SOCIETY OF PHYSICS STUDENTS - Join

Joining the Society of Physics Students is Easy!

Any physics student can join the UNH Society of Physics Students for free! You do not need to be a pure physics BS major, you just need to be a student who specializes in physics on some level. For example, people trying to get BAs in physics, or minors, or dual degrees, etc. can join, though we are currently primarily composed of people trying to get a BS in physics.

To join simply just start coming to SPS meetings or events. The meetings are currently being held every other Wednesday, in the SPS Lounge (room 209A of DeMeritt). Check the meetings pagefor specific dates, and scheduled events will be posted on the SPS Events page.

If you want to join our email list, simply email matt, (mgiguere(at symbol)gravity.unh.edu) and he will add you to the SPS email list so you will receive notifications of SPS meetings and other activities.

To be an official member of the "National" group of SPS, come to the first SPS meetings of the Fall semester (or Spring by special request), usually which are advertised throughout DeMeritt. At these first meetings, we give out forms to fill out for SPS membership, and then a few weeks after the first meeting we will send them in with the $20/year membership dues, paid for by SPS from tutoring funds (so it is free for you). Official membership in SPS gives you a few perks, notably a subscription to Physics Today (a high quality physics magazine for physicists), subscription to the Journal of Undergraduate Research, the SPS Observer (Society of Physics Students Official Newsletter with good accessible physics articles), and membership in the physics society of your choice, which generally comes with a free newsletter or journal (choices are 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, American Vacuum Society, or American Geophysical Union).

Note: Even if you aren't an official member with the national group, that does not prevent you from doing anything with the UNH chapter of SPS.

What Does SPS Do?

The Society of Physics Students is an organization composed of undergraduate physics students to meet outside of our physics classes.

SPS is a great place for physics students to meet and socialize with other physics majors, in an informal setting while doing interesting things. On top of this, SPS gives students the opportunity to find out about things like paid physics research opportunities and other physics jobs, good classes to take, physics collequia, or even just actual physics from talking with other students.

SPS organizes fun recreational activities for our members. In the last four years some of the events UNH SPS has organized: movie nights, pool nights (billiards), SPS open house (with cool stuff like Liquid N ₂made ice cream, dry ice made explosions, Van de Graaff generators, etc.), Bowling nights, Group Physics Study Sessions during Finals (with free Chinese food), Lunches with physics faculty members, A Hike on Mount Washington, Recreational Sports, A trip to see Copenhagen (the physics related play about Heisenberg, Bohr, WWII, and the atomic bomb), A trip to high school classes to do cool Physics Demonstrations, A star-gazing night at the UNH Observatory, A trip to the Bates particle accelerator near MIT, Raffles for a free DVD that you enter by coming to SPS meetings/events, UNH faculty talks about their research, among other events. This list is not meant to be limits on what SPS can do, but a list of past things that SPS has recently done so you may have a better idea of what SPS does. SPS members choose what SPS decides to do, so if you have some great idea for an SPS event all you have to do is bring it up at a meeting and we can then do it!

Our UNH Chapter of SPS has a lounge located on the second floor in room 209A of the main physics building, DeMeritt Hall pictured below. Our membership and activities is funded by the UNH Physics Deptartment in exchange for us holding free weekly tutoring sessions for all undergraduate physics classes (PHYS 400-799, though primarily 400-level courses). SPS members volunteer to do this tutoring as a way to both help other students out, and to keep past ideas fresh in tutors minds and gives them some experience presenting physics to people who don't understand it well.

For more info or questions contact:
President: Seth at saw8@cisunix.unh.edu

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