Last month, authors
Cora Lee and
Gillian O'Reilly traveled to Portland, Oregon, to accept an
American Institute of Physics writing award for their book
The Great Number Rumble. Congratulations, Cora and Gillian! Here's Cora's account of their trip:
Come join the circus... or maybe a physics conference?
The American Institute of Physics and the American Association of Physics Teachers does controlled chaos quite well, juggling hundreds of sessions, workshops, committee meetings and receptions as well as, literally, balls in the air (more on that below). How would two writers know? We were there--last month we traveled to Portland, Oregon to receive our AIP Science Writing Award for The Great Number Rumble, and to speak on a panel discussion on publishing science in popular forms. When we weren’t needed, we peeked into various conference venues.
Highlights? Getting the award, of course. But also: surviving the panel discussion without a microphone... watching unicycles and contortionists, jugglers and jokesters in their Physics of Vaudeville show... overhearing a request for The Great Number Rumble and The Great Motion Mission at Powell’s, Portland’s humongous bookstore!
Left to right:
Philip W. Hammer, PhD, Associate Vice President, Physics Resources Center, American Institute of Physics;
Cora Lee, author;
Gillian O'Reilly, author.
