Welcome!

Welcome to the South Asian Physics Foundation. Our objective is to advance regional collaboration in South Asia in order to promote physics for peaceful and productive purposes.

Apply for this year's conferences

We are currently accepting applications for the Professor Faheem Hussain Student Conference Program, which provides funding for South Asian physics students to attend international scientific conferences in South Asia. This program honors the late Pakistani physicist Faheem Hussain, whose distinguished career included many important contributions to furthering scientific research and education in developing countries. Please use the links at the left for more information and an application.

2012 Fundraising

We're off to a good start this year - we held a yard sale fundraiser in San Jose, California on May 26, and had two small drink sales shortly afterwards to sell the leftover drinks and snacks (one at a park and one at the Venus transit event at Foothill College). We'll be selling the remaining items online or at future sales. Many thanks to everyone who donated items and volunteered at the yard sale. And special thanks to all who gave donations at the Venus transit event. In total we raised over $450 to support our programs!

First student sponsored in 2012

Congratulations to Mr. Partha S. Pal of the Indian Centre For Space Physics, who presented his paper "Comptonization efficiencies of the variability classes of GRS 1915+105" at the International Conference on Astrophysics and Cosmology in Kathmandu, 19-21 March 2012.

Welcome new committee members

We are honored to have two distinguished physicists join our Professor Faheem Hussain Student Conference Program evaluation committee this year: Prof. Susana Hernandez of the University of Buenos Aires and Dr. Sivaramanivas Ramaswamy of General Electric Global Research (Bangalore). They replace Profs. Jiunn-Wei Chen and Anil Prabhakar who are stepping down after three years of generous service.

Update: Book Drive for the Maldives Science Society

Due to recent political events in the Maldives, customs processing of our shipment of donated science books is currently on hold. SAPF and Astro Book Drive are standing by to help MSS in any way we can. MSS is the first independent science organization in the Maldives, and to all of our knowledge, this is the first time that the Maldives Customs Service has had to process a large donation to a local nonprofit. So although the books arrived at the port of Male last year, there have been delays with the paperwork needed to get the shipment through customs without the regular import fees. We'll post more updates as soon as we can.

Five Students Sponsored in 2011

Congratulations to our 2011 travel grant awardees, who presented their work at POLYCHAR 19 in Kathmandu and IWPSD in Kanpur:

Mr. Mehedhi Hasan, University of Dhaka
"Enhanced Optical Absorption in Silicon Nanowire" (IWPSD)
Mr. Belayat Hossain, University of Dhaka
"Characterization of Au Nano Particles Synthesized by Electrochemical Process at Room Temperature" (IWPSD)
Mr. Iqbal Hossain, University of Dhaka
"Theoretical Study of drain current of AlInN/GaN HEMTs on SiC Substrate" (IWPSD)
Mr. Anji Reddy Polu, Dr. Hari Singh Gour University
"Study of Mg2+ Ion Conduction in PVA-Mg(NO3)2 Solid Polymer Electrolytes" (POLYCHAR 19)
Ms. Syeda M. Tabassum, University of Dhaka
"Computational Study on Si-based Two-Dimensional Photonic Crystal Waveguide for Biochemial Sensing" (IWPSD)

April was Global Astronomy Month

April 2012 was a busy month for amateur and professional astronomers, educators and astronomy enthusiasts as Global Astronomy Month returned for its third edition. This annual event, organized by Astronomers Without Borders, celebrates the universe in the spirit of the groundbreaking International Year of Astronomy 2009. more

SAPF featured at American Physical Society meeting

SAPF president Jessica Hirschfelder discussed SAPF in a session dedicated to international physics at the 2011 American Physical Society meeting in Anaheim, CA. abstract

Please donate!

Your donation to SAPF will help build a future of regional progress and stability through cooperative physics activities from basic education to cutting-edge research. No amount is too small and it will go a long way toward supporting our programs in South Asia. Please help!

SAPF Awarded HostGator Technology Grant

HostGator is a web hosting company that, until the end of last year, offered free and discounted web hosting services for selected non-profits. SAPF was awarded their Technolgy Grant during the last two years of their program. Many thanks to them for hosting our website through this grant.