EPWS Paris Conference 2014

The European Platform of Woman Scientists [EPWS] Conference “New Perspectives on Women Scientists Careers in Europe” will be held on 11 June 2014 in Paris, France.

In 2003, the EPWS was created as an international non-profit organisation that represents the needs, concerns, interests, and aspirations of more than 12.000 women scientists in Europe and beyond.

The EPWS brings together networks engaged in promoting women scientists as well as…

Editorial – The road to Brussels

Being elected in a new position is always a nice and enjoyable recognition, also for a scientist. Once the stress and uncertainty of the election are over, the candidate can concentrate on his new duty and prepare to face the coming challenges. The difference here with politicians is that he doesn’t need to manoeuvre during his term to please his electors or own party with empty promises motivated by his wish for re-election.
This being said, I feel really honoured and happy to serve the cause of the EPS in the coming years, first as President-elect and later as President. I would like to take this opportunity to thank…

A common past and future for ESA and CERN

On 28 March 2014, CERN and the European Space Agency [ESA] signed a framework agreement for future cooperation on research and technology in areas of mutual interest. The signature arises from the collaborative vision of Edoardo Amaldi, founding father of both organizations.

Edoardo Amaldi (1908 – 1989) had an strong belief in the open nature of science and the need for international cooperation. After participating in the creation of CERN during the 1950s, he became Secretary General of…

2014 Tycho Brahe Prize awarded to A. Labeyrie

The European Astronomical Society awards its 2014 Tycho Brahe Prize to Antoine Labeyrie in recognition of his outstanding contributions to modern optical imaging at high angular resolution. Since 2007, the Tycho Brahe Prize is awarded annually in acknowledgment of the development or exploitation of European instruments or major discoveries based largely on such instruments.
Having invented holographic gratings, Antoine Labeyrie proposed the technique of speckle interferometry, which allowed reaching the diffraction limit of telescopes especially the largest ones. Then, he was the first…

International Year of Light News

IYL 2015 presented at Photonics Europe in Brussels
The aims and plans for IYL 2015 were presented to European researchers in photonics by EPS President John Dudley in Brussels on 14 April 2014. During the opening session of the SPIE Photonics Europe conference, John Dudley…
International Year of Light announces Philips Lighting as first Patron Sponsor
The IYL 2015 Consortium is delighted to announce a partnership for this International Year with Royal Philips – global leader in lighting solutions – as first Patron Sponsor…

A visible Editorial Board for a visible EPL

EPL has still a modest impact factor [IF], only occasionally above 3 in connection with high-temperature and iron-based superconductors. This is too low when compared with the high quality of most EPL papers. It is fair to say that the IF does not really measure the impact of a journal but rather its visibility. The impact of a journal is measured by the scientific progress that has resulted from its papers, e.g., by the number of papers, which led to a Nobel Prize. Today visibility is nevertheless something a journal cannot do without, due to the growing background noise of hundreds of journals, often insignificant. It is the lack of visibility which leaves many remarkable papers written by…

Measuring scientific performance for improved policy making

In recent decades, developments in European research policy making have led to an enhancement of the role and function of evaluation to cope with the growing globalisation of research and the need to ensure effective research systems at the national level and in the European Research Area. These developments have led to a need for a more integrated way to understand research performance as well as its efficiency and effects, combined with a growing need for a European view.
In April 2014, the European Parliamentary Research Service published the results of a study that analyses…

Better solar cells, superconductors and hard-drives

Using DESY’s light sources, scientists have opened a new door to better solar cells, novel superconductors and smaller hard-drives.
The research reported in the scientific journal Nature Communications enhances the understanding of the interface of two materials, where completely new properties can arise. With their work, the team of Prof. Andrivo Rusydi, from the National University of Singapore, and Prof. Michael Rübhausen, from the Hamburg Centre for Free-Electron Laser Science, have solved a long standing mystery in the condensed matter physics…

Teachers for teachers: European integration through teachers’ training

After the successful symposium entitled “The position of physics in secondary schools in the region” held in Aleksinac, Serbia in 2013, a similar, but much larger meeting was recently held at the same venue. The symposium “Experiments in high school physics teaching” (21-23 February 2014) was organized by the Agricultural School “Sumatovac”, the Gymnasium and Technical School “Prota Stevan Dimitrijevic” and the Union of physics teachers of Aleksinac in cooperation with Physical Society Nis. The general sponsor of the symposium was the Municipal Assembly of Aleksinac. There were 115 participants from FYR Macedonia, Montenegro, Republic of Srpska – Bosnia and Herzegovina…

Colloquium Women, Science and Technology

The colloquium Women, Science and Technology held in Poitiers, France, from 27-28 January 2014, focussed on the diagnosis of gender issue at a regional scale and on the perspectives and impacts on practical experience from the national and European stakes. It was co-organised by French association Femmes & Sciences, a member of the European Platform of Women Scientists [EPWS].
On 27 January 2014, the colloquium, with an audience of 300 attendees, ended with the signature of the “Regional Convention for Equality between girls and boys, women and men in the all-life -long education system” by…

Ana Proykova elected to be an expert for Horizon 2020

Since January 2014, Ana Proykova, former member of the EPS Executive Committee from Bulgaria, is a member of the Horizon 2020 Future and Emerging Technologies [FET] Advisory Group.

The FET Advisory Group is part of the Advisory Groups put in place to provide advice to the Commission on the implementation for framework programme for research and innovation Horizon 2020. This particular group will be tasked with the future and emerging technologies objective within the “excellent science” priority…

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