American Physical Society retweetledi
Where is your home? Deceptively simple question with no simple answer.
Each dot on this map represents a starting point leading to the @APSphysics #APSSummit2026 in Denver this week, where I listened to and presented to fellow physicists who gather annually for this event, the largest of its kind in the world.
I never stop marveling at how global our community really is. Just in my own team and immediate collaborations I count 8 countries and 4 continents. In my small hallway in our midsize department, my colleagues represent 8 different nationalities of origin.
Some may look at these numbers and be dismayed. Shouldn't American science be for and by Americans? We certainly must and do account for the impact of our work on improving the lives of Americans. But there are no American scientific problems. So, the solutions to those problems cannot be found only by or for Americans. Our problems are global, and so are their solutions and the community that works to find them.
So, where is my home? It's especially difficult for me to answer this question these days. I hold three nationalities myself, one by birth and two by choice. One is at war with the regime that occupies another. My body is in one, my mind in the other, and my heart wrapped around the worldline that connects them.
Perhaps my home is on that worldline, ever stretching and bending, I hope, toward peace and freedom.
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