Editorial – Physics for Fun

For many who measure time according to a university calendar, summer is a time to unwind. My experience, however, is that it is rare to find physics departments empty over the summer break. Many of us use the vacation period without classes to catch up with research, and I imagine that a colleague of mine speaks for many when he says that summer provides him with the freedom to do the physics he wants to do, and this is all the break needed to prepare for the next academic year!
This reminds me a little of the Wobbling Plate story in “Surely You’re Joking Mr Feynman”? When Richard Feynman…

Accelerators and Fibre Laser Symposium at CERN

The International Coherent Amplification Network [ICAN] held a two-day symposium on new fibre laser-based accelerator concepts at CERN from 27 to 28 June 2013. The symposium assembled a wide range of scientists ranging from particle physicists to telecommunications engineers to explore how a new architecture of high intensity lasers could contribute to the next generation of particle accelerators.
The idea behind the use of lasers for particle acceleration exploits the fact that ultrashort laser pulses can generate electric field intensities sufficient to drive plasma wakefield dynamics which can accelerate electrons to GeV energies…

An academy to promote inquiry-based science education

In early July, the European Physical Society [EPS] brought together in Panormo, Greece, experts in science education for a workshop to define the framework for the development of the European Science Education Academy [ESEA].

In 2009, a meeting was held under the auspices of the EPS to discuss among stakeholders how to better coordinate activities in physics education. The participants recognised the need to work together on issues such as ensuring high-level pedagogic content and to increase teachers’ effectiveness in schools. The promotion of a…

2nd EPS Young Minds Leadership Meeting

On 21-22 June 2013, Mulhouse EPS Headquarters hosted the 2nd Young Minds Leadership Meeting.

The European Physical Society Young Minds [YM] project was started in 2010 with the purpose to encourage young physicists to collaborate, developing scientific, networking and outreach activities. Through YM Sections, the EPS hopes to attract new members, share best practice, and provide international leadership experience to…

News on the Open Access front

In June this year the American Physical Society [APS] has decided not to participate as a publishing partner in the SCOAP3 initiative launched by CERN as an Open Access possible model for the very international particle-physics community.
Of course, this does not mean that the APS will abandon its long-standing commitment to Open Access. However this decision signals, once more, how steep the road is to achieve sustainable Open Access for scientific publishers. Despite the universally recognised merits of the Open Access principle to grant unrestricted access to the results of…

EPS Edison Volta Prize 2014: Call for nominations

Nominations are now open for the Edison Volta Prize of the European Physical Society [EPS]. The award – intended to promote excellence in research – will be given in recognition of outstanding research and achievements in physics.

The EPS Edison Volta Prize is given biennially to individuals or groups of up to three people. The award consists of a diploma, a medal, and €10,000 in prize money.

The Prize was established in 2011 by the Centro di Cultura Scientifica “Alessandro Volta”, EDISON S.p.A. and the EPS…

Inspiring Science Education: eLearning tools to promote IBSE

The project Inspiring Science Education [ISE] – funded by the European Commission under the CIP-ICT-PSP programme – aims to encourage the use of eLearning tools for promoting inquiry-based science education [IBSE] across European schools.

Running from April 2013 until July 2016, the project brings together a multi-stakeholder partnership, including the European Physical Society [EPS], and aims to reach 10,000 teachers and 100,000 students in 5,000 primary…

SIF Fermi Prize for decisive contribution to LHC discoveries

The 2013 Enrico Fermi Prize of the Italian Physical Society [SIF] has been awarded to Pierluigi Campana (INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati), Simone Giani (CERN), Fabiola Gianotti (CERN), Paolo Giubellino (INFN Torino) and Guido Tonelli (Università di Pisa and INFN Pisa), “for the outstanding results that the five large international collaboration experiments at the CERN Large Hadron Collider [LHC] – LHCb, TOTEM, ATLAS, ALICE, CMS – have achieved during the first period of LHC data taking under the successful guidance of the…

EPS Plasma Physics Prizes Awarded

The EPS Plasma Physics Division took the opportunity of its 40th annual conference, held in Espoo, Finland, from 1-5 July, 2013, to reward researchers who have achieved outstanding scientific or technological results, thus reinforcing excellence in science.

The 2013 Hannes Alfvén Prize was awarded to Miklos Porkolab (MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center, US) “for his seminal contributions to the physics of plasma waves and his key role in the development of fusion…

International Physicists’ Tournament

University students are invited to take part in the International Physicists’ Tournament [IPT], one of the most interesting and entertaining competitions in physics among university students. The 6th edition of the tournament will be held at EPFL, Switzerland in early April 2014.

IPT is a student competition in physics where teams compete in solving challenging research problems. Problems are submitted and reviewed by a panel, and are made known to contestants well before the beginning of the…

ILC moving from design to reality

A five-volume report containing the blueprint for a future particle physics project, the International Linear Collider [ILC], was published on 12 June 2013. In three consecutive ceremonies in Asia, Europe and the Americas, the authors of the Technical Design Report [TDR] for the ILC officially handed it over to the international oversight board for projects in particle physics, the International Committee for Future Accelerators [ICFA]. The ILC TDR presents the latest, most technologically advanced and most thoroughly scrutinised design for the ILC, and its publication implies that physicists now have a machine that they know they can build. “The Technical Design Report basically says…

Call for APS Committee nominations

At the end of each year, about a third of the members of the APS committees finish their terms and the American Physical Society [APS] seeks nominations for their replacements.

Self-nomination is allowed. Interested parties are invited to send nominations to the Committee on Committees by using the online form on the APS website or by sending an email to the APS governance.

Nominations should be submitted by 31 August 2013. The Committee on Committees will meet in the middle of…