2026 Idaho/Utah Section Report
Section Representative: Larry K. Smith, Snow College Department of Physics
The 1983 section bylaws had been lost for decades. A copy was recovered and examined. It was determined they needed updating, so Larry Smith wrote a draft which was discussed and then approved at the section meeting.
Section Meeting: The 2026 meeting of the Idaho/Utah section was held at the University of Utah on April 10–11 in Salt Lake City, with about 50 attending. On the evening of Friday, April 10, a banquet was held with a popular demo show afterwards. Demos where shared by many people representing various institutions. A good time was had by all.
On Saturday, April 11, Rhett Zollinger, section president and planner and organizer of the conference, welcomed everyone. The section meeting was held in conjunction with a regular make-n-take workshop the U of U provides for area high school teachers.
The keynote speaker was Nick Borys who spoke about “Advancing Quantum Technologies Through New Materials.” Parallel workshop sessions were then held.
After lunch a section business meeting was held at 1:00. We approved some revised section bylaws and elected a full new slate of officers (which we’ve previously been unable to do since COVID). A spreadsheet showing the history of all section meetings was also shown.
Cheryl Davis at Brigham Young University will be the new section president and will host the 2027 meeting.
Two sessions of parallel talks were held in the afternoon.
President Zollinger did a wonderful job planning and hosting the meeting.
Current Officers (terms all start Spring 2026)
Section Representative: Kim Nielsen, Utah Valley University (3-year term)
Section President: Cheryl Davis, Brigham Young University-Provo (1-year term)
Section President-Elect: Katie Devine, College of Idaho (1-year term)
Section Vice President: Steve Hart, Snow College (1-year term)
Section Past President: Rhett Zollinger, University of Utah (1-year term)
Section Secretary/Treasurer: Adam Beehler, University of Utah (2-year term)
Next Section Meeting: Brigham Young University in Spring 2027, planned by Cheryl Davis.
