New chair for the EPS Physics for Development Group
The group has a new chairman, Ernst van Groningen. He is the director of the physics program at the International Science Program [ISP] located in Uppsala, Sweden. He is a renowned scientist and an expert in the scientific cooperation with developing countries.
The group needs to better define its positioning and to think and design new action types by particularly promoting the application of new methods or/and new technologies to create a better situation for physics in developing countries. Our last and modest action was to provide a 3D printer to the Physics department of Yaoundé University (Cameroon) and with the essential support of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics [ICTP] to train a physicist from Yaoundé University at the scientific FabLab of ICTP. We will follow the evolution of this action and we hope that it will be useful in making equipment for optics practicals.
Since September 2015, the group has a dedicated website created by Ahmed Ouarab, IT engineer at the EPS secretariat and François Piuzzi, former chair of the EPS Physics for Development Group [EPS IGPD]. This website is built as a resource centre and will try to gather information about research, university courses, MOOCs and the making of scientific instruments at affordable cost and to share it with developing countries. Conferences and workshops will also be publicized. The participation of scientists from these countries and especially from Africa is essential. Please send us information about your experience in teaching physics both experimental and theoretical as well as your needs and concerns. It will also be interesting to know the problems you face while organising physics courses and designing and running experiments.
We think that more efforts and funds from European countries should be dedicated to help improve capacity building and to develop structures such as scientific or technological start ups to provide jobs for scientists. This is a long-term task but it is the only way to limit brain drain and contribute to create better living conditions in order to counteract massive migrations.
The website for the EPS Physics for Development Group is http://www.physdev.org.
To contact the Group, please visit the website at http://www.physdev.org/contacts/.
