7 research centres lead world-class physics research in Korea

Established in November 2011, the Institute for Basic Science [IBS] is moving forward to promote and secure creative knowledge for future generations through world-class research in fundamental sciences. Under the leadership of Professor Se-Jung Oh, the president of IBS, the institute is now composed of 20 research centres, the Rare Isotope Science Project which is constructing a heavy-ion accelerator called “RAON”, the National Institute for Mathematical Sciences, and a secretariat. In total, there are more than 900 researchers, students, and supporting staff, with an annual budget of 250 million USD. A brief introduction of the IBS research centres which are dedicated to research…

Mathematical beauty behind particle production and Stokes phenomena

At the James Scott Prize Lecture in 1939, P. A. M. Dirac emphasized the theory of functions of a complex variable as an interesting mathematical theory that fulfilled his criteria of beauty. He found this field to be of “exceptional beauty” and hence likely to lead to deep physical insight [1]. The lecture was delivered a decade after he discovered the Dirac equation, the positron was found, and the concept of the Dirac sea was well established.

Dirac theory predicts that an external electric field may tilt the Dirac sea such that an electron in a negative energy…

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…

ILC moving from design to reality

A five-volume report containing the blueprint for a future particle physics project, the International Linear Collider [ILC], was published on 12 June 2013. In three consecutive ceremonies in Asia, Europe and the Americas, the authors of the Technical Design Report [TDR] for the ILC officially handed it over to the international oversight board for projects in particle physics, the International Committee for Future Accelerators [ICFA]. The ILC TDR presents the latest, most technologically advanced and most thoroughly scrutinised design for the ILC, and its publication implies that physicists now have a machine that they know they can build. “The Technical Design Report basically says…

Asia-Europe cooperation meetings in Japan in four months from now

The 3rd Asia-Europe Physics Summit [ASEPS3] will take place from 14-19 July 2013 in Chiba, Japan as part of the 12th Asia Pacific Physics Conference [APPC12]. The Summit is organised by the Association of Asia Pacific Physical Societies [AAPPS] and the European Physical Society [EPS].

APPC 12 is a broad spectrum conference devoted to all fields of physics and will include among its plenary speakers two Nobel laureates…