New insights in accelerator-driven systems
As part of EUCARD2 activities, and co-sponsored by EPS Technology and Innovation Group (TIG), a workshop on the status of new developments in Accelerator-Driven Systems or ADS was held at CERN on February 7-9.
Editorial – Community celebration of physics
Like all areas of modern science, physics today is more and more specialized. Workers in different subfields interact with each other rarely, and it is easy to forget that we form part of a community of scientists studying the one fundamental subject concerned with the nature of matter on all scales.
There is, however, one regular reminder of the importance of physics as a fundamental discipline of science. This…
Physics: transforming lives
The Institute of Physics [IoP], in partnership with the UK Engineering and Physical Research Council and the Science and Technology Facilities Council, have published a booklet containing a selection of case studies demonstrating the economic value of research in physics and how it leads to a beneficial impact on our daily lives. It is available on the IoP website.
Although the majority of the topics, facts and figures are understandably biased towards the UK, this collection…
New milestone reached for the European XFEL construction
On June 2013 an important milestone was reached for the European X-ray free-electron laser [XFEL] with the completion of its underground portion. Located in the Hamburg area (Germany), the European XFEL is one of the largest and most ambitious European projects to date. Starting full operations in 2016, the European XFEL is expected to generate intensive, ultrashort X-ray flashes that will open up entirely new areas of research with X-rays that are currently inaccessible. Organisations from 12 European countries…
ASEPS 3: a successful international meeting of physics experts and laboratory leaders
The 3rd Asia-Europe Physics Summit [ASEPS 3] took place in Chiba, Japan, from 16 to 19 July 2013. The meeting was part of the APPC12, the 12th conference of the Association of Asian Pacific Physical Societies [AAPPS].
Jointly organised by the AAPPS and the EPS, ASEPS 3 was meant to continue the work to reinforce cooperation in physics research between Asia and Europe started in the two previous editions: ASEPS 1, Tsukuba, Japan (2010) and ASEPS 2, Wroclaw, Poland (2011)…
€70 billion for Horizon 2020
After long negotiation between European Union leaders agreeing on the next seven year budget for the Union, the final figure of €70.2 billion has been agreed upon for the research programme Horizon 2020. Although this total is 23% more than allocated for the current framework programme FP7, the first instalment planned for 2014 of €8.8 billion is actually less than the allocated funding in 2013.
p>During the negotiations a number of demands by the European Parliament were met. These included…
POPA-CSIS Workshop exploring Nuclear Reductions after New START available
In February 2013, the Panel on Public Affairs of the American Physical Society [POPA] and the Center for Strategic & International Studies [CSIS] organised a workshop to study the technical and policy challenges associated with reducing the non-strategic nuclear weapons [NSNWs] currently deployed in Europe and Russia, commonly referred to as “tactical nuclear weapons”. The workshop focused on a discussion of policy and technology aspects of a hypothetical agreement between the US and Russia…
Nigel Lockyer to lead the Fermilab
Nigel Lockyer, director of Canada’s TRIUMF laboratory for particle and nuclear physics and a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of British Columbia, has been selected to become the next director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory [Fermilab].
N. Lockyer has a long-standing interest in medical-physics projects, including proton therapy for cancer patients. Initially an experimental particle physicist, he has directed TRIUMF since May 2007. Under his leadership…
The American Physical Society comes to Europe
The American Physical Society [APS] held its Executive Board Retreat at Chicheley Hall (Buckinghamshire, UK), home of the Kavli Royal Society International Centre. This is the first time in history that APS has held its Executive Board Retreat in Europe. On Monday 17 June, a special international session was organized with representatives of European Societies, namely from the Institute of Physics [IoP], the German Physical Society [DPG] and the European Physical Society [EPS], with the goal to “better understand each others’ interests and discuss new…
CERN Council hosts EPS presentation on the impact of physics to the economies of Europe
On 21 June 2013, at the open session of the CERN Council, EPS Vice president L. Cifarelli was invited by CERN Council President A. Zalewska to make a presentation of the recent independent analysis commissioned by EPS from the Centre for Economics and Business Research [Cebr] on the importance of physics – in terms of physics-based industries – to the economies of Europe.
The report, using statistics available in the public domain through Eurostat, covers 29 European countries…
New Chair for EPS AMOP Division
Dominique Vernhet, Director of Research at CNRS, Institut des NanoSciences de Paris, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, France, has been elected the new Chair of the European Physical Society’s Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics Division [AMOPD], succeeding Professor Friedrich Aumayr from the Vienna University of Technology in Vienna, Austria, who has lead the division for the last three years.
Dominique Vernhet is an experimental physicist with particular expertise in the field of interaction…
Graphene Flagship encourages collaborations
Industries, academic research centres, and funding agencies will come together to launch the Graphene Flagship project. It intends to encourage the research in the field of 2-dimension crystals, especially graphene, for industrial use.
Since the research of Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov in 2004, research in the field of the 2-dimension crystals is showing fast progress. In particular, graphene intrigues scientists because of its structure: a one-atom thick layer of carbon arranged in a honeycomb shape. The properties of graphene are numerous and unique, especially its…
