BTPC Director Brad Marston elected to APS presidential line

Brown Theoretical Physics Center Director Brad Marston has been elected to the presidential line of the American Physical Society. Professor Marston will serve as vice president starting in 2024,  as president-elect in 2025, and as president in 2026.

Professor Marston / Photo: A. Green

He joins two Brown faculty members as past presidents of the APS with connections to the Theoretical Physics Center: co-founding Director Jim Gates (APS president in 2021), and Carl Barus (1856-1935, APS president in 1905-1906), professor of physics and Dean of the Graduate School. The BTPC is housed in the Barus Building.

Professor Marston, who helped start the APS Topical Group on the Physics of Climate and Brown’s Initiative for Sustainable Energy, said in his presidential candidacy statement:

“An understanding of physics endows us with critical perspectives to address the global threats of nuclear warfare and climate change and respond to the urgent call for global equity and sustainable sources of energy. It prepares us to confront emergent challenges such as quantum information and the rapid ascendance of artificial intelligence. In times of political tension, such as during the Cold War, physics brought people together to advance not just our understanding of science but also our mutual empathy and respect.”

Professor Barus / Photo: Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 90-105, Science Service Records, Image No. SIA2007-0183

Read more here.

Professor Gates