WEGA – Forty-year-old fusion experiment to cross the Atlantic
The WEGA fusion device at Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics [IPP] in Greifswald, Germany, is being handed over to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States, after 13 years of successful work. WEGA is making room for the Wendelstein 7-X large-scale device, which is currently in development at IPP and will be completed in 2015.
Under the name “Wendelstein Experiment in Grenoble for the Application of Radio Frequency Heating”, this small fusion device was commissioned in 1975 as a joint German-French-Belgian project. Scientists from IPP at Garching and…
EPL news
You will find below the latest items from the EPL webpage
Perspectives – a new feature for EPL – commentaries authored by leading researchers aimed at highlighting the significance, impact, progress and wider implications of their research field.
Articles from the META’14 conference – these 5 articles are all free to read until 31 December 2014.
The latest EPL Newsletter – this issue and previous newsletters are available online.
Distinguished referees – EPL annually recognises a select group of reviewers who have …
Light for the 2014 Nobel Prizes in Physics and in Chemistry
The Nobel Committee has awarded this year two practical inventions, the blue Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) and the super-resolved fluorescence microscopy. Those are revolutionary and both use light to overcome technological barriers.
The 2014 Physics Nobel Prize goes to Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano from Japan, and to Shuji Nakamura from USA, “for the invention of efficient blue light emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources”. In the past producing bright visible light was routinely done by using semi-conductor diodes, to make…
EPS Plasma Physics Prizes: calls are open
The EPS Plasma Physics Division [EPS PPD] recognises outstanding research in plasma physics with several prizes. The calls for the 2015 prizes are now open:
- Call for nominations for the 2015 European Physical Society Plasma Physics Division Hannes Alfvén Prize (deadline: 3 November 2014)
- Call for nominations for the 2015 European Physical Society Plasma Physics Division Innovation Award (deadline: 1 November 2014)…
ESS – birth of the most powerful neutron source in the world
The European Spallation Source [ESS] is one of the largest science infrastructure projects being built in Europe today. Designed to generate neutron beams for science, ESS will benefit a broad range of research, from life science to engineering materials, from heritage conservation to magnetism.
The facility design includes a linear proton accelerator, a tungsten target station, twenty-two state-of-the-art neutron instruments, a suite of laboratories, and a supercomputing data management and software centre…
International Workshop EPS-CEI-UNESCO
On behalf of the organizing committee of the International Workshop “Promotion of physics in the CEI countries and Integrating Access to Research Infrastructures in Europe” the organisers ares delighted to invite you to the event to be held in Sofia, Bulgaria, November 23-25, 2014.
The workshop is the second one in the framework of the project “Towards the integration of the physics community in CEI countries into the ERA“. The project is co-financed by: Central European Initiative (CEI), European Physical Society (EPS), ICTP Trieste (Italy), Southeastern European Network…
International Year of Light news
Light at the focus of 2014 Physics and Chemistry Nobel Prizes!
As a fantastic lead-in to the International Year of Light (IYL2015), the Nobel Prizes for Physics…
An Open Letter to the Photonics Industry
The EPS President and IYL 2015 Steering Committee Chair John Dudley…
Photonics Communication Research Laboratory of the National Technical University of Athens to support…
EPS Executive and Staff activity for September 2014
The EPS works to support its members. Find below the list of activities of the EPS Executive Committee and staff for September 2014.
3 September: John Dudley, EPS president, attended the Portuguese Physical Society Annual Meeting in Lisbon, Portugal.
9 September: David Lee, EPS secretary general, attended the Kavli Prize Ceremony, in Oslo, Norway.
15-17 September: members of EPS took part to the 18th Conference of Czech and Slovak physicists in Olomouc …
Galileo Galilei on stage
How can a theatre performance on science be enthusiastically attended by about 900 physicists and non-physicist as well? How can an entire audience, with different cultural background, experience a lovely full immersion in the world of physics? On 23rd September 2014, at the Teatro Verdi in Pisa the Società Italiana di Fisica (SIF) presented a performance on Galileo Galilei titled “Io Dico l’Universo – Letture Galileiane”. The piece was a magic mix of readings, renaissance songs, pictures and short clips. A sample of Galilei’s scientific texts were marvelously read by the famous Italian actor, Giulio Scarpati, whose warm interpretation revealed and enhanced the beauty of Galilei’s scientific…
18th Conference of Czech and Slovak Physicists
The 18th Conference of Czech and Slovak Physicists (with participation of Hungarian and Polish Physicists) was held from 16th to 19th September in Olomouc, Czech Republic. This interdisciplinary conference has been organised every three years alternatively on the territory of Czech Republic and Slovakia. It aims at creating and extending a forum for further discussions of physicists from different R&D fields. The conference has a long tradition, and, for the first time speakers and participants from Poland and Hungary had been invited this year….
SESAME’s 800 MeV Booster in Operation
On 3 September 2014, the Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East [SESAME] booster came into full operation. The Booster Synchrotron – the second machine in the SESAME acceleration chain – is now accelerating electrons to 800 MeV.
Reaching this energy is a milestone for SESAME, which aims to bring scientists from the region together through international scientific cooperation…
Editorial – The Future of Light – in our hands!
I had the great privilege to be asked to attend the 50th Anniversary of the International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste which was held over 5-9 October 2014. This was a wonderful experience for many reasons.
Of course, ICTP is well-known as a world hub of theoretical physics and a leading center, but I had an especially personal reason to feel honoured with this invitation. As a PhD student in 1991, I attended an ICTP Winter College on Ultrafast Phenomena, and seeing at first hand the commitment of leading international scientists to leave their well-equipped labs for a few weeks and commit their time to training students from all corners of the world made a…
