation Physics Society (IRPS) and iThemba Laboratory for Accelerator Based Sciences (iThemba LABS). The Symposium is the latest one in a series which began in Calcutta in 1974. A 2 and a half day international Workshop on Radiation Based Analytical Techniques will be held at iThemba LABS immediately prior to ISRP-9 (24-26 October 2003) with the emphasis being on x-ray fluorescence and diffraction (XRF, XRD) and particle-induced x-ray emission (PIXE). Full information is available on the ISRP-9 website: www.medrad.tlabs.ac.za/isrp9.htm, or from the organiser: Dr D T L Jones [isrp9@tlabs.ac.za] Tel: +27-21-843-1336, Fax: +27-21-843-3382 The Final Announcement and Call for Papers will be posted on the website in April 2003. *************************** (10) Announcement of the next two Chris Engelbrecht summer schools The 15th Chris Engelbrecht Summer School in Theoretical Physics will be held in January 2004 on the topic of "Nanoscale Physics". Details about the venue and time (most probably 21 - 30 Jan 2004) will soon be announced through an OTP circular and on the web page http://www.sun.ac.za/summerschool The 16th Summer School will be held in January 2005 on the topic of "Advanced Scientific Computing - a focus on computational algorithm development for a wide range of physical problems" Contact Hendrik Geyer (hbg@sun.ac.za) for further information. ********************************** (11) Major boost for Theoretical Physics An exciting spin-off of the 2002 Chris Engelbrecht Summer School http://www.sun.ac.za/summerschool/2002.html is that substantial support by Stanford/SLAC and the Flora Family Foundation (1,7million rand over 3 years) has been given to run a theoretical physics program within the recently established Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS). The program will focus on String and Quantum Field Theory and involve a number of postdocs, particularly with an African connection (which of course includes SA) and a visitor program. Members of the theory groups at Stellenbosch and Wits are at the moment directly involved, but any other interested theorists are invited to contact Hendrik Geyer (hbg@sun.ac.za) Fritz Hahne, former Dean of Science at Stellenbosch, has been appointed by the University of Stellenbosch as Coordinator for this program which will be run and coordinated with the input of an international Advisory Board. It is envisaged that this program will lead to the establishment of other STIAS programs in theoretical physics with different focus areas. An advertisement for the postdoctoral postions in the String and Quantum Field Theory program will be available and circulated by early March 2003, aiming for appointments to commence by September. ********************************** (12) Physics is "phun" at Science Centres All over the world, interactive Science Centres make science and technology real, relevant and fun for millions of visitors. The nature of interactive exhibits leads to most of them covering aspects of Physics - creating an ideal environment for gathering more potential students. South Africa has a growing network of Science and Technology Centres, a few of which started from Physics Departments at Universities. SAASTEC, the Southern African Association of Science and Technology Centres, coordinates the development and growth of these Centres in South Africa. Visit www.saastec.co.za to find out about Centres close to you and use these as a medium to popularize Physics. If there is no Centre near to you, why not think about starting one? SAASTEC Council Members would be only too happy to assist - all our details are on the website. For a global perspective on Science Centres, visit www.astc.org. ******************************* (13) FET Curriculum statement As members will know, I was asked to write a critique for SAUVCA of the new proposed FET (Grade 10-12) Physical Sciences National Curriculum Statement. Thank you to those who took the time to submit contributions. The main points in the critique are summarised below. Chemistry educator John Bradley (from Wits) and I were also invited to a meeting at the National Department of Education on 27 January with the person on the Ministerial Project Committee responsible for the Natural Sciences (Nkopodi Nkopodi) and the person in the Department of Education responsible for synthesising inputs on the Physical Sciences (Lebs Mphahlele) in order to give our views in person about the curriculum statement. The senior Department of Education official responsible for the curriculum attended part of the meeting, and indicated that it was very unlikely that the curriculum would be implemented in 2004 - a great relief! Summary of the critique submitted to SAUVCA: 1. Curriculum construction should not be constrained by the capacity of the existing teaching corps. However, plans for curriculum implementation must ensure that adequate resources, such as teachers' guides, and ongoing professional development are available to teachers. Implementation should not be rushed. 2. At the FET level, as opposed to the GET level, learners should have the opportunity to start specialising. Physics and chemistry are the fundamental sciences. If South Africa is to produce more people in science-based professions in the future, senior secondary learners must have the opportunity to take full courses in physics and chemistry. A separate course aimed at developing learners' general scientific literacy could be available for learners who do not wish to study science at tertiary level. 3. There are several possible organizing principles to choose from when selecting the content. It must be made clear which principle is being selected and why. Physicists and chemists should be involved in the selection of appropriate content. 4. The FET curriculum should build on, not duplicate, the GET curriculum. The skills developed should be more advanced than at GET level. They must also be developed within the context of particular content and not in isolation. 5. The broad aspects of learning contained within the learning outcomes are good. However, some of them are overspecified or overly ambitious. Furthermore, science should be seen as universal, while its application to indigenous and other technologies should be explicitly addressed. 6. The assessment standards need to be rewritten in order to realistically specify what the learners should know and be able to do and at what level, as well as indicating conceptual progression. ======================================================================== Judith Ncapayi MSc student @Stellenbosch University Ncapayi@tlabs.ac.za