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Articles by Els de Wolf

Signing for gender equality in physics research

By Els de Wolf. Published on 19 February 2018 in:
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To advance recruitment and career progression of female physicists and engineers, the directors of the four NWO physics research institutes the Netherlands, AMOLF, ARCNL, DIFFER and Nikhef, have signed Gender Equality Plans. The official ceremony took place on January 22nd, 2018 at the start of the large Physics@Veldhoven conference in front of the physics community in the Netherlands. It kicked off a systematic approach to accelerate improving the gender balance in the national physics research institutes, leading to structural changes. By publicly signing the plans, the four institute directors emphasised their commitment to and the legitimacy of the agreed actions and measures for gender equality.

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 News from Europe 

Editorial – Scanning Khufu’s Pyramid with atmospheric muons

By Els de Wolf. Published on 23 January 2018 in:
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In a publication in Nature in December 2017 [1], teams of the ScanPyramids project [2] announced the discovery of a hitherto unknown big void in Khufu’s Pyramid in Egypt, also known as the Great Pyramid of Giza or the Pyramid of Cheops [3]. The void was found by scanning the internal structure of the pyramid using the abundant flux of atmospheric muons

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 Editorial 

GENERA Gender in Physics days in Europe

By Els de Wolf. Published on 21 March 2017 in:
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In general, the physics research community fosters the assumption of being gender neutral. However, despite this, the under-representation of women in physics research is a long-standing and persistent issue. With this in mind, an international Consortium of Research Performing and Research Funding Organisations have engaged in the H2020 GENERA project which aims at continuing, monitoring and improving their Gender Equality Plans customised for the physics research community. The project started in September 2015 and is now half-way through its project life time.

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 News from Europe 

The construction of the KM3NeT neutrino telescope has begun

By Els de Wolf. Published on 26 January 2016 in:
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In December 2015, scientists and engineers started the installation of KM3NeT.. Once completed, it will be the largest neutrino detector in the Northern Hemisphere. Located in the depths of the Mediterranean Sea, the telescope will be used to study the fundamental properties of neutrinos and map the high-energy cosmic neutrinos emanating from extreme cataclysmic events in the Universe.

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 International 

Structural Change in Promoting Gender Equality in Research

By Els de Wolf. Published on 20 December 2013 in:
December 2013, News, , ,

On 21-22 November 2013, the International SAPGERIC conference on “Structural Change Promoting Gender Equality in Research” took place in Vilnius, Lithuania. The conference was organised by Vilnius University Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astronomy, under the auspices of the Lithuanian Presidency of the EU Council. Two issues were central to all presentations and discussions about the gender equality in research: awareness and accountability of the leadership in European research and visibility through…

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 News from Europe 

Dutch Physical Society hosts Physics and Politics discussion

By Els de Wolf. Published on 15 February 2012 in:
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A discussion session on ‘Physics and Politics’ – with a focus on the importance of physics to the European economy – was organised by the Dutch Physical Society [NNV] earlier this year. This event was part of the annual Physics@FOM conference, held in Veldhoven, the Netherlands, on 17-18 January.

The opinion of physicists is often publically sought in relation to events in which the application of physics is at stake; for example, in regards to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. On a different level, funding organisations actively…

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 News from Europe 

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