2024 Idaho/Utah Section Report
Section Representative: Larry K. Smith, Snow College Department of Physics
Section Meeting: The 2024 meeting of the Idaho/Utah section was held at Utah Valley University (UVU) April 12–13, 2024, with about 50 attending. On the evening of Friday, April 12, a banquet was held with a popular demo show afterwards. Most of the demos were done by UVU faculty, but others also brought some demos to share. A good time was had by all.
On Saturday, April 13, Dustin Shipp, planner and organizer of the conference, welcomed everyone, followed by a message from Duane Merrill, past National AAPT President. President Merrill counseled us as AAPT to focus on physics teaching and not get distracted by peripheral issues. Kent L. Gee of BYU gave a fascinating keynote address about high amplitude acoustics from explosions to rockets to volcanoes. Parallel breakout sessions were held in the morning and afternoon with good attendance.
Lunch was concurrent with a poster session and the section business meeting was held at 1:00. COVID-19 (and the cancellation of section meetings 2020, 2021, and 2022) derailed the planning of future meetings and the list of expected section officers. At the conference Matt Zachreson of BYU-I volunteered to host the meeting in 2025 if no one else was available. After the meeting that plan of action was confirmed. Matt will be the section President until the end of the 2025 spring section meeting and then Rhett Zollinger (U of U) will become the next president and host in 2026.
Next Section Meeting: BYU-Idaho in spring of 2025 hosted by Matt Zachreson.
