Informal Physical Societies Exchange Conference
The Informal Physical Societies Exchange Conference [IPSEC] is organized every two years, in the framework of the Meeting of Polish Physicists by the Polish Physical Society.
The first of such was held during the XXXIVth Meeting of Polish Physicists, in 1997, at Katowice. This event gathered the representatives of seven national societies – from the Czech Republic, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine – and the European Physical Society1.
The idea of organizing IPSEC came from the changes in scientific societies due to the transformation of the political system in central and eastern European countries: with the groups gaining freedom in their activities, but losing much of their financial contributions and other kinds of governmental support.
Thus, it was recognized that a forum, providing the possibility to exchange information between physical society representatives from the former socialist and capitalist countries, was necessary. With time, IPSEC has become increasingly a forum for discussing common problems for the physics community: such as the problem of funding for basic research within the European Union Framework Programs, which was the topic of discussion at the 4th IPSEC, in 2003.
IPSEC’s great advantage is its informal character, which allows the discussion of questions that cannot be addressed during official meetings. Typically, not more than two topics are suggested for the three-hour IPSEC session. In addition, between the conference dinner and the fact that most participants are usually accommodated in the same hotel, there are ample opportunities for establishing valuable informal contacts.
The first IPSEC was financially supported by the Institute of Physics. Subsequent conferences have been supported by the European Physical Society, and were organized under the auspices of the Committee on European Integration. Such an arrangement allows a great reduction in the participation costs of IPSEC; there being no conference fee for participants, with those from the former socialist countries being exempted from accommodation costs.
The most recent IPSEC meeting took place during the XLIth Meeting of Polish Physicists, in Lublin, last year. Representatives of the American, Belarusian, British, Czech, European, Japanese, Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, Taiwanese, and Ukrainian Physical Societies discussed, among others items, the problems of assessing scientific institutions.
More information is available on the IPSEC webpage.
- (1998) Central European Countries Group to Join the ESRF. Europhysics news, 29(1), 23.
DOI: 10.1007/s007700050041 [↩]
