C15. Commission on Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics

Report of Commission 15: Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics Meeting
October, 2004
Mumbai, India

Commission Website

• Mandate
• Membership
• 2003 Report
• Recent Advances in AMO Physics
• Links to IUPAP home and other physics societies

Commission Meetings

• ICAP 2004: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • excellent organization by V. Bagnato and stimulating science
  • 500 attendees from 37 countries including 160 from Brazil and several dozen from rest of Latin America
  • meeting featured on National Brazilian TV
  • several satellite meetings including Hydrogen III (Type C IUPAP)
  • IUPAP support divided among 45 attendees primarily from Latin American, Eastern Europe & Russia.
  • Security at Conference is a Concern: No evening session
• ICPEAC 2005: Argentina
• ICAP 2006: Innsbruck, Austria

Conference Recommendations: Unanimous support for ICPEAC $20,000 and Banff Cold Atom Symposium $3,000 requests.

Visa Issues:

• considerable concern regarding difficulties encountered by bona fide scientists seeking to enter U.S.
• Y. K. Ho commented it was particularly degrading for foreign scientists to be fingerprinted
• At ICAP, Harvard Full Professor M. Lukin could not give invited talk reportedly because he could encounter difficulty reentering the U.S. as he is not an American citizen.
• Commission members feel strongly that letters from each national Committee to the U.S. State Department would be more effective than a boycott of meetings in the U.S. at the present time. The latter could invite retaliation and jeopardize support. For example, NIST donated $15,000 to support 16 ICAP attendees.