EPS Executive Committee and Staff activities June 2018
The EPS works to support its members. Find below the list of activities of the EPS Executive Committee and staff last month:
Editorial: Half a Century of EPS ! The European Physical Society celebrates its 50th anniversary
It is always great to celebrate an anniversary, even more when it is for half a century!
What follows is not really an editorial but most a description of ongoing activities based on a presentation I gave at the EPS Council on 7th of April in Paris.
7th EPS Young Minds Leadership Meeting
In early May, the Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU) had the privilege to host the 7th EPS Young Minds Leadership Meeting. Members of the YM Action Committee met approximately 50 delegates from all over Europe, who presented their sections’ activities covering outreach, professional development and networking events. The Leadership Meeting was organized by the Prague EPS Young Minds section, founded in 2015, and a member of the Czech Physical Society (CPS) and the Union of Czech Mathematicians and Physicists (UCMP). CTU Prague and the BNL-CZ framework also provided support to the meeting.
International Day of Light sees worldwide success
On 16 May 2018 the first International Day of Light celebrated the vital role of light and related technologies in science, culture and art, education and sustainable development. More than 600 events were held in 87 countries reaching hundreds of thousands of people, and a spectacular afternoon and evening celebration was also held at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France.
EU General Data Protection Regulation
Since 25 May 2018, Europe has adopted the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which was designed to harmonise data privacy laws across Europe, to protect all EU citizens data privacy and to reshape the way organisations across the region approach data privacy.
EPS AMOPD: call for nominations for the Young Scientist Prize
The call for nomination for the Young Scientist Prize of the Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics Division of the EPS is open.
Flares in the universe can now be studied on earth
Solar flares, cosmic radiation, and the northern lights are well-known phenomena. But exactly how their enormous energy arises is not as well understood. Now, physicists at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have discovered a new way to study these spectacular space plasma phenomena in a laboratory environment.
Kavli Prize 2018 in Astrophysics, Nanoscience and Neuroscience
Oslo, Norway – Seven pioneering scientists from Europe and the USA have been named this year’s recipients of the Kavli Prizes – prizes that recognise scientists for their pioneer advances in astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience.
Light, Colour and Vision
Celebrating is a term that we frequently use, without often grasping its value. Latins used celebratus, past participle of celebrare, in the meaning of “to perform publicly with appropriate rites”. This definition contains two important aspects: on the one hand honouring something; on the other hand doing it in a public way, trying to share it with others.
News from Switzerland
The new issue Nr. 54 of the SPS Communications of the Swiss Physical Society can now be downloaded http://www.sps.ch/en/articles/communications/
The SEENET-MTP marks the 15 years of its existence
With a hope of bridging the gap between Southeastern and Western European scientific community, the participants of the UNESCO sponsored Balkan Workshop BW2003 (Vrnjačka Banja, Serbia) came to a common agreement on the initiative for the creation of the Southeast European Network in Mathematical and Theoretical Physics (SEENET-MTP). The Network was a natural extension of the WIGV initiative – Scientists in Global Responsibility, launched by Julius Wess in 1999.
The Origin of Water’s Anomalous Properties Captured by X-ray Experiments
Water is the most important liquid for our existence on Earth and it plays an essential role in physics, chemistry, biology and geoscience. What makes water unique is not only its importance but also the anomalous behavior of many of its macroscopic properties. For example, density, specific heat, viscosity and compressibility of water behave in ways opposite to other liquids that we know. If we look at a glass of ice water, everything is, in a sense, upside down.
