2012-2013 Annual Report

Laboratory Astrophysics Division

R. Paul Drake – University of Michigan
Steven R. Federman – University of Toledo
Farid Salama – NASA Ames
Daniel Wolf Savin – Columbia University
Wick Haxton – University of California, Berkeley

The Laboratory Astrophysics Division (LAD) came into being at the Anchorage AAS
meeting. During its first year, it was run by a steering committee comprising the
individuals above; elections are underway and the first set of officers and committee
members will be announced at the business meeting in Indianapolis. Because Wick
Haxton had previous commitments, he was not able to participate fully. LAD currently
has about 85 members, with the majority full members (65). The steering committee has
publicized LAD at a number of national and international meetings (see Chronology
below) to encourage the community of users and providers to join LAD. As of 16, April,
$150 in contributions toward the Laboratory Prize sponsored by LAD, and $500 in
additional contributions, have been received.

Daniel Savin maintains the distribution list for LAD. Otherwise, the various activities for
the most part take place through email consultation, with one of the members of the
steering committee taking the lead.

A number of highlights have occurred over the past year. Prof. Ewine van Dishoeck gave
the Kavli Prize lecture that opened the Anchorage AAS meeting and was awarded the
Kavli Prize for her numerous activities in astrochemistry, with a significant presence in
laboratory astrophysics. LAD also held its first business meeting in Anchorage and ran a
series of sessions under the MiM format. “Bridging Laboratory and Astrophysics”
included sessions on atoms, molecules, dust and ice, plasmas, planetary science, nuclear
physics, and particle physics. The format for each session was three 30-minute
presentations. There was also a poster session that remained for the duration of the AAS
meeting.

Another highlight was our co-sponsorship at this year’s HEAD meeting. The “Bridging
Laboratory and High Energy Astrophysics” Session went extremely well. There were
over 60 attendees in the session. There was also a session on charge exchange just
beforehand with over 50 attendees. The HEAD Secretary said it went so well that we
should consider proposing a similar session for the next HEAD meeting, which will be in
18 months.

We also sought connections with SPD. The sessions at SPD meetings are determined by
abstract submission pressure. Daniel Savin encouraged members of the laboratory
astrophysics community doing research related to solar physics to submit abstracts. The
outcome was not known at the time of this writing.

For the coming year, the officers and committee members will seek ways of improving
participation by colleagues conducting research in nuclear and particle physics. These
areas traditionally have been involved in activities organized by Divisions of the APS.
Further collaborative events with these APS Divisions seem warranted. Just before the
Anchorage meeting, the Division of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics (DAMOP)
held its annual meeting, which included a well-attended session on laboratory
astrophysics that was organized by Daniel Savin. In a similar vein, Farid Salama is a
member of the newly formed Astrochemistry Section of the American Chemical Society
(ACS); joint sessions with LAD will be sought. Since many members of the steering
committee are members of IAU Commission 14 (Atomic and Molecular Data), joint
sessions at the next IAU General Assembly in Hawaii are part of our plans for the future.

LAD Events' Chronology:

• June 2012: Launch LAD at AAS 220th Anchorage, AK.
• June 2012: LAD-sponsored Kavli Prize lecture and award, AAS 220th Anchorage, AK.
• June 2012: LAD first business meeting, AAS 220th Anchorage, AK.
• October 2012: Poster on LAD presented at DPS 2012 in Reno, NV. (Salama)
• October 2012: Collaboration between LAD and the APS Topical Group on Plasma
Astrophysics discussed at the Division of Plasma Physics meeting of the APS. (Drake)
• November 2012: Oral presentation on LAD at the CIAS' "New Techniques in Laboratory
Astrophysics" Meeting in Meudon, France. (Salama)
• November 2012: Oral presentation on LAD at the PCMI (Physics and Chemistry of the
Interstellar Medium) Meeting in Paris, France. (Federman)
• February 2013: Oral presentation on LAD at the "First Workshop on Experimental
Laboratory Astrophysics" that was held in Kauai, HI. (Salama)
• April 2013: LAD-sponsored Laboratory Astrophysics session at AAS HEAD meeting in
Monterey, CA. (Savin)
• June 2013: LAD First Meeting at AAS 222nd in Indianapolis, IN.