Congratulations to Heidi Schellman, physics department head, for being chosen as Chair of Commission 11 (C11) of the International Union for Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP)!
US IUPAP representatives in 2015. Beverly Berger, Aihua Xie, Kennedy Reed (IUPAP president-elect) and Heidi Schellman. Courtesy APS news.
IUPAP is an international organization formed in 1922 with the mission “to assist in the worldwide development of physics, to foster international cooperation in physics, and to help in the application of physics toward solving problems of concern to humanity.” In addition to its ongoing role in assuring international cooperation in physics, IUPAP is occasionally asked, as the worldwide organization for the field, to endorse international agreements, such as the proposed modifications of the standard for System International SI units and C11’s reports on authorship standards in particle physics.
C11 is the body concerned with particle and fields. The commission also oversees the major international conferences in the field and sponsors the International Committee on Particle Accelerators and a Young Scientist Prize awarded every two years.
“It is a great honor to serve as Chair of Commission C11 with my colleagues from all six inhabited continents,” says Schellman, whose passion for international collaboration, let alone her very existence, stem from scientist parents who met abroad “as the two American chemistry postdocs at the Carlsberg Institute in Copenhagen”:
“During my childhood, when my parents were faculty at the University of Oregon, our house was full of fascinating scientific visitors from all over the world. Because of this happy early experience, I’m fully committed to the ideal of international cooperation in science that IUPAP represents.”
See outgoing IUPAP President Bruce McKellar’s recent article in Physics Today for a longer explanation of IUPAP and its work in international development and equity. Or check out their website at http://iupap.org.
