Dolores Beasley
Headquarters, Washington               May 28, 2002
(Phone: 202/358-1753)

Rory Richards
American Institute of Physics, College Park, Md.
(Phone: 301/209-3088)

RELEASE: 02-98

NASA HOSTS U.S. PHYSICS OLYMPIAD TEAM HONORS

     After spending a week at physics "boot camp" competing 
in the 2002 U.S. Physics Olympiad, the 24 members of the U.S. 
Physics Team will be the guests of honor at a tribute in 
Washington hosted by NASA. The featured speaker is NASA 
Astronaut John Grunsfeld, who recently returned from his 
mission upgrading the Hubble Space Telescope.

The U.S. Physics Team is made up of 24 of the best and 
brightest physics and mathematics high school students from 
around the country. This year's team includes 18 boys and six 
girls from 15 states with a tremendous number of 
accomplishments between them; one student has studied with 
Russian mathematicians, another was born in Romania and is 
doing financial analysis for the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, 
yet another has deferred acceptance to Caltech to continue 
studying piano. However, on May 31 all their thoughts will be 
on physics - and competition.

For a week the students will conduct laboratory experiments 
and take exams at the University of Maryland in College Park, 
competing for medals and five college scholarships awarded by 
the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) and the 
American Institute of Physics (AIP), which co-sponsor the 
Physics Team. Grunsfeld will award the medals and 
scholarships during the NASA Tribute to the team at 5 pm, 
June 7 at the NASA Headquarters Auditorium, 300 E Street, SW 
in Washington DC.  

 "Dr. Grunsfeld is an excellent example of where physics 
training can take you," said James Stith, Vice President of 
Physics Resources at the AIP. Grunsfeld has a doctorate in 
Physics and has been an astronaut since 1992.  He is a 
veteran of four space flights and five space walks, including 
two missions to the Hubble Telescope. On his latest flight to 
service Hubble in March, he served as mission specialist and 
payload commander. Grunsfeld and his colleagues installed the 
new Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), which has resulted in 
some of the most stunning pictures ever taken from Hubble.

Before the awards ceremony, the Physics Team will also get a 
behind-the-scenes tour of the Smithsonian's National Air and 
Space Museum, and following the ceremony students will get a 
private viewing of SPACE STATION 3-D at the museum's IMAX 
theater.

Biographies and photos of the U.S. Physics Team are available 
on the Internet at:

http://oliver.aapt.org/programs/olympiad/2002/team.cfm

Additional information on AIP AAPT in available on the World 
Wide Web at:

http://www.aip.org

http://www.aapt.org


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