July 2012 | Facts and Info from the European Physical Society | e-EPS
Is this email not displaying correctly?
View it in your browser.

Editorial: Widening our 2020 Horizons

Dear Readers,

The European Physical Society [EPS] has been duly responding to various questionnaires from Brussels, to provide significant input to the European Union’s scientific policies, namely in: ‘Areas of untapped potential for the development of the European Research Area’ and ‘Towards a Common Strategic Framework for EU Research and Innovation Funding’.

In particular, the EPS has been repeatedly stressing the importance of investment in basic scientific research – and here we are, indeed, having just received the most desired experimental result in fundamental particle physics from CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.

[read more]

Higgs? CERN sees new particle consistent with elusive boson

CERN’s ATLAS and CMS experiments have observed a new particle – consistent with the elusive Higgs Boson – in the mass region around 125-126 GeV/c2, it was announced during a seminar at the Swiss-based laboratory on 4 July.

“The five sigma signal – at around 125 GeV – we’re seeing is dramatic. This is indeed a new particle. We know it must be a boson and it’s the heaviest boson ever found,” said CMS experiment spokesperson Joe Incandela. “The implications are very significant and it is precisely for this reason that we must be extremely diligent in all of our studies and cross-checks”...

[read more]

The long-awaited discovery – an interview with Guido Tonelli

On 4 July this year – following the announcement of the new particle discovery from CERN – European Physical Society president Luisa Cifarelli interviewed Guido Tonelli, former spokesperson of CERN’s CMS Collaboration...

[read more]

‘Refuge des Cosmiques’ laboratory declared EPS Historic Site

he high altitude Laboratory ‘Refuge des Cosmiques’ is being declared a Historic Site of the European Physical Society [EPS] later this month. Located on the slopes of the Col du Midi...

[read more]

Lise Meitner Prize for nuclear science awarded

The 2012 Lise Meitner Prize has been jointly awarded to Karlheinz Langanke, of GSI and TU Darmstadt, and Friedrich-Karl Thielemann of the University of Basel, for “their seminal contributions to the description of nuclear processes in astrophysical environments...

[read more]

Cabled Observatory event explores multi-disciplinary synergy

A “Deep Ocean Cabled Observatories” workshop – examining potential synergies between astroparticle physics and marine and earth sciences – was held at NIKHEF, in Amsterdam, on 24-25 May this year...

[read more]

Space themed student contest lifts off

Odysseus – the pan-European space-science contest for 14-18 year olds – has officially launched. Participants- in teams of up to five students and one teacher – are invited to design and demonstrate a space-themed project under one of the following three topics: “the solar system”, “spaceship – global cooperation” and “the co-evolution of life”...

[read more]

Chinese Physical Society celebrates 80th Anniversary

The Chinese Physical Society is celebrating its 80th Anniversary on 25 August this year. A commemorate event, which is being held in Beijing, will bring together international physics leaders to discuss the status of physics worldwide...

[read more]

European Physical Society launches new optics awards

The European Physical Society [EPS] Quantum Electronics and Optics Division has established two new prizes this month: the EPS Prize for Research into the Science of Light and the EPS Prize for Research in Laser Science and Applications...

[read more]

Institute of Physics announces award winners

The winners of this year’s Institute of Physics [IoP] awards have been announced. Among the recipients were Martin Rees, who receives the IoP’s flagship international prize – the Isaac Newton Medal – for his outstanding contributions to relativistic astrophysics and cosmology...

[read more]

2012 Committee on Space Research award winners

The Committee on Space Research [COSPAR] has announced the winners of the 2012 COSPAR awards. The prizes – which recognise exceptional contributions to the field of space science – will be presented at the 39th COSPAR Scientific Assembly, which is being held in Mysore, India, on 14-22 July this year...

[read more]

EPS Edison Volta Prize call

Nominations are now open for the new Edison Volta Prize of the European Physical Society [EPS]. The award – intended to promote excellence in research – will be given in recognition of outstanding achievements in physics.

The EPS Edison Volta Prize will be given biannually to individuals or groups of up to three people. The award consists of a diploma, a medal, and 10,000 euros in prize money...

[read more]

EPS partners European Optical Society journal

The European Physical Society [EPS] has become a partner of the open-access electronic journal of the European Optical Society: Rapid Publications [JEOS:RP]. EPS members will benefit from a special publication rate through this collaboration, which was arranged through the EPS Quantum Electronics and Optics Division [QEOD]...

[read more]

EPS’s Caterina Biscari to head synchrotron facility

The European Physical Society’s Caterina Biscari is being appointed the director of the Laboratory of Synchrotron Light CELLS-ALBA, in Barcelona, it was announced on 13 July. Biscari, a researcher with the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare...

[read more]

ICFA appoints Lyn Evans Linear Collider Director

Lyn Evans has been appointed as the Linear Collider Director, the International Committee for Future Accelerators [ICFA] announced late last month. Evans, the first to hold this position, will bring together the governance of two existing accelerator programs...

[read more]

Marisa Michelini elected new president of GIREP

Marisa Michelini was elected the new president of the Groupe International de Recherche sur l’Enseignement de la Physique [GIREP] during the World Conference on Physics Education, which was held on 1-6 July this year...

[read more]

Physics Education Division releases position paper

A new position paper, developed by the EPS Physics Education Division and approved for distribution by the Executive Committee...

[read more]

New edition of the Review of Particle Physics now online

The latest issue of the Review of Particle Physics has been published online last month. The review – often referred to as the “the Bible of particle physics” – comprehensively covers the fields of high-energy and astroparticle physics...

[read more]

Featured in EPL

Recent highlights from EPL:

First-principles calculations of the magnetic anisotropic constants of Co–Pd multilayers: Effect of stacking faults
Mn local moments prevent superconductivity in iron pnictides Ba(Fe1−xMnx)2As2
Radiation-dominated era and the power of general relativity...

[read more]

International Cosmic Day

The first International Cosmic Day will be held on 26 September this year. During this event, students and teachers worldwide will come together in research institutions, universities and classrooms to learn about cosmic particle research...

[read more]

2013 International Nanoelectronics Conference

The 5th International Nanoelectronics Conference [INEC 2013] of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers [IEEE] will be held at the Resorts World Sentosa, in Singapore, on 2-4 January 2013...

[read more]

Copyright © 2012 e-EPS | Published by the European Physical Society