New funding for SESAME
Representatives of the members of SESAME met at the headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] in Vienna on 28-29 May 2013 for the 22nd meeting of the Council. This was the first Council meeting in which China participated as an Observer.
The Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East [SESAME] is a “third-generation” synchrotron light source under construction in Allan, Jordan, and…
New Chair for Quantum Electronics and Optics Division
Luc Bergé, Director of Research and laboratory head at the French Atomic Energy Commission [CEA] has been elected the new chair of the European Physical Society’s Quantum Electronics and Optics Division [QEOD], succeeding Professor Markus Pollnau from the University of Twente who has successfully overseen the division’s activities for the last two years.
Dr. Bergé is a theoretical physicist with particular expertise in numerical studies of intense light propagation such…
Editorial – Conference Commitment
One of the central activities of any scientific society is to organise conferences and meetings for its members. The European Physical Society [EPS] has just hosted one of its most successful conferences ever in Munich where the European Conference on Lasers and Electro optics and the International Quantum Electronics Conference [CLEO Europe-IQEC] were held over 12-16 May, and attracted a record number of more than 1600 registered attendees. CLEO Europe-IQEC conference is currently co-organised with partners OSA and the IEEE Photonics Society, but has been running in its core technical format for over 25 years. This record number of participants even…
Editorial – National Strengths
The European Physical Society [EPS] has a unique character amongst international learned societies. It fulfills a central federative role supporting its national member societies and it also carries out many highly successful specific European-scale actions through its Divisions and Groups, its conferences and its publications.
At first sight, it may seem that managing this dual role is intrinsically difficult but I cannot help but think that we make it more complicated than it really is. After all, the goal of the EPS is to support European-scale physics so…
Editorial – Challenging physics
It is a very exciting time for European and international physics, and I am honoured and delighted to serve as the EPS president for the coming two years. I am also extremely lucky to be assuming this role when EPS in such a wonderful position, with so many new initiatives put in place during the last two years. For this, I would like to take this opportunity to express sincere thanks on behalf of all EPS members for the dedication and hard work of our outgoing president Luisa Cifarelli.Physics in the coming years and decades faces some pressing challenges. As physicists, we need no convincing…
EPS conference in Munich attracts record submissions
The European Physical Society [EPS] through its Quantum Electronics and Optics Division [QEOD] organizes one of the world’s largest conferences in pure and applied optical physics, which has been held every 2 years in Munich, Germany, since 2001.
The Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics and the European Quantum Electronics Conference [CLEO Europe-EQEC] is one of EPS’s flagship congress events, attracting the world’s pre-eminent scientists in optics and photonics…
Honours abound for physicists in 2013
In the New Year’s Honours List of the United Kingdom, Professor Peter Higgs, Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Edinburgh was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour, and two Fellows of the Institute of Physics were made Knights Bachelor – Professor Keith Burnett, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield, and Professor David Payne, Director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre at the University of Southampton. Professor Burnett has carried out many pioneering studies in quantum optics and has been recognised for his services to science and higher education. Professor Payne was recognized for his services…
First Year of Light Planning Meeting at ICTP
After the UNESCO endorsement last year, the EPS-coordinated proposal for an International Year of Light is working its way through the various procedural steps to the United Nations General Assembly. But serious planning for events and activities is already underway, and the first multi-partner planning meeting will take place in early February 2013 at the International Centre of Theoretical Physics [ICTP] in Trieste, Italy.
The planning meeting will involve Steering Committee representatives from the nations of Ghana and Mexico…
A major step towards the International Year of Light
Tremendous support was obtained at UNESCO for International Year of Light proposal from EPS and 40 other partners. More than 30 UNESCO member states supported the resolution placed on the agenda by Ghana, Mexico, New Zealand and Russia.
Assessment assessed
Physicists like numbers. We measure them, calculate them and use them to test experiment against theory.
Yet we also respect numbers. We appreciate their limitations and we take extreme care to educate students that numbers are open to misinterpretation. From the first years of university-level physics teaching we stress how measurements are affected by systematic and random errors and uncertainties, and we explain and distinguish the difference between accuracy (“truth”) and precision (“reproducibility”)…
International Year of Light Prospectus
In view of the 27th IUPAP General Assembly which will be held in London, on 31 October – 4 November this year, an EPS prospectus for thedeclaration of an International Year of Light (IYOL) is being prepared. The preliminary version can be downloaded from the EPS web page.
The prospectus describes the project, which will request the proclamation of the IYOL by the United Nations General Assembly and provides background information to be considered by the International Union of Pure and Applied…
Light for Development
A central goal of the EPS International Year of Light project will be to promote optical technologies and optics education to improve the quality of life in the developing world – under the theme of ‘Light for Development’.
Light plays a central role in human activities in science, technology and culture. On a fundamental scientific level, light is necessary for the existence of life itself; whilst on a more technical level, light-based technologies will underpin the future development of human society…
