EPS Plasma Physics Division prizes awarded
The 2015 Hannes Alfvén Prize will be awarded at EPS2015 to Nathaniel J. Fisch (PPL, USA) “for his contributions to the understanding of plasma wave‐particle interactions and their applications to efficiently driving currents with radio‐frequency waves”.
EPS Nuclear Physics Division contributions for the IYL 2015
The International Year of the Light 2015 [IYL 2015] is celebrated worldwide with many events and initiatives. The European Physical Society is one of the founding partners of the IYL2015 and the Board of the Nuclear Physics Division of EPS also contributes to this effort with dedicated publications foreseen in journals like Europhysics News and through other actions in different media.
SkyLight – a Global Science Opera
During 2015, hundreds of students from schools in up to 30 countries within the Galileo Teacher Training Program, the Global Hands on Universe (GHOU) and leading cultural institutions will collaborate to create and simultaneously perform a Science Opera inspired by Cosmic Light together with the support of real-time technological collaboration. This will provide a platform for both creative science learning as well as cross-border friendship and cooperation.
A new platform dedicated to photonics in Europe
Leti is an institute of the CEA (Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives, French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission), a French research-and-technology organization with activities in energy, IT, healthcare, defence and security. Leti is focused on creating value and innovation through technology transfer to its industrial partners. It specializes in nanotechnologies and their applications, from wireless devices and systems, to biology, healthcare and photonics.
Higgs boson: the winner takes it all?
This article is a republication from the CERN Bulletin. Since its discovery in 2012, the Higgs boson has been in the spotlight for both experimentalists and theorists. In addition to its confirmed role in the mass mechanism, recent papers have discussed its possible role in the inflation of the universe and in the matter-antimatter imbalance.
IYL2015 Activities in Switzerland
At present, most activities International Year of Light 2015 [IYL 2015] have focussed principally on science and technology of light, and less on cultural aspects of light (though some scientific research institutes however, do foresee talks on light and arts or theology). A laudable exception was the spring concert of the choir of the Bernese Gymnasium Neufeld at end of March 2015, which was dedicated to the IYL 2015. This exceptional concert presented an interesting selection of classical music on the theme ‘Light’. Examples were the composition ’Let there be light’ for choir, brass instruments and organ by Charles E. Ives, and ‘Uncertain Light’ for double choir a capella by Robert Schumann.
Featured in EPN
Most recent highlights from EPN:
The ‘fire’ of opals
Small PET scanner based on MRI-compatible light sensor
Taking snapshots of atomic motion using electrons
Cosmic rays, clouds and climate
Sinking with the Titanic
2015 Wuhan Photonics Week of the International Year of Light
The United Nations [UN] General Assembly proclaimed 2015 as the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies [IYL 2015]. To celebrate the event, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics [WNLO], with the support from many world known scientific societies and unions [1] launches Wuhan Photonics Week.
EPS Executive and Staff activity for April 2015
The EPS works to support its members. Find below the list of activities of the EPS Executive Committee and staff for April 2015:
7-9 April: John Dudley, EPS vice-president, attended an International Year of Light Ceremony in Warsaw (PL) and met with the Presidents of OSA and SPIE (PL).
8 April: Christophe Rossel, EPS president, participated in the board meeting of the Swiss Physical Society in Bern (CH) in his position of delegate to the Swiss Academy of Natural Sciences.
EPS sponsored workshop at GIREP-EPEC
A Workshop on Teacher Shortages and the Preparation of School Leavers for Further Study
The European Physical Society is pleased to announce sponsorship of a workshop at the forthcoming conference of the International Research Group on Physics Teaching [GIREP-EPEC], 6-10 July 2015, Wroclaw, Poland to address the issue of teacher shortages and preparation of school leavers for further study in physics. There is growing evidence that these are problems across most, if not all, of Europe and the aim of the workshop is to try to gather that evidence together and stimulate further discussion and collaboration. Ten travel bursaries of up to 200 Euros are available to …
Conference on the Gender Dimension in Science and Research
How can we target and eliminate existing blind spots concerning the importance of sex and gender in science and research? How can the contribution and potential of the gender dimension to scientific excellence and innovation more purposefully be taken into account for the benefit of science and research as well as research policy at national and European level?
New from the Netherlands’Physical Society – Science Tournament
On 4 June 2015, the national final of the nation-wide Science Tournament “Techniek Toernooi” will take place in the Netherlands.
The Science Tournament started at local schools. Pupils are encouraged to engage in technical experimentation, following a carefully designed work schedule. This way, they learn about scientific principles, they can develop their creativity and they experience that science is not scary and strange but fun, actually.
