The 87^th meeting of the EPS-NPD board took place in Oslo on May 9^th-10^th 2024.

On the first day, the board discussed the status and organization of future EPS-NPD Conferences (NPA-XI 2024: Nuclear Physics in Astrophysics XI Conference, ANP 2024: Applied Nuclear Physics Conference 2024 and EuNPC 2025: European Nuclear Physics Conference 2025), evaluated the nominations for the 2024 EPS-NPD prize in Applied Nuclear Physics and discussed current affairs regarding nuclear physics in Europe and future activities of the division.

The board was also very happy to interact via zoom with the new President of the EPS, Mairi Sakellariadou,who shared her vision of the society.

On the following day, the board visited the physics department of the University of Oslo and in particular, the Cyclotron laboratory. Due to maintenance, the board could actually see the heart of the facility: the MC-35 Skanditronix cyclotron, which was installed in 1979 and delivers light ion beams for studies in nuclear physics as well as in biophysics and nuclear medicine. The visit continued with a guided tour of the beam line, which hosts the OSCAR array composed of 30 LaBr detectors. In conjunction with segmented Si junctions for light particle detection, this device is used to measure nuclear level densities and gamma-decay strength functions via the world-famous “Oslo” method. These quantities are crucial to test nuclear theories as well as to model the processes that lead to nucleosynthesis in stellar environments.

(by Araceli Lopez-Martens)