ALPhA: The Advanced Laboratory Physics Association

The Advanced Laboratory Physics Association (ALPhA) is a group of people with a shared interest in teaching physics labs at the advanced undergraduate or graduate level. ALPhA works closely with the American Physical Society (APS), the Optical Society of America (OSA), and the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) to develop new methods for teaching modern experimental physics. In the summer of 2010 we initiated the ALPhA Immersion Program, a three-day short course where instructors visit a lab, do one or more of the local experiments (home-built or commercial) with the local instructor, and learn the experiments well enough to incorporate them into their own programs. These immersions were very well received, with attendees filling up all available slots. In this talk I will describe ALPhA and the Immersions Program and solicit input from the broader community.