Author: Antoine Pochelon

The first issue of a new publication series of the Swiss Physical Society, SPS Focus, puts a focus on nuclear energy generation with fission, breeding, and fusion based technologies.

Although some countries have decided to completely stop generating electricity on the basis of nuclear energy or to phase it out in the next coming years, other nations are investing and increasing their portion of electricity produced based on nuclear technologies. This is especially true with regard to a hybrid mix of renewable and nuclear-generated energy, which is seen as the optimal approach, especially in the USA and China, in order to secure the growing demand for electrical energy from the point of view of climate protection.

In SPS Focus No 1, three renowned experts present the state of the art and progress made in new generation uranium fission plants, the useof thorium instead of uranium as fission fuel which brings along the possibility to further “burn” existing radioactive waste, and finally the roadmap of nuclear fusion concepts.

The print version has been sent to all 1200 SPS members, and to international decision makers and institutions. First positive reactions express the importance to reconsider nuclear technologies as a viable energy source; especially when considering climate protection and a net-zero emission of greenhouse gases in a low-carbon economy.

https://www.sps.ch/en/artikel/sps-focus/sps-focus-1

Sci-Tech Innovation Day was a full-day start-up fair that took place on June 22, 2021, organized by the Kharkiv YM Section in collaboration with the Student scientific society of the School of physics of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. It aimed at strengthening ties between Kharkiv academic institutions (universities, research institutes) and the Kharkiv industry (IT companies, commercial technology organizations). The event had a mixed format, namely, local participants could attend it in person at Karazin Student`s Hall (with adherence to quarantine regulations), while other participants joined our event online using zoom-platform and presented their projects online too. The web page and Telegram channel were created for communication with the participants.

The event created a platform for the presentation of technological developments of students/young scientists and the acquaintance of interested enterprises and companies with them. Apart from Young Minds, several IT companies (NIX solutions, Kharkiv IT Cluster), as well as scientific societies (IEEE, SPIE, {iaps}) have supported the event. Our Sci-Tech Innovation Day had three main scheduled parts: presentations of innovation projects (start-ups), the master class on pitching (lecture and practice), and evening lectures on the scientific grants and Ukrainian funds. Participants could join either as a presenter or as a listener. The main topics that were covered at the event were robotics and technical developments, augmented reality technologies, 3D printing in science, proceedings in conducting physical demonstrations for online education. The highlight of the day was a 3-hour master class on pitching which we believe was extremely important for young researchers. The theoretical part of the master class covered the description of the main types of business presentations. Then in the practical part, the lecturer gave a chance to all the participants to practice several types of pitches. In the final part of the master class, 10 participants made a pitch presentation and showed their idea to the audience. The best presentations got nice prizes. The participants from other cities received prizes by post.

In the end, we received positive feedback from the participants and think about organizing such an event again.

Webpage of the event: https://sites.google.com/view/stid2021

Image credit: Anastasiia Guzenko

Author: Hans Peter Beck and Maurizio Musso

The 7^th joint annual meeting of the Austrian Physical Society (ÖPG [1]) and the Swiss Physical Society (SPS [2]), held at the Technology Campus of the University of Innsbruck / Austria from August 30^th to September 3^rd, 2021, will go down in the annals of the ÖPG and SPS as a great success. Over 600 participants attended on site an extremely successful program [3], thanks to the very constructive interaction of all board members of the SPS and the ÖPG in preparation and final design of the joint conference, both with regard to the plenary session and the topical sessions, and also with regard to the entire award ceremony for prizes awarded by ÖPG and SPS, the ceremony including the binational Charpak-Ritz Prize, jointly awarded by SPS and the French Physical Society SFP [4].

This year lectures in the plenary session spanned a wide range of physical and physics-related aspects [3], i.e. from surfaces at the atomic scale to materials, from quantum states to quantum optics and quantum technologies, from particle colliders to free electron lasers, from exoplanets to black holes, from physics and education to physics and society, in particular also in connection with innovative products by start-ups, with renewable energy and its repercussion on the climate, and with quality of life in connection with medical applications of physics-related technology.

