Editorial – National Strengths
The European Physical Society [EPS] has a unique character amongst international learned societies. It fulfills a central federative role supporting its national member societies and it also carries out many highly successful specific European-scale actions through its Divisions and Groups, its conferences and its publications.
At first sight, it may seem that managing this dual role is intrinsically difficult but I cannot help but think that we make it more complicated than it really is. After all, the goal of the EPS is to support European-scale physics so all we really need to do is to prioritize time and resources to support activities that provide real international added-value, and not to unnecessarily duplicate activities already being carried out well on a national scale.
Of course, in order to achieve these goals, both the strengths and concerns of EPS national society members must be fully understood. Moreover, by fully appreciating the scale of national activities in physics throughout Europe, we can learn from particular national success stories so as to ensure that good ideas that work are exported more widely. This is one of the reasons why the Executive Committee has broad international representation, why it rotates its meetings within Europe, and why members of the Executive Committee regularly travel to the annual meetings of EPS member societies.
I myself had the privilege to begin my own term as president by seeing at first hand the tremendous national enthusiasm for physics at the annual meeting of the Dutch physical society [FISIKA 2013] held in Delft on 19 April, and during the 12th Congress of Serbian Physicists in Vrnjačka Banja from 28 April to 2 May. Both events were remarkable in highlighting to me the excellent physics being carried out in both countries, as well as the commitment of the national societies in meeting local challenges within the framework of their own national priorities.
This commitment of the volunteer leadership in supporting national physics and physicists is at the foundation of European physics. It is essential to support this national strength and allow it to expand on the European scale. This must be a key role of the EPS.
John Dudley
EPS President
