Hawken senior meets U.S. Senator

Hawken senior Kenan Diab, one of the top physics students in the country, recently met with Sen. Sherrod Brown. Diab, who was selected to be a member of the United States Physics Team by the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT), met with Sen. Brown as one of the activities of the team`s training camp at the University of Maryland. This is the second year Diab has been selected as a member of the team, which includes only 24 students from across the country. For ten days the team studies advanced physics principles, take exams and hear lectures from prominent physicists at the university in College Park. Five students from the U.S. team will be chosen to represent the U.S. at the international physics competition held this year in Iran. The time at camp is not only spent on physics; the students also visited the nation`s capital to meet with their senators and representatives, which helps them learn to communicate important science to legislators and others who don`t usually hear about science. The in-person meeting helps remind members of Congress of the importance of science and math education in the U.S. Diab gave Mr. Brown a toy car that is propelled by potential energy stored in a flywheel. Flywheels have been used to store energy for spacecraft and to power buses. The car carried a flyer that said \"Science Drives Innovation.\" The U.S. Physics Olympiad Program was started in 1986 by the AAPT to promote and demonstrate academic excellence. The training camp is sponsored by the AAPT and the American Institute of Physics in College Park, Maryland.