WHAT'S NEW (in my opinion), Friday, 14 Jan 1994    Washington, DC

1. JUDY FRANZ ACCEPTS POSITION OF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF THE APS!
An APS Fellow and chair of the Condensed Matter Division, she has served on
the APS Council, Executive Committee, and half-a-dozen other committees,
including chair of the Committee on Education and the Committee on the
Status of Women in Physics.  She has also been President of the American
Association of Physics Teachers, and a member of the Governing Board of the
American Institute of Physics, the Council of the Association of Women in
Science and the Advisory Committee of the NSF Division of Materials
Research.  (Maybe there's more than one Judy Franz!)  Currently, Dr. Franz
is Professor of Physics at the University of Alabama.  In making the
announcement, APS president Burton Richter said the Society "is very
gratified and proud that a physicist of Judy Franz's stature, experience and
commitment will serve as one of its operating officers.  She will join the
Treasurer and the Editor-in-Chief at the helm of the Society on or about
April 1, 1994."

2. "NEW ALLIANCES FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT," AN APS ROUNDTABLE, will be held
in Charlottesville, VA next Friday.  Hosted by U.S. Senator Charles Robb,
the APS, and universities in Virginia, the Roundtable will address the need
for research and educational partnerships among universities, industry and
government.  This is the pilot for roundtables the APS is organizing in
other states: Rep. George Brown will host one in California, Rep. Rosa
DeLauro and Sen. Chris Dodd in Connecticut, Sen. Patty Murray in Washington,
and Sen. John McCain and Rep. Jon Kyl in Arizona.

3. THE "SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE" GOES PRIVATE!  Changing
its name to "High Resolution Microwave Survey" was not enough to save SETI
(WN 24 Sep 93).  Although the cost would have been less than 0.1% of NASA's
budget, any search for intelligence was bound to attract jokes in this town.
A high giggle factor always dooms programs in Congress, and appearing to
hide behind an alias only made things worse.  NASA had already spent 20
years and $70M developing the equipment, which operated for one year.  No
messages were received, and Congress balked at spending $12M for operating
costs in 1994.  Anonymous donors have now pledged to pick up the tab--and
SETI can drop the assumed name.

4. ALTERNATIVE SCIENCES UPDATE: GAO INVESTIGATES 1947 UFO CRASH!  With all
the revelations of secret radiation experiments, it was inevitable that the
Air Force would be pressured to come clean about the crash of a flying
saucer in New Mexico.  At the request of Rep. Steven Schiff (R-NM) the
General Accounting Office agreed to take the case.  Can GAO find the alien
that survived?  Clue: it's humanoid with suction cups on its fingers (WN 4
Sep 92).

5. OOPS! CHARLES KENNEL WAS NOT ON THE DIRECTED ENERGY WEAPONS panel of the
APS (WN 7 Jan 94).  It's not the things I forget that worry me, it's the
things I remember that never happened.

Robert L. Park  opa@aps.org         The American Physical Society