EPS Executive Committee Meeting in Budapest
As a satellite meeting to the European Energy Conference and the EPS General Meeting in Budapest, the EPS Executive Committee [ExCom] met in the Hungarian capital at the end of October.
The ExCom approved the final version of the position paper “Managing the transition to Open Access”, which is an outcome of the Round Table that EPS organised with partners at the EPS Council 2013. Other learned societies (e.g. EuCheMS) have also endorsed…
The Gran Sasso Science Institute starts its activity
The Gran Sasso Science Institute [GSSI] is a new international Ph.D. school and a centre for research and higher education in the fields of natural and social sciences established in L’Aquila, Italy. The GSSI is a project supported by the Organisation for Cooperation and Economic Development [OECD]. The advice of OECD experts is that the GSSI can give a strong contribution to relaunch the city of L’Aquila as an international centre of scientific excellence, after the earthquake of…
To catch a thief
Back in the 1950s, when the neutrino was still a hypothesis but iron curtain was a reality, A. Szalay in Hungary had an idea to take a snapshot of an event that would prove the existence of the neutrino. During his research at Cavendish Laboratory (United Kingdom), he became acquainted with the latest techniques for research in nuclear physics, and decided to investigate the decay of 6He, a short lived isotope. He recruited J. Csikai, then a young scientist, and together they built a cloud chamber with a sophisticated stereo-camera system.
Forget about megapixels, data acquisition system, everything was hardwired. Still, from the tracks…
An ancient cathedral in West Pomerania and the invention of an early condenser
On 11 October 2013 the 10th EPS Historic Site was inaugurated in Kamień Pomorski in Poland to commemorate the invention of the “Kleistian jar”, more commonly known as the “Leyden jar”.
Ewald Georg von Kleist (10 June 1700 – 11 December 1748) was a German jurist, Lutheran cleric, and physicist. He studied jurisprudence at the University of Leipzig and the University of Leyden. From 1722 to 1745 he was Dean of the Cathedral at Kammin in the Kingdom of Prussia (now Kamień Pomorski in Poland). On 11 October 1745 he invented…
Call for EPS Fellows and Honorary Members
EPS Members are invited to nominate EPS Individual Members as EPS Fellows. Individuals whose achievements in physics, whether in research, industry or education and/or through commitment to the EPS warrant specific recognition are eligible to become EPS Fellows. Nominations should be sent to EPS Secretary General, David Lee, by 31 January 2014. EPS Members are invited to nominate outstanding individuals as Honorary Members of the EPS. Distinguished persons whose outstanding achievements in physics or a related science whom the European Physical Society especially…
The EPS at OECD Global Forum
The EPS was invited to attend the recent OECD Global Forum on the Knowledge Economy, which was held in Istanbul on October 22-23. The EPS was represented by Colin Latimer, EPS Treasurer.
Most OECD countries are still struggling to recover from the financial crisis of 2008 and the emerging economies have also been faced with a more recent downturn. Weak global economic growth has placed government budgets for science and innovation under threat in many countries. Previously planned increases have commonly been revised…
EPS Early Career Prizes
The EPS has two Early Career prizes to be awarded each year – one each for achievements of a mainly theoretical or experimental nature.
Those eligible for these awards should have made a substantial contribution to the development or reputation of physics in Europe. “Early Career” is defined as those individuals in the first 12 years of their career in physics following their first degree or equivalent, with allowance for any career breaks…
HOPE – A new European Academic Network
The academic network Horizons of Physics Education [HOPE] was launched in October 2013. This three-year project is supported by the Life Long Learning Programme [LLP] of the European Union. It is the 6th thematic network in physics education in a series of networks beginning in 1995 with European Physics Education Network [EUPEN].
The 71 full partners are from 31 LLP-eligible countries of the European Union along with Norway, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey; they comprise 65 academic partners and 6 non-academic partners including the European Physical Society. The…
Budapest hosted eminent speakers at the E2C conference
The 3rd European Energy Conference [E2C 2013], was held in Budapest, Hungary from 27-30 October 2013. The conference was organised by the Hungarian Chemical Society [HCS] in cooperation with the Eötvös Roland Physical Society [HPS], as well as the European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences [EuCheMS], the European Physical Society [EPS] and the European Materials Research Society [E-MRS].
The previous two versions of the European Energy Conference were held in 2010 in Barcelona, Spain, and in 2012 in…
A new European School in Instrumentation for Particle and Astroparticle Physics
Registration for the first edition of the European School in Instrumentation for Particle and Astroparticle Physics [ESIPAP] is now open.
ESIPAP was founded by the French laboratory of excellence ENIGMASS and offers advanced and intensive modular courses in instrumentation for students (Master and Ph.D.) and for professionals.
The School will take place at the European Scientific Institute [ESI] in Archamps, France, close to Geneva…
Researchers’ Night in Debrecen, Hungary
The University of Debrecen has been participating in European Researchers’ Night for many years. The Debrecen Young Minds section also participated, offering activities in five different themes.
In the park of the Nuclear Research Centre [Atomki], people could try the water bottle rocket built by a student in electric engineering. Not far from there under the attacks of giant bubbles one could submerge his/her hands into a big bowl of oobleck (a non-newtonian suspension of cornstarch and water). Entering the building a few students and…
Featured in EPL
Most recent highlights from EPL:A new perspective on cosmology in Loop Quantum GravityMorphology transition at depinning in a solvable model of interface growth in a random medium Superconductivity and physical properties of strongly electron correlated compounds LanRu3n−1B2n
Momentum-resolved electronic structure at a buried interface from soft X-ray standing-wave angle-resolved photoemission…
