On 10th May, 2022, the old Physics Department of Lund University, Sweden, was inaugurated as an EPS Historic Site. The building, which is located at Biskopsgatan 3, Lund, served the Lund physicists during the years 1885 to 1950. It had two halls for instruments, an auditorium, 12 offices, a library and a workshop. The building then became the base for classical studies (Classicum) until in 2009 after renovation became the site of the interdisciplinary Pufendorf Institute of Advanced Studies. The ceremony was actually planned for 26th May 2020, but had on short notice to be moved forward due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The nomination as an EPS Historic Site is based on the work of Johannes (Janne) Rydberg (1854-1919), who was active in analyzing atomic spectral lines, which Bunsen and Kirchhoff around 1850 had found to be specific for each species. Balmer had in 1885 found a formula to describe the lines of hydrogen. Being an excellent mathematician, with a great feeling for numbers, Rydberg found a more general formula, which also worked well, e.g. for the alkali atoms. He presented his first results in 1887 in a report to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and more in detail in a presentation to the Mathematical-Physical Society in Lund in 1888. The full account of his findings occurs in a scientific article published in German in 1890 (Zeitschrift für Physikalische Chemie). The most amazing aspect of this formula was that there occurred a constant, which was the same for all elements and all spectral series. In his early model for the atomic structure, Niels Bohr could in 1913 also give a theoretical value for the constant, which well agreed with the experimental value found by Rydberg. The constant came to be known as the Rydberg constant, and is presently determined to an extremely high precision using laser spectroscopy. Rydberg´s name is also associated with the much studied Rydberg atoms, which are very highly excited atoms becoming accessible through laser spectroscopy, and through the Rydberg-Ritz combination principle of atomic spectroscopy.

It can be noted that Manne Siegbahn (1886-1978) was also active in the building, making ground-breaking precision X-ray spectroscopy studies. Bengt Edlén (1906-1993), who in 1941 solved the old problem of the origin of the corona lines from the sun, was a further prominent Lund atomic physicist.

The inauguration ceremony was organized and led by Sune Svanberg, who had also made the site nomination. Stacey Ristinmaa Sörensen, the Pufendorf Institute director, welcomed a large crowd of fellow physicists assembled to celebrate, and Joachim Schnadt, chairman of the Department of Physics, recalled the work by Rydberg. Mats Helmfrid expressed his appreciation on behalf of the Lund City Council. The chairman of the EPS selection committee for historic sites, Karl Grandin, introduced the EPS programme together with the EPS president, Luc Bergé, who also performed the solemn uncovering of the memorial plaque, accompanied by a brass band.

A Rydberg Lecture, in a series of named lectures sponsored by the Royal Academy of Science, followed at the new Physics Department directly after the inauguration ceremony. The speaker was Jun Ye, JILA, National Institute of Standards and Technology and University of Colorado, who in his talk “Tick Atoms in Unison” described how extremely accurate atomic clocks could be influenced by the gravitational shift due to only one mm of vertical clock movement.

A Rydberg dinner arranged with some 30 guests in the recognized building, with speeches including by the Lund University vice Chancellor, Erik Renström, concluded a memorable day.

The memorial plaque at the old Physics Department, Lund University, has just been uncovered.
FLTR: Sune Svanberg, Lund Laser Centre, Karl Grandin, Chair of the EPS Historic Sites Selection Committee,
Luc Bergé, EPS President, Joachim Schnadt, Department of Physics, and Mats Helmfrid, Lund City Council

Photos: Sune Svanberg & Katarina Svanberg

• Sara Bolognesi

of the Institut de Recherche sur les lois Fondamentales de l’Univers – Institute of Research on the Fundamental laws of the Universe of the CEA (IRFU) – Commissariat aux Energies Atomiques et Alternatives (CEA), Saclay, France, “For her development of the data analysis techniques that conclusively improved the sensitivity of the CERN-CMS experiment, thus allowing the discovery of the Higgs boson and the first measurement of its spin and parity.”

Sara Bolognesi is a particle physicist known for directing several foremost programmes for physical research, and for making decisive proposals for experiments and instrumentation. Thus, Sara has been a key contributor to many different topics in CERN-CMS, including Higgs phenomenology, where she helped in developing and testing a new Monte Carlo generator (Phantom) to study Higgs production in Vector Boson Fusion and Vector Boson Scattering; the first LHC data, where she contributed to Electro-Weak physics analysis (Z,W+jets production), worked on jet reconstruction, Beta-physics and quarkonia; and the mapping of the 4 T magnetic field as well as the detector commissioning for the Drift Tube Barrel muon system. Most importantly though, Sara developed a Matrix Element analytical Likelihood Analysis (MELA) to best separate signal from background by optimizing the use of the information on production and decay angles of the Higgs. This method increased the performance of the analysis to the point where the Higgs-like resonance at 125 GeV could be observed at 3 sigma significance in the HZZ4ℓ channel in the summer of 2012. After that, the MELA method allowed the CMS collaboration to reach the 5 sigma significance necessary to claim a discovery, making the analysis of the HZZ4ℓ decay channel in CMS the most significant Higgs analysis at LHC0.

