Editorial – Celebrating 50 years of EPS
As every reader of e-EPS knows, our society is celebrating this year its 50th anniversary – to be precise, on 26 September, the day in the year 1968 when the EPS was formally launched in the Aula Magna of the University of Geneva.
Editorial: EPWS, the voice of European Women Scientists
The European Platform of Women Scientists EPWS is an international, non-profit organisation that represents the needs, concerns, interests and aspirations of over 12,000 women scientists in Europe and beyond.
Editorial – 2017 Nobel Prize for Physics to Gravitational Waves
On Tuesday the 3th of October, at least the several hundreds members of LIGO & VIRGO collaboration where anxiously waiting for the start of the streaming from the Swedish Academy of Science, around 11:30 CET, to follow the attribution of the Nobel Prize for Physics.
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.
Editorial – EPS Young Minds in the Council Meeting
Young Minds (YM) is an excellent opportunity for physics students to develop skills and contacts that will be useful in their careers. Public engagement through the activities in the YM sections demonstrates the importance of dialog, for the public to appreciate the work done by researchers, and for researchers to share their passion for science. Each YM section is managed by volunteers, planning activities, balancing budgets, organising events… This experience will make Young Minds members more effective leaders. With sections and members all over Europe, YM provides a network of motivated young physicists to share ideas, and best practice.
Editorial – It is thanks to you
The annual Council Meeting of the European Physical Society was held on 31 March – 1 April 2017 at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen, Germany. The EPS Council is composed of representatives of the 42 EPS Member Societies and the chairpersons of the 12 Divisions, 6 Groups, and 6 Committees. Individual Members and Associate Members are each represented by 5 elected delegates. A more extensive summary of the Council meeting can be read in the report by G. Gunaratnam.
Editorial – Physicists marched for science
The global event « March for Science » took place on 22 April 2017 in 500 cities worldwide, including 20 in France. More than 5000 people took part in the march organised in Paris, including many directors of large research centres and members of the French Academy of Sciences. The March for Science has 4 main objectives:
Editorial – Science in a fragmenting World
For the first time since the fall of the Berlin Wall, faults and fractures are opening up in the political landscape of Europe which pose severe threats to science and scientific cooperation. The Brexit is only the most spectacular development to this day; populist, isolationist, and anti-European movements are on the rise in other European countries, or are in power already. A continued erosion of European cohesion will violate fundamental values and undermine best practices which all physicists take for granted today: free cross-border collaboration, unrestricted communication and mobility of researchers and students, and equal access to European funding and infrastructures.
Editorial – European physicists
My name is Peter and I am the Chairperson of the European Physical Society/History of Physics (EPS/HoP) Group.
A visit to the Parlamentarium at the European Parliamentin Brussels showed me that the striking accents of the exhibition focus on the commonness of European politics and economics, but, where Europe’s shared cultural heritage was illustrated, there was little to be found on the topics of natural sciences and their great discoveries.
Editorial – EPS: Open Science and Open to the World
From several reports and podcasts, it seems that Europe’s leaders are not expecting a smooth ride in 2017 after a year marked by political upheaval, extremist attacks, unchecked immigration, and a rising military instability worldwide. Britain is struggling with its Brexit, America will soon inaugurate a new and surprising president. Elections in the Netherlands, France and Germany will certainly be important factors for European political stability in this New Year.
Editorial – Why we should keep young minds forever!
My name is Eva and I have been the chair of the European Physical Society (EPS) Young Minds (YM) project since last July. In 2010 I finished a degree in Computer Engineering and 3 years later I joined the Optics and Photonics Research Group of Castellón in Spain (GROC). Now I am doing my PhD at the University Jaume I in Castellón, and sometimes I wonder how a computer engineer can be the chair of a Committee engaging physics students in outreach. Here is a possible answer.
Editorial – the impact of BREXIT on physics from a UK perspective
On the evening of the 23 June 2016, I was at an Awards Dinner for the Royal Academy of Engineering, which is held each year to recognise excellence in engineering of all varieties. Talking to colleagues around the table that night, the majority were sure that the UK electorate would vote to remain in the EU. Although only one person I talked to admitted to having voted to leave, I was not convinced that this was going to be such an easy victory for the Remain Campaign. I had been worried for some time that many people from “my generation”, who had voted to join the European Community in the last referendum in 1975, were coming out in force to reverse that decision.
