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

Assessment assessed

Physicists like numbers. We measure them, calculate them and use them to test experiment against theory.

Yet we also respect numbers. We appreciate their limitations and we take extreme care to educate students that numbers are open to misinterpretation. From the first years of university-level physics teaching we stress how measurements are affected by systematic and random errors and uncertainties, and we explain and distinguish the difference between accuracy (“truth”) and precision (“reproducibility”).

We view numbers that suggest new physics with great suspicion and, indeed, the recent reanalysis of the Gran Sasso neutrino velocity results highlights...

[read more]

OPERA: second neutrino tau interaction

The observation of a second neutrino tau interaction at the INFN Gran Sasso Laboratory was announced by the OPERA Collaboration during the 25th Neutrino Conference, in Kyoto, earlier this month. This result follows on from the first observation, made in 2010.

With this new result the OPERA detector is back on track to its original motivations, after a noisy excursion over the measurement of the neutrino time of flight. The OPERA experiment was designed to search for the rare events of neutrino oscillations, according to which muon neutrinos moving along their path transform into a different type, the so-called tau neutrino...

[read more]

Call for new EPS Edison Volta Prize

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]

Naples/Uganda education collaboration

Gulunap is an educational-scientific collaboration between the University of Naples “Federico II”, in Italy, and the University of Gulu, in Northern-Uganda.

Northern Uganda has major problems with food, health and education, having been devastated by a twenty-year long insurgence by the Lord’s Resistance Army...

[read more]

Young Minds: connecting to the next gen

European Physical Society [EPS] Young Minds connects working scientists, divisions and groups with young, proactive scientists from across the globe. In this way, the scientific, outreach and networking activities of EPS members and member societies can be energised and expanded. The EPS Young Minds encourages individuals and organisations to reach out to the next generation...

[read more]

EPS Condensed Matter Division Europhysics Prize

The 2012 European Physical Society [EPS] Condensed Matter Division Europhysics Prize will be awarded to Steven Bramwell, Claudio Casternovo, Santiago Grigera, Roderich Moessner, Shivaji Sondhi and Alan Tennant for the prediction and experimental observation of magnetic monopoles in spin ice. The prize will be presented at the forthcoming EPS CMD General Conference...

[read more]

June 2012 EPS Executive Committee Meeting

The European Physical Society [EPS] Executive Committee met at the EPS headquarters, in Mulhouse, on 8-9 June this year. Following the 2011 strategy discussion – and the elections earlier this year – the committee is now composed of 13 members, eight of whom are new to the board this year...

[read more]

Neutrino research uncovers Mediterranean vortices

Chains of marine vortices have been discovered for the first time in the eastern Mediterranean by an Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare [INFN] neutrino research project. This unexpected observation, which is relevant to studies of climate change in the Mediterranean Sea, is described in a paper published in the online journal Nature Communications last month...

[read more]

SNOLAB celebrates opening

The Canadian neutrino observatory SNOLAB celebrated its grand opening – and the completion of its construction – on 17 May this year. SNOLAB – shielded, underground, by two kilometres of rock – is now the world’s deepest and cleanest neutrino laboratory, enabling experiments to be conducted with the least interference from environmental and solar radioactivity...

[read more]

Businesses to develop CERN tech in new access scheme

CERN technologies are being made available to companies as part of a new knowledge transfer programme which was launched earlier this month. The scheme – CERN Easy Access Intellectual Property [IP] – aims to promote the development of CERN technology into real-world applications...

[read more]

Hardaker appointed new Institute of Physics CEO

Paul Hardaker has been appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer [CEO] of the Institute of Physics, it was announced at the end of May. Hardaker will take up the post on 3 September this year.

Hardaker, a visiting professor at the University of Reading’s School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences...

[read more]

Call for nominations for 2013 Herbert Walther Award

Nominations are now open for the 2013 Herbert Walther Award, which is given in recognition of distinguished contributions to the fields of quantum optics and atomic physics, as well as leadership in the scientific community...

[read more]

Nominations open for the 2013 Prism Awards

Nominations are open for the 2013 Prism Awards for Photonics Innovation. The awards – given by publishing company Photonics Media and SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics – commemorate excellence in innovation and technology within the optics and photonics industry...

[read more]

Crowdsourced exhibit shows humour behind science

A celebration of the humour to be found within science is being held at the Espace des sciences Pierre-Gilles de Gennes from the 3 May to 30 October this year. The exhibition – entitled “La science, une histoire d’humour” – shows how, through humour, science is reflected...

[read more]

SuperB accelerator to gain Free Electron Laser

The SuperB accelerator will soon expand its scientific offerings through a multidisciplinary infrastructure: the Free Electron Laser [FEL]. This will add to the accelerator apparatus – based at Cabibbolab, Italy – which will be completed in the next five years...

[read more]

American Physical Society publishes new strategic plan

The American Physical Society [APS] has published its Strategic Plan for 2013-2017. The plan – which has been in development for the past year – was formulated by the APS Executive Board, its operating officers and staff...

[read more]

Report on citizenship education published

European students are getting more involved in school politics – and learning about civic engagement – according to a report published by Eurydice earlier this month. The study, entitled “Citizenship Education in Europe”, analyses the regulations on the promotion…

[read more]

Conference Department: for your event needs

The EPS Conference Department is open to organise and manage events for the EPS divisions and groups. With over 10 years of experience, the conference team will arrange every aspect of your conference or event – ensuring that your project runs smoothly, looks professional and stays within budget...

[read more]

Featured in EPN

Recent highlights from EPN:

Optically pumped alkali magnetometers for biomedical applications

Pionic Deuterium

The nature and origin of ultra high-energy cosmic rays

[read more]

“Relativistic heavy ion collisions” town meeting

A one-day town meeting on relativistic heavy ion collisions will be held on 29 June this year in the Council Chamber at CERN, Geneva. The event is in anticipation of, and aims to gather input for, an update to the European Strategy for Particle Physics...

[read more]

Marian Smoluchowski Symposium

The 25th Marian Smoluchowski Symposium on Statistical Physics will be held at the Collegium Novum, Jagiellonian University, Kraków on 9-13 September this year. This year, the conference is devoted to fluctuation relations in non-equilibrium regimes…

[read more]

Trends in Nanotechnology Conference

The 2012 Trends in Nanotechnology International Conference [TNT 2012] will be held in the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales, Madrid, from 10-14 September this year...

[read more]

2012 Conference on Computational Physics

The 2012 Conference on Computational Physics [CCP2012] will be held on 14-18 October this year in Kobe, Japan. The event aims to be an international forum for the discussion of computational physics and its applications…

[read more]

EPS Workshop on Technology and Innovation

The first International Workshop on Technology and Innovation of the European Physical Society is being held at the Ettore Majorana Centre on the 21-25 October this year...

[read more]

Primordial QCD Matter in the LHC Era

The “Primordial QCD Matter in the LHC Era: implications of QCD results in the early universe” conference is being held in Cairo, Egypt on 10-14 February 2013...

[read more]

CLEO® / Europe-EQEC

The European Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics and the 12th European Quantum Electronics Conference [CLEO®/Europe-EQEC] are being held at the International Congress Centre in Munich, Germany, on 12-16 May 2013...

[read more]

21st DYMAT technical meeting

The 21st DYMAT technical meeting, “High speed imaging for dynamic testing of materials and structures”, will be held on 18-20 November 2013 at the Institute of Physics [IOP], London...

[read more]

Copyright © 2012 e-EPS | Published on behalf of the European Physical Society