Report on the EPS Council 2016
Over 80 participants attended the EPS Council meeting which was held on the campus of the Université de Haute-Alsace, in Mulhouse (FR). EPS Council is the opportunity for the EPS Divisions and Groups, Member Societies and Action Committees to meet, and share information on the development of the EPS.
Council elected the following individuals as members of the Executive Committee:
- Luc Bergé (FR)
- Siegfried Bethke (DE)
- Angela Bracco (IT)
- Ari T. Friberg (FI)
- Sylvie Jacquemot (FR)
- Gerd Leuchs (DE)
- Lucia Di Ciaccio (FR)
- Elisabeth Rachlew (SE)
- Christophe Rossel (CH)
- Frances Saunders (UK)
- Minh Quang Tran (CH)
- Victor Zamfir (RO)
Presidential elections will be held during an exceptional Council meeting later in 2016.
Reports were made by C. Rossel (EPS President), L. di Ciaccio (EPS Honorary Secretary) and G. Leuchs (Honorary Treasurer). There were numerous activities in 2015, including IYL2015 and much more involvement in policy making at the EU. The finances of the EPS remain sound, and it will be possible to finance future developments. Council also reviewed the EPS Strategy Plan 2010+. A Strategy Review Group, chaired by M. Knoop addressed the high and low points of the implementation of the EPS Strategy Plan, and made recommendations and set priorities for the coming years.
Council was also the opportunity to listen to Prof. Kathrin Altwegg, head of the Rosina science team at the University of Bern, who gave an outstanding review on the Rosetta mission with the title ‘Living with a comet: what Rosetta tells us about our origin’.
A Round Table on Physics for Development was organised by E. van Groningen, the chair of our EPS group on Physics for Development and by Marian Reiffers from the EPS executive committee. The speakers included JP Ngome Abiage (UNESCO), B. Capone (Sunshine 4 Palestine), G. Miley (University of Leiden, NL), L. Baron (Liter of Light), and J. Niemela (ICTP).
John Dudley, past EPS president and chair of the International Steering Committee for IYL2015, reviewed the worldwide activities related to light and light-based technologies. Finally another discussion on the positive and negative aspects of research assessment and bibliometrics took place, based on documents like the Leiden Manifesto for Research Metrics (2015), the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (2012) and the EPS Statement on Bibliometric Indices during Assessment (2012). Altogether the EPS Council 2016 was a successful meeting.
The EPS was particularly pleased to welcome 8 former EPS Presidents who presented their views on the achievements and challenges for the EPS. The former Presidents who attended were: R. Ricci (1989-1991), N. Kroo (1993-1995), H. Schopper (1995-1997), D. Weaire (1997-1999), M. Ducloy (2001-2003), O. Poulsen (2005-2007), F. Wagner (2007-2009) and J. Dudley (2013-2015).
More information as well as the Activity Report 2015 can be obtained under www.eps.org or requested from the EPS Secretariat secretariat [at] eps [dot] org in Mulhouse. Do not hesitate in becoming an EPS individual member and all input or personal contributions from members of the national societies are welcome.