Sara Bolognesi's made a deeply insightful career move when, after the discovery of the Higgs boson, she changed from her activities at CMS to the Tokai to Kamioka (T2K) collaboration. Within the scope of the T2K collaboration, Sara has been instrumental in organising the community and coordinating the experiments that lead to the first detection of possible CP violation in leptons. Sara is also very much involved in teaching, and has had an impressive series of students; she is often invited to teach in schools. She currently holds a large number of responsibilities in IRFU as well as in many international committees and collaborations, where, beyond her decisive scientific input, she is also a foremost advocate for the cause of women in physics.

An interview from Sara Bolognesi by Kees van der Beek, chair of the EPS Equal Opportunities, will soon be released.

Sara Bolognesi acting on the valves of the gas system of the near detector (ND280) of T2K - image credit: Sara Bolognesi

More info about the EPS Emmy Noether Distinction

• EPS Emmy Noether Distinction awardees
  
• Call for the Winter 2021 edition
  

Author: Bart van Tiggelen

A young French mathematical physicist, Cécile DeWitt-Morette, founded the Les Houches School of Physics in 1951. In less than 4 years, the unique formula of the School had already achieved a worldwide reputation. At that time there were no advanced courses, equivalent to today’s Master classes, on contemporary topics such as quantum physics or statistical mechanics anywhere in France or even in Europe. Brilliant physicists were mostly in the US, among whom were many European physicists that had moved to the US after the war, including Cécile DeWitt herself. France and Europe were lagging seriously behind in the teaching and practice of modern physics. The Physics School in Les Houches attracted many top physicists to teach on a blackboard for two months in the summer period. The formula was unique, simple and efficient. With an amazing view on the Mont Blanc mountain range, far away from the laboratories and university classes, the “hanging gardens” of the Les Houches School became a place where students could interact directly with Wolfgang Pauli, Enrico Fermi, Richard Feynman, Julian Schwinger, Alfred Kastler, Nicolaas Bloembergen, Kip Thorne, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and many others over a cup of coffee. Léon van Hove, future CERN Director, actually held the first class, on quantum mechanics, in 1951. Today, 51 Nobel laureates and Fields medal winners have been teaching in Les Houches.

In bringing together the greatest physicists in the world and successive generations of young researchers in a spectacular and stimulating location, the Physics School has strongly contributed to the development of French, European and international physics. Many other Physics Schools have been created since, with essentially the same principle of providing tutorial courses on contemporary topics, combined with informal exchanges and geographic isolation. However, as recalled by Jean Zinn-Justin, one of his former directors, “the École des Houches is the mother of all modern schools of physics”. Its success has revealed the importance of training and informal discussions to the progress in physics. Created almost 70 years ago, the École de Physique des Houches has been recognised, on October 5, 2020 and upon proposition of the French Physical Society and the Direction of the School, as an “EPS Historic Site”, in the presence of all scientific authorities concerned. Before unveiling the commemorative plaque, Luc Bergé, EPS president-elect, underlined that “The European Physical Society is happy to recognise the École de Physique des Houches as one of its most precious Historic Sites, enriching the scientific cultural heritage not only of Europe, but also of all humanity.“

From left to right: A.Fontaine, L. Bergé, G. Wormser, B. Van Tiggelen, C. Salomon - Image credit: François Henry/Les Houches

Prof. Dr. Hatice Altug

In 2013, the European Physical Society [EPS] launched the Emmy Noether Distinction to recognise noteworthy women physicists.

Emmy Noether, with her fundamental and revolutionary work in the areas of abstract algebra and theoretical physics, is a role model for future generations of physicists. The laureates of the Emmy Noether Distinction are chosen for their capacity to inspire with their scientific merits the next generation of scientists, and especially encourage women to pursue a career in physics.

The previous recipients of the Emmy Noether distinction are:

• Dr. Catalina Curceanu, INFN Frascati , Italy (2017)
• Dr. Patricia Bassereau, IC-CNRS Paris,France (2016)
• Dr. Eva Monroy (2016), INAC-CEA Grenoble,France (2016)
• Prof. Sibylle Günter, MPI- IPP Garching, Germany (2015)
• Prof. Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland (2015)
• Prof. Anne L’Huillier, Faculty of Engineering, LTH Lund, Sweden (2014)
• Dr. Rumiana Dimova, MPI Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam, Germany (2014)
• Prof. Nynke Dekker, TU Delft, Netherlands (2013)
• Dr. Alessandra Gatti, IFN-CNR Como, Italy (2013)

The EPS Emmy Noether Distinction for Women in Physics is awarded twice a year. The selection committee, appointed by the EPS Equal Opportunities Committee, will consider nominations for female scientists working in Europe.

To make a nomination, please, email the following information to the EPS Secretariat:

A cover letter, detailing (in no more than 3 paragraphs) the motivation for awarding the Emmy Noether distinction to the nominee;

• The nominee’s name, institution and email;
• The nominee’s résumé;
• The nominator’s name, institution, and email.

Download the distinction charter and read more about the Emmy Noether Distinction on the EPS website.