A gender inversion for the Solvay picture at the 103th annual congress of SIF
Within the annual congress of the Italian Physical Society (SIF) the entire morning of September 14 was dedicated to two very interesting round tables, one organized by the University of Trento (Chiara La Tessa and Alessandra Saletti) on “Research: which opportunities are there for women” and another organized organized by SIF (Luisa Cifarelli) on “Physics, singular feminine”.
Editorial – Happy Birthday SIF!
One of the oldest, most prestigious and most active member societies of the EPS, the Società Italiana die Fisica (SIF), is celebrating its 120th birthday in 2017.
How physics impacts Italian economy
In 2013 the Italian Physical Society [SIF], in collaboration with some of the major Italian research institutions, Centro Fermi, CNR, INAF, INFN and INRIM, commissioned an independent and quantitative analysis concerning the impact of all the industry, commerce and business sectors based on physics and physics-derived technology on the Italian economy. The study, conducted by the Deloitte, a firm specialised in business and statistical analysis, covers a 4-year period, from 2008 to 2011.The study takes into account all sectors of the economy where the use of physics…
SIF Fermi Prize for decisive contribution to LHC discoveries
The 2013 Enrico Fermi Prize of the Italian Physical Society [SIF] has been awarded to Pierluigi Campana (INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati), Simone Giani (CERN), Fabiola Gianotti (CERN), Paolo Giubellino (INFN Torino) and Guido Tonelli (Università di Pisa and INFN Pisa), “for the outstanding results that the five large international collaboration experiments at the CERN Large Hadron Collider [LHC] – LHCb, TOTEM, ATLAS, ALICE, CMS – have achieved during the first period of LHC data taking under the successful guidance of the…
SIF Fermi Prize to Car and Parrinello
The 2012 Enrico Fermi Prize of the Italian Physical Society [SIF] has been awarded in the field of condensed matter physics to Roberto Car, of Princeton University, and Michele Parrinello, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, for “the discovery of a Molecular Dynamics method known the world over as the Car-Parrinello method. This method has been a breakthrough in the field of numerical simulations, with great impact in many interdisciplinary contexts both theoretical and experimental, ranging from Material Science to Chemistry and Biology”…
EPS-SIF International School proves an “energetic” event
The first course of the Joint EPS-SIF International School on Energy – on “New strategies for energy generation, conversion and storage” – was held between 30 July and 4 August this year in Varenna, Italy. The school was attended by 70 participants – both lecturers, observers and students – from 18 different home countries.
The week-long course offered basic, detailed lectures on energy and related technologies, complemented by topical seminars on the most to-date developments in such topics as…
EPS-SIF School on Energy – Course 1
The first course of the Joint EPS-SIF International School on Energy – entitled “New strategies for energy generation, conversion and storage” – will be held at the Villa Monastero, in Varenna, between 30 July and 4 August this year.
The school aims to present all the fields of physics which are relevant to technologies for energy production, conversion, transmission and efficiency. Topics which will be covered during the course include: biomass; climate issues; energy saving technology; fission; fossil fuels; fusion; hydro; solar, photovoltaic and photothermal sources; and wind…
Altarelli and Parisi given prestigious physics awards
The European Physical Society would like to congratulate Guido Altarelli and Giorgo Parisi, who have recently been presented with prestigious awards for their work in the field of physics.
Altarelli – alongside Tornbjorn Sjøstrand and Bryan Webber – is one of the recipients of the 2012 J.J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics, which is given by the American Physical Society. He is being presented the award for his “key ideas leading to the detailed confirmation of the Standard Model of particle physics, enabling high energy experiments to extract precise information about quantum chromodynamics, electroweak interactions and possible new physics…”
The SIF awards 2011 Enrico Fermi prize
The 2011 Enrico Fermi prize of the Italian Physical Society (Società Italiana di Fisica, SIF) has been awarded, for work in the field of experimental particle physics, to Dieter Haidt of the DESY Laboratory at Hamburg and to Antonino Pullia of the University of Milano Bicocca and Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, “for their fundamental contribution to the discovery of weak neutral currents with the Gargamelle bubble chamber at CERN”.
The prize is awarded yearly to members of the society who especially honour physics by their discoveries. The prize was first awarded in 2001, to commemorate the centenary of the great scientist’s birth…
Passion for Light workshop
The Passion for Light workshop was held on the 16 September in the Villa Monastero, in Varenna, Italy. The event – which was jointly organised by the European Physical Society and the Italian Physical Society – saw the official launch of an initiative by the EPS Quantum Electronics and Optics Division to declare 2015 the International Year of Light, under the auspices of the United Nations.
Following the opening addresses, a comprehensive series of light-themed lectures followed, covering a wide variety of topics from ‘Passion for precision’, by Theodor Hänsch; ‘Trapping the light fantastic’, by Diederik Wiersma…
Passion for Light webcast
Passion for Light, the Joint EPS-SIF International Workshop which will launch the idea of an International Year of Light (IYOL) in 2015, will take place on 16 September. For the first time with any EPS conference, proceedings will be simultaneously available in a webcast.
The live, streamed video of the event, direct from the beautiful venue of Villa Monastero – at Varenna, Lake Como, Italy – will be provided by the INFN CNAF service. The opening addresses and all the scientific lectures will thus…
Light for Development
A central goal of the EPS International Year of Light project will be to promote optical technologies and optics education to improve the quality of life in the developing world – under the theme of ‘Light for Development’.
Light plays a central role in human activities in science, technology and culture. On a fundamental scientific level, light is necessary for the existence of life itself; whilst on a more technical level, light-based technologies will underpin the future development of human society…
