2012 European Physical Society Council
Representatives from all European Physical Society [EPS] Member Societies, Divisions and Groups met for the 2012 EPS Council, which was held on 30-31 March at CERN, in Geneva, Switzerland.
As with every even year, elections were a major item on the agenda. John Dudley, of France’s Université de Franche-Comté, was elected the incoming president of the EPS. Dudley is a past chair of the EPS Quantum Electronics and Optics Division, and was the initial proposer for the International Year of Light.
The EPS Strategy Plan 2010+ caused some changes in governance: in particular concerning the composition of the Executive Committee, which will gain more members. Four members of the committee were re-elected for a second term (C Biscari, E de Wolf, M Knoop and C Latimer) and seven new members (G Djordjevic, Z Fulop, C Hidalgo, J Hough, J Lister, T Müller, S Sotiriou) will join the committee for its next meeting in June this year.
The council assembly also approved last year’s accounts and the budget for 2012. Attendees were informed about the past and present activities of the Executive Committee. Special focus presentations were given on the Swiss and French Physical Societies, and several future events were highlighted, including the International Year of Light, Physics for Development and the Joint EPS-SIF Interntional School on Energy.
The location of this year’s council gave the opportunity for insight into CERN’s scientific themes; on which Fabio Zwirner gave an impressive overview in his talk “Particle physics on the move”. Many council participants also seized the opportunity for a tour of CERN on the Saturday afternoon.
