Editorial – Forward Physics!
I had the tremendous pleasure of watching the Nobel Prize announcement on October 8 during the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft’s Live from Stockholm event held at the Magnus-Haus in Berlin. The assembly of high-level scientists and journalists made for a stimulating mix, and the delay prior to the announcement provided much opportunity for speculation and animated discussion!Of course, when it eventually was made, the announcement of the award to François Englert and Peter Higgs was met with tremendous pleasure. More details and background to this years’s Nobel Prize is given in another entry of this edition of e-EPS…
Nobel Prize in Physics 2013 to François Englert and Peter Higgs
On 8 October 2013, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2013 jointly to François Englert (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium) and Peter W. Higgs (University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom) “for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN’s…
Knowledge through high-precision measurements: the PTB
On 8 October 2013, the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt [PTB] in Germany was honoured as an EPS Historic Site. The ceremonial event took place at PTB’s Berlin Institute, where the precursor of PTB, the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt [PTR], was founded in 1887. The PTR was the first large national non-university research facility in Germany and the first metrology institute in the world.Big names in physics and important scientific results characterised the first decades of the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt at the end of the 19th and at the start of the 20th centuries. The then Imperial Institute…
Open access opportunities @ EPL
The European Physical Society [EPS], together with the Institute of Physics [IOP], Société
Française de Physique [SFP] and Società Italiana di Fisica [SIF], is one of the founding societies of the well known Europhysics Letters journal, now rebranded as EPL. EPL has celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2011 and has now acquired a maturity to allow for new publication policies. In order to keep abreast with the rapidly changing landscape of copyright and licencing regulations EPL has made amendments to…
New milestone for ELI Beamlines facility
On 16 September 2013, the Extreme Light Infrastructure [ELI] Beamlines facility awarded a contract worth approximately €34.5m to the Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC [LLNS] to develop and deliver a state-of-the-art laser system that will be at the heart of the ELI Beamlines user facility.
Located in the village of Dolní Břežany, Czech Republic, the ELI Beamlines facility aims to pioneer work in a number of research fields using ultra-high intensity lasers. The facility will host a cutting-edge research laser, around 100 times…
CERN welcomes Ukraine as an Associate Member
Since the 3 October 2013, Ukraine is an Associate Member of CERN. It represents the first step for Ukraine to become a full member of CERN and a concrete step towards the integration of Ukraine into Europe.
CERN Director General Rolf Heuer and the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Kostyantyn Ivanovych Gryschenko signed the document in Geneva. The signature fulfils a long collaboration between Ukraine and CERN, beginning with a Co-operation Agreement in 1993. The relation was further strengthened in 2011 through a join Declaration…
EPS Edison Volta Prize 2014: Deadline Extended
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…
A new era in Particle Physics
These are exciting times. In July 2013, one year after the discovery of a Higgs boson with the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN, about 750 particle physicists met at the international EPS Conference on High Energy Physics in Stockholm. This meeting was organised jointly by the EPS High Energy and Particle Physics Division [EPS-HEPP] and a local organising committee. The anniversary of the Higgs discovery was celebrated with the award of the EPS-HEPP Prize to the ATLAS and CMS collaborations and to M. Della Negra, P. Jenni, and T. Virdee for their leadership roles in these…
How much do teachers earn and what do students pay?
Eurydice collects yearly data on teacher’s salaries and the cost of studies in Europe. Two reports have recently been released, giving an overview of the financial status of both teachers and students.
The “teachers’ and school heads’ salaries and allowances in Europe” report provides data for the financially critical period between 2000 and 2013 of teachers’ salaries. In all EU countries except Greece and despite salary cuts or freezes applied over the last few years in many countries, teachers’ purchasing power stayed the same or…
Inauguration of the International Center of Interdisciplinary Science Education
On August 12, 2013, one and a half years after the groundbreaking ceremony of the International Center of Interdisciplinary Science Education [ICISE], an impressive building was inaugurated in Quy Nhon, Central Vietnam. The Vietnamese government, along with many internationally recognized, prestigious universities and institutions in physics, strongly endorsed this initiative.The ICISE is part of an ambitious project planned by Professors Tran Thanh Van and Le Kim Ngoc, as part of the work of the Association “Rencontres du Vietnam”. This non-profit organization was created in 1996 to contribute to…
Nominations open for the 2014 Kavli Prizes
The Kavli Prizes are awarded every two years for outstanding achievement in the following three fields: astrophysics; nanoscience; and neuroscience. The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters organises the selection and the award ceremony, which will take place in Oslo, Norway, on 9 September 2014.
The Kavli Prize in Astrophysics rewards achievement in advancing our knowledge and understanding of the origin, evolution, and properties of the universe, including the fields of cosmology, astrophysics, astronomy…
“New trends in Superconductive Quantum Detectors” School
The school on “New trends in Superconductive Quantum Detectors” was held in Genoa, Italy from 9-13 September 2013. It was organised by the European Society for Applied Superconductivity [ESAS].
Roberta Caruso – member of the Naples Section of the EPS Young Minds Project – reported that “It was such an incredible opportunity for me, because I had the chance to attend lectures from some of the most outstanding scientists in the field of superconductors and, of no less importance, I had the chance to meet a lot of…