Stimulated by the talks given in the plenary session and in the topical sessions, and by the personal exchange during the poster sessions, where some are accessible online [3], it was indeed possible to show what the advantages of a personal exchange are, being again achievable with the Covid certificate being checked at the registration desk, and where it became self-evident that physicists are predominately fully vaccinated.  When new contacts are made, when informal conversations spontaneously arise and where one can build up mutual trust, the glue is formed to do further and better research, allowing trying out new ideas in physics, which are the base for the proposition and realization of new projects. It is this inspiring vibe that motivates young members to stay long-term members of the two societies and thus allows to actively shape the future activities of the two societies, which get then also constructively reflected by the associated activities of the EPS.

Winners of the prizes of the Austrian and of the Swiss Physical Society, and the winner of the binational Charpak-Ritz Prize of the Swiss and of the French Physical Society, together with the presidents of the French, Swiss and Austrian Physical Societies. The prizes have been bestowed during the 7^th joint annual meeting of the Austrian and Swiss Physical Society in Innsbruck/Austria from 30^th August to 3^rd September 2021.

[1] Austrian Physical Society http://www.oepg.at/

[2] Swiss Physical Society https://www.sps.ch/en/home

[3] Program of the Joint Annual Meeting of ÖPG and SPS 2021 https://indico.cern.ch/event/1015032/timetable  

[4] French Physical Society https://www.sfpnet.fr/

Previous report: https://www.eps.org/blogpost/751263/367164/Traditional-Joint-Annual-Meeting-of-two-physical-societies-2021

Journals:

JEOS—Rapid Publications
Editor-in-Chief: Sergei Popov
Journal of the European Optical Society
EDP Sciences is pleased to announce that JEOS-Rapid Publications will be published by EDP Sciences from January 2022.

EPJ Photovoltaics
EPJ PV is proud to be a publishing journal of EU PVSEC 2021.

Look out for the forthcoming special issue “EU PVSEC 2021: State of the Art and Developments in #Photovoltaics” edited by Dr. Robert Kenny, European Commission Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy and Professor João M. Serra, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal. First papers expected by the end of September.

EPJ D
Topical Issue: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Techniques for Fundamental Physics
Guest Editors: David Cassidy, Jesús Pérez Ríos, Randolf Pohl and Mingsheng Zhan
“AMO research areas now cover a wide range of fundamental physics investigations, and this Topical Issue will provide an updated perspective of these developments, as well as new directions for AMO-based studies in these areas.” Submissions by 31 October 2021. More information.

EPJ E
Topical Issue: Thermal non-equilibrium phenomena in fluid mixtures
Guest Editors: Fernando Bresme, Bjørn Hafskjold, Werner Köhler and François Montel
“This special issue includes work presented at the international Meeting on Thermodiffusion. This was no. 14 in the series started in Toulouse in 1994. During the three decades since the start, our knowledge of coupled heat- and mass transport processes has grown, and we have seen many new applications of this knowledge.” Submissions by 31 October 2021. More information.

Conference proceedings:

EPJ Web of Conferences

25th International Conference on Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics (CHEP 2021)
Virtual Event hosted by CERN, May 17-21, 2021
Editors: C. Biscarat, S. Campana, B. Hegner, S. Roiser, C.I. Rovelli and G.A. Stewart

“The CHEP conference series was established in 1985, and since then has been one of the most important events in the field of computing in high energy and nuclear physics… It provides a valuable discussion platform, enabling the exchange of ideas between physicists, computing scientists and software engineers, as well as between renowned experts and young researchers.” Browse the open access proceedings here or find out more on the EPJ portal.

Discover forthcoming conferences in physics and browse our client feedback (including case studies and client testimonials) to see what people say about Web of Conferences.

• 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

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