Featured in EPL

Most recent highlights from EPL:
Bound states in the continuum driven by AC fields by C.González-Santander, P.A.Orellana and F.Domínguez-Adame
Interaction of a point charge with the surface of a uniaxial dielectric by P. R.Ribič and R.Podgornik
Node-weighted interacting network measures improve the representation of real-world complex systems by M.Wiedermann, J.F.Donges, J.Heitzig and J.Kurths

Physics league… for kick-ass students

The International Association of Physics Students [IAPS], the Dutch umbrella organization for physics study associations [SPIN] and the physics students association in Utrecht [A–Eskwadraat] have launched a new contest challenging physics (under)graduate students. The first edition of the Physics League Across Numerous Countries for Kick-ass Students [PLANCKS] will be organised in April 2014 in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

The competition focuses on theoretical physics problems to be solved by participating teams. Some sample…

The 2nd EU Women Innovators Prize has been launched

After a successful first edition in 2011, the European Commission has launched the second edition of the EU Women Innovators Prize to reward 3 women who have achieved outstanding innovations and brought them to market.
The first 2011 laureate is Dr. Gitte Neubauer, CELLZOME co-founder. She is leading her company’s work on new, better-targeted drugs against inflammatory diseases and cancer.
The Prize for Women Innovators 2014 will aim to increase public awareness of gender issues, to encourage women to exploit the commercial and business opportunities offered by their research projects and become entrepreneurs…

Science on Stage 2013: sharing best-practice teaching ideas

From 25-28 April 2013, about 350 science teachers met in Slubice, Poland, during the Science on Stage festival.

The main focus of the event is to offer science and mathematics teachers a platform from which they will exchange teaching projects and network together. The projects presented at the festival in 2013 were selected from 25 European countries.

The Science on Stage festival gives teachers the opportunity to present their best-practice ideas…

2012 UMD Student Poster Competition in Optics and Photonics

The 2012 University of Maryland Student Poster Competition in Optics and Photonics was a resounding success. This event is co-sponsored by the University of Maryland College Park [UMDC] chapters of the Optical Society of America [OSA], the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers [SPIE] and the European Physical Society [EPS], as well as the Baltimore and DC-Northern Virginia chapters of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers [IEEE] and the Capitol chapter of OSA.
The poster session saw the submission of sixteen posters from area universities, prepared and presented …

New Associate Members enter the EPS

Many of Europe’s leading research centres and corporations are Associate Members of the European Physical Society [EPS]. Contributions from Associate Members are used to sponsor prestigious prizes, such as the EPS Edison Volta Prize for outstanding contributions to physics. The EPS Technology and Innovation Group actively encourages Associate Members to take part in technology foresight seminars. As Associate Members, research centres, corporations and universities contribute to EPS activities in fields including education, communication and publication.
The EPS is pleased to welcome Edison SpA, Europe’s oldest, and Italy’s largest electric company as…

Odysseus contest reveals the next generation of scientists

Students from all over Europe demonstrated their interest in science during the Odysseus contest.

The contestants, from 14 to 18 years old, had to design a project related to space exploration and research. Over 430 high school students from 17 European countries participated. After the national and international selections, 5 teams were selected as laureates of the contest. The winning pupils and their coaches were invited to visit the astronaut-training center in Cologne, Germany and to attend the awards ceremony and event at Space Expo…

Open Access: a general concern

As reported in our previous e-EPS issue, the European Physical Society [EPS] has started a discussion and survey among the European scientific learned societies concerning Open Access.

Today the transition from the current subscription-based system for scientific journals (or from the frequently adopted hybrid author pays/subscription-based system) to full open access is a serious concern. Very recently a statement precisely on the transition to open access was published by Science Europe…

Giorgio Benedek appointed as new Editor-in-Chief of EPL

Professor Giorgio Benedek has been appointed as the new Editor-in-Chief of EPL, a journal publishing original, high-quality letters in all areas of physics.

Giorgio Benedek currently works at the Department of Materials Science, University of Milan. His research interests include materials science and the physics of low-dimensional systems. He gained his first degree and PhD from the University of Milan…

A historic view from Galilei’s window in Arcetri

On 17 May 2013, a new EPS Historic Site was inaugurated in Florence, Italy.

The site is the “Hill of Arcetri”, rich in buildings of considerable historical and scientific interest:

• the former Institute of Physics where, in 1926 Enrico Fermi wrote his fundamental work on the statistics that bears his name, and where young Gilberto Bernardini, first President and founder of the EPS…

ATLAS and CMS awarded for the discovery of a Higgs boson

In July 2012, the ATLAS and CMS collaborations announced the discovery of a new heavy particle at a mass around 125 GeV. Its properties were strikingly similar to those of a Higgs boson, a long-sought particle expected from the mechanism for electroweak symmetry breaking that was introduced almost 50 years ago by Robert Brout, François Englert and Peter Higgs.

Experimental confirmation of the Higgs boson presented monumental challenges because of its relatively large…

Fostering APS-EPS collaboration through CISA meetings

The spring meeting of the Committee for International Scientific Affairs [CISA] of the American Physical Society [APS] took place in Washington DC, on 11 May 2013. The meeting was attended by Luisa Cifarelli as EPS representative.

In a very lively and friendly atmosphere, based on “elective affinities” between the two societies, many relevant matters were discussed. The meeting, organized by Amy Flatten, APS Director for Scientific Affairs, was chaired by Alan Hurd and attended, in particular, by the Chairs (past and elect) of the APS Forum on International Physics [FIP]…