An innovative "salon"-type gathering of people, ranging from high school seniors to practicing medical doctors who enjoy quarks, pizza, liquid nitrogen ice-cream -- and who share a love of physics -- has been meeting monthly for three years at The University of Tulsa.
Jerry McCoy, the physics professor who started the group, known as the "Journal Club," says he knows of no other organizations like it at other colleges and universities. He says participants discuss assigned journal articles "and chew the fat over physics -- something physicists love to do."
McCoy made a presentation about the purposes and benefits of the club on Jan. 19, in Kissimmee, Florida, at a meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers. An abstract is available by going to the association's web site http://oliver.aapt.org/aapt_forms/abssearch1.html, then typing in "McCoy" in the author field.
The club meets on the first Tuesday of each month during the academic year.
Meetings are usually off-campus. Participants include high school students, university students and professors, alumni, and doctors and other professionals whose undergraduate degrees were in physics. For instance, the February 2000 meeting was at the home of a Boeing researcher who holds a Ph.D. in physics.
McCoy and another faculty member will select two journal articles on a current topic of general interest in physics. McCoy distributes the articles to participants a couple of weeks in advance so that they can read them before the meeting. Also, all the participants read an article of their own choosing on a science topic.
Meetings generally start at 6:30 with pizza and socializing. Around 7 p.m., a student reviews the first article, then others join the discussion. After about 20 minutes, another student reviews the next article. Then the faculty member uses the article as a springboard to talk about his area of research, followed by further discussion. Finally, each person presents a 30-second summary of the article he or she chose.
For example, at one meeting, McCoy says, a professor reviewed an article from Scientific American on physicist Lisa Meitner, who should have received a share in the Nobel Prize for the discovery of nuclear fission, but was denied for several non-scientific reasons. Also reviewed was an article on the Ulysses Mission, a space probe to gather data on the Sun's "atmosphere," which allowed the professor to talk about his area of interest, space physics.
McCoy says one of the regular attendees is a 1972 graduate who is a practicing doctor of obstetrics and gynecology. The doctor, who served up the liquid nitrogen ice-cream, "comes because he likes to keep up with physics even though he is in the medical field," says McCoy. "Another attendee graduated in the early 90s from physics. She is home with her children and loves the opportunity to 'talk science' with others."
McCoy says the club offers physics-lovers a chance to keep up with current physics literature. He says it also helps develop a sense of community within the physics department, and the students get to know the faculty "away from the antiseptic classroom environment." In addition, "it provides a forum for faculty members to talk about their research, and we keep our alumni involved with the department. And, it's a way to recruit prospective students."
"We usually have around 25 or so people in attendance," says McCoy. "The meetings seem to have been quite a success."
McCoy can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] or by phone at (918) 631-3072.
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