LIGHT2015 Young Women in Photonics and Young Entrepreneur in Photonics Awards Winners Announced
The LIGHT2015 project – coordinated by the European Physical Society – is pleased to announce the LIGHT2015 Award winners. The Young Women in Photonics Award was created to recognise young female scientists who have made outstanding contributions to photonics. The 2015 award in the Fundamental category goes to Na Liu (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems) and to Nathalie Vermeulen (Photonics Team (B-PHOT), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)) in the Applied/Engineering …
CERN and the International Year of Light: exploring light as luminosity
One hundred years after the publication of Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, the UN General Assembly declared 2015 the International Year of Light and light-based technologies. Around the world, the year is being celebrated with programmes and events showcasing light as the source of life, peace and science. CERN has been joining in the festivities; with events showcasing “light as luminosity” in its High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) upgrade project as well as its involvement in the SESAME synchrotron project in Jordan.
International Year of Light News
iSPEX-EU: A European-wide Citizen Science Campaign for the Measurement of Aerosols with Smartphones
As part of the LIGHT2015 project, coordinated by the European Physical Society, Leiden Observatory is organising a pilot European-wide Citizen Science campaign for the measurement of aerosols with iSPEX, a low-cost add-on and corresponding app for the iPhone. The campaign will run in over 10 major cities across Europe from 1-28 September 2015. With an anticipated 15,000 participants, this campaign therefore is a first step towards a worldwide network of citizen scientists who can provide air quality observations.
NuPECC Brochure “Light to Reveal the Heart of Matter”
NuPECC, the Nuclear Physics European Collaboration Committee (http://www.nupecc.org/) is contributing to the International Year of Light [IYL2015] with a brochure “Light to Reveal the Heart of Matter”.
We would like to show the many facets how the electromagnetic spectrum – light in its broadest sense – is featured in nuclear physics research, from high-energy gamma-rays down to scintillation light and lasers, looking into nucleons and nuclei, and connecting to other fields such as astrophysics and medicine.
EPS Nuclear Physics Division contributions for the IYL 2015
The International Year of the Light 2015 [IYL 2015] is celebrated worldwide with many events and initiatives. The European Physical Society is one of the founding partners of the IYL2015 and the Board of the Nuclear Physics Division of EPS also contributes to this effort with dedicated publications foreseen in journals like Europhysics News and through other actions in different media.
SkyLight – a Global Science Opera
During 2015, hundreds of students from schools in up to 30 countries within the Galileo Teacher Training Program, the Global Hands on Universe (GHOU) and leading cultural institutions will collaborate to create and simultaneously perform a Science Opera inspired by Cosmic Light together with the support of real-time technological collaboration. This will provide a platform for both creative science learning as well as cross-border friendship and cooperation.
IYL2015 Activities in Switzerland
At present, most activities International Year of Light 2015 [IYL 2015] have focussed principally on science and technology of light, and less on cultural aspects of light (though some scientific research institutes however, do foresee talks on light and arts or theology). A laudable exception was the spring concert of the choir of the Bernese Gymnasium Neufeld at end of March 2015, which was dedicated to the IYL 2015. This exceptional concert presented an interesting selection of classical music on the theme ‘Light’. Examples were the composition ’Let there be light’ for choir, brass instruments and organ by Charles E. Ives, and ‘Uncertain Light’ for double choir a capella by Robert Schumann.
2015 Wuhan Photonics Week of the International Year of Light
The United Nations [UN] General Assembly proclaimed 2015 as the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies [IYL 2015]. To celebrate the event, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics [WNLO], with the support from many world known scientific societies and unions [1] launches Wuhan Photonics Week.
New from the Netherlands’Physical Society – Science Tournament
On 4 June 2015, the national final of the nation-wide Science Tournament “Techniek Toernooi” will take place in the Netherlands.
The Science Tournament started at local schools. Pupils are encouraged to engage in technical experimentation, following a carefully designed work schedule. This way, they learn about scientific principles, they can develop their creativity and they experience that science is not scary and strange but fun, actually.
International Year of Light news
Mulhouse, the city hosting the secretariat of the European Physical Society, has started it activities celebrating the International Year of Light [IYL 2015]. Educational visual arts workshops are being organised through the “Ateliers Pédagogiques d’Arts Plastiques” [APAP]. The team led by Cyrille Saint-Cricq has taken light as the connecting thread for their programme running all through the year.
The Virgo collaboration participates in the International Year of Light
No doubt that 2015 will be a bright year! It is of course the International Year of Light but it will also mark the first light for the gravitational wave detector Advanced Virgo based near Pisa in Italy. Advanced Virgo aims to detect the most violent events in the universe by measuring on Earth extremely small ripples in the fabric of space time itself. The detector is a giant Michelson interferometer made of two perpendicular 3-km long arms spreading along the Tuscan countryside.
The Wonders of Light
The awe-inspiring power of light and the impact of light-based technology on our daily lives are explored in a visually stunning new book called The Wonders of Light.
The book, which is due to be published on May 28th 2015, brings to life the principles underpinning some of the most ground-breaking technological innovations, and it reveals the science behind light and the ways it can be harnessed and used, from visual displays, solar cells and the internet to advanced quantum technologies.
