A bit of history was made Nov. 12-14 when the Prairie Section of the American Physical Society held its inaugural meeting at the UI in Iowa City.

The oldest and largest professional society for physicists in the country, the American Physical Society has several geographical sections. Until recently, however, physicists in the states of Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska did not have their own section. In 2007, the Prairie Section was formed to meet their needs, including the holding of annual meetings.

The inaugural meeting featured two plenary talks, one by Professor Michael Turner of the University of Chicago on "The Dark Side of Cosmology: Dark Matter and Dark Energy" and another by UI Professor Donald Gurnett on "The Sounds of Space." In addition, the meeting offered sessions on condensed matter physics, particle physics, laser physics and physics education, as well as a demonstration show. The conference was held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Iowa Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers and was supported by the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Excellence Fund.