Every year the American Physical Society holds the March Meeting. This year we’re all in Dallas TX. It is (I believe) the single largest yearly meeting of physicists in the world and it is devoted to topics within condensed matter physics, materials science, and similar systems. Let me state that in a different way... Our one section has a larger participation than the other sections of physics combined! Well, maybe it’s not that big if you put ALL of them together... but this is still quite a large meeting.

It’s quite fun to attend for a variety of reasons.

First, most people that attend are presenting something. That is always a great deal of fun and a great chance to help create your presence within the community. Telling people about what I’m doing is, for me at least, one of my favorite activities. Call me a narcissist if you must.

Second, you get to attend talks by all these other people on a huge variety of subjects. I quite excited to learn about what others are doing within my active areas of research (surface science), but also to hear a wide variety of things such as topological insulators, complex oxides, magnetism and much, much more. At any given time I can always find several different talks that I’m interested in seeing (hmmm... what’s the difference between hearing a talk and seeing a talk?). In fact, that’s one of the frustrating things. Very often you really wish you were in 2 or 3 different places at once.

Lastly, and very importantly, one of the reasons to have these meetings is to see your friends and collaborators, both past and present. Every year I attend I am greeted warmly by friends and former professors (Oscar Vilches being among my favorites!), many of whom I’ve not seen since the last annual meeting. It is sad that so many of us live so far apart as it would truly be great to talk with everyone face to face more often. Some times the discussion is very much related to ongoing work, possible collaborations, or finishing that languishing paper from the past each of us carries around. But very often it’s also a chance to see and hear how your friends have been fairing in the world. This in and of itself is reason enough to attend.

This year there is the added benefit of the meeting being held in Dallas TX. This is a nice change for me to see some friends and family, even if only briefly.

As an aside, it’s kind of funny to see all these physicists and other scientists running around in a very small area. For lunch and dinner we spill out onto the streets and into view of the public. There are several stereotypes (many of them not positive) that can readily be seen.