Inside This Issue

My Story of LRO

For Those Who Care

Physics on the (Dirt) Road in Kenya

Spotlight on SPS Outreach

Art, Sculpture, and Holography Intersect with Science at Fermilab

Elegant Connections in Physics: History of Big Bang Cosmology, Part 7: The "Great Light"

SPS at Meetings

SPS Council Looks to the Future

About the Cover
In this issue, we pay homage to "A Universe of Wonder,” the 2009 SPS theme, aligned with the International Year of Astronomy 2009. Upper left: SPS member Jodie Barker-Tvedtnes (Utah State University) and daughter Kalila marvel at the wonders of the night sky. Right: NASA’s LRO launches from the Kennedy Space Center (page 2). Lower left: Students peer through a Galileoscope during an outreach event in Kenya.

Editor
Dwight E. Neuenschwander Southern Nazarene University

Editorial Assistants
Tracy Schwab
Kendra Rand

Art Director
Phillip Payette

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Society of Physics Students
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College Park, MD 20740

Tel: (301) 209-3007
Fax: (301) 209-0839

Email: sps@aip.org
Web: www.spsnational.org


SPS President
Toni Sauncy
Angelo State University

SPS/Sigma Pi Sigma Director
Gary D. White

SPS/Sigma Pi Sigma Assistant Director
Thomas Olsen

AIP Member Societies:
American Physical Society
Optical Society of America
Acoustical Society of America
The Society of Rheology
American Association of
      Physics Teachers
American Crystallographic
      Association
American Astronomical
      Society
American Association of
      Physicists in Medicine
AVS, The Science and
      Technology Society
American Geophysical Union

Other Member Organizations:
Sigma Pi Sigma
Society of Physics Students
Corporate Associates

SPS 

LRO Takes Flight

My Story of LRO: How the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Will Change Our View of the Moon
by Daniel McNeel, 2008 & 2009 SPS-NASA Goddard Intern,
New Mexico State University


... This spacecraft and I go way back together, even further back than you might imagine. This is the story of how I came to become involved with this chunk of metal currently circling the moon. More...


The History of Cosmology as I Have Lived Through It

Ralph A. Alpher

Ralph A. Alpher (1921-2007) was a founder of Big Bang cosmology. His 1948 dissertation on primordial element abundances by neutron capture laid the foundation for modern big bang nucleosynthesis calculations, and led that same year to the prediction by Alpher and Robert Herman of the existence and present temperature of the cosmic microwave background radiation. The CMBR forms the crucial signature of a universe that began with a “Big Bang,” and its power spectrum has opened the era of “precision cosmology.”

We have been privileged to publish a three-part biography of Ralph Alpher, written by his son, Dr. Victor Alpher. We trust you will enjoy this glimpse into the life and work of Ralph A. Alpher.

Ralph Alpher Big Bang Cosmology Series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3


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