Physicists are increasingly faced with a difficult two-body problem—the challenge of finding two professional jobs, possibly two physics jobs, in the same geographic area. More women than ever are entering the physics profession, and they are preferentially marrying scientists. Naturally, they are seeking employment in the same region as their spouses. Yet, in most locales, it's difficult enough to find one physics position, much less a pair of them. If one of the two partners fails to find suitable employment, he or she may be forced to forgo a career in physics.
The DPF2002 conference was held at William and Mary. It was a very successful meeting, with approximately 520 attendees, and over 500 talks. The plenary sessions were well received, and featured a number of younger and untenured physicists. There were 16 parallel sessions, ranging from String Theory to B physics. Over 160 of the attendees were graduate students.The funding from the DOE was essential in keeping the registration fees low. The funding provided support for the following: a) All computer services, including setting up the original webpage, interfacing the registration form with the conference office, setting up a secure server, setting up the complete, on-line, abstract database (in fact, the conveners of the parallel sessions never had to actually meet--all was done on-line), scanning transparencies for putting onto the webpage and establishing the database of talks, troubleshooting during the meeting and during abstract submission. b) Conference services, which handled all ordering, registration, etc. Basically, anything involving money and facilities was handled by conference services.
c) Conference bags and mugsWe are especially grateful to the DOE for its rapid support of our proposal, since the funding from registration fees doesn't come in until fairly late, and this allowed us funds to set things up at an early stage.
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