Authors: Eugenio Nappi, Pablo Garcia Tello, Christophe Rossel, Ophélia Fornari, Luc Bergé – Workgroup 1 – “Reaching Industry”

Organisations and companies of all sizes, in both the public and private sectors, which are involved in physics research or in the development of physics-based technologies, are invited to become EPS Associate Members.

EPS Associate Members (AM) benefit from the unique EPS platform to create partnerships with key stakeholders, industry insiders and decision makers interested in physics, and in addressing societal grand challenges. They have the opportunity to contribute directly to focussed actions involving a broad audience at international scientific conferences, technology trade fairs, and similar events.

EPS plans to improve its collaboration with industrial partners, as they are fundamental for translating basic research into innovation, products, and businesses creating value and impact for society. In the US, more than 50% of physics graduates are used to work in the private sector [1]. In the EU, physics-based industries produce 16% of business revenue, 2/3 being generated in Germany, UK, France, and Italy [2]. Other statistics show that the demand for STEM* professionals and associate professionals is expected to grow by 8% between 2013 and 2025, whilst the average growth forecast for all occupations is 3%.  Employment forecast in STEM-related sectors shows a similar trend: in 2015 it was estimated to rise by 6.5% between 2013 and 2025, although with huge differences across sectors [3]. In parallel, in the past years, Europe has been experiencing a decline in the number of students opting for STEM-related careers [4].

EPS would like to contribute for mitigating this trend. In 2021, the EPS will propose new initiatives serving industrial physicists and for educating students about jobs in industry, with a dedicated staff member at the EPS secretariat. An EPS workgroup - “Reaching Industry” - engages into actions for the recruitment of Associate Members affiliated to physics-based companies and technical universities. It recently drew up a questionnaire that was sent to a panel of enterprises, technical high schools and universities between December 2020 and March 2021. The goal of this questionnaire was to probe their interest in becoming EPS AMs in the coming years.

This questionnaire proposed six questions, requesting the opinion of the respondents on the suitability of the present AM programme and related membership fees to their current needs. It asked also for possible proposals to enhance the EPS current offers, for their interest in joining our Society as AM and for which component of our learned society they would like to work (https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/EPS-AM).

As displayed in the figure 1, the survey was sent to a selection of 62 organisations, composed of 10 regular EPS conference exhibitors, 10 companies proposed by the Industrial Liaison Office of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN/ILO), 12 Multinational and Small & Middle-sized Enterprises, 12 Technical Universities from Western Europe and 18 Technical Institutes - many of them being located in Eastern Europe - proposed by the EPS Young Minds Action Committee.

We received feedbacks from 37% of those who were contacted, and by March 1, 29% returned the questionnaire with complete answers. The distribution of respondents by European nation - even beyond - is detailed in the graphics below. Four of them manifested their interest in joining us within this year as new AM of the EPS. Two others expressed their interest to join next year, due to the pandemic situation.

FIG. 1: Number of companies and technical universities contacted during the EPS AM Survey (Dec. 2020 – March 2021), as a function of the countries hosting their organisation headquarters.
The number of answers (completed or still pending) and of the potentially future AMs are indicated.

What emerged from the survey is a common and repeated interest for the following activities:

• Organisation of meetings or workshops between researchers and industrial representatives
• Access to exhibits of top-level physics conferences at discount rates
• Free access to scientific articles and reviews on topics of interest
• Information on upcoming EPS conferences
• Access to a database of bachelor/master students, PhD students and postdoctoral fellows

for employment or internships

• Job offers available on an online platform.

As a reminder, EPS proposes three levels of Associate Membership (Prestige Sponsor, Sponsor for Societal Challenges, Supporter Associate Member), providing customised packages of benefits, prominently highlighted through multiple communication channels and well acknowledged for their commitment (see https://www.eps.org/page/membership_am):

1.  The Prestige Sponsorship for organisations that wish to sponsor the most prestigious prizes of the Society for outstanding contributions to physics. This category also makes it possible to create new awards tailored to the own field of interest and strategies of the AM.

2.  The Sponsorship for Societal Challenges for organisations that wish to support early career researchers in Europe, promote physics education, equal opportunities and/or physics for development.

3.  The Supporter Associate Membership for small and medium sized organisations that are seeking global exposure from EPS networks and events.

Most of the respondents did not make any definitive choice yet, even if a clear preference was expressed to join the AM categories 2 and 3.

As potential EPS Associate Member, the contacted companies and technical institutes proposed specific actions for adding higher value to their organisation. These could be priority actions developed together with the EPS, such as:

• Initiatives to support early career researchers in Europe and promote physics education
• Meetings and webinars to share interests and needs with other associate members or researchers
• Opportunities to participate in scientific and industrial research projects with other partners
• Creation of new consortia to participate in EU project calls.
  

The EPS acknowledged these suggestions and decided that, in addition to the rights and benefits linked to the above categories of membership, new advantages will be proposed in the future for all AMs, namely,

• Discount rates for exhibitor stands and for participation in plenary talks, round tables, workshops and hands-on sessions during EPS Forums that will bring together young researchers, renowned experts and physics-based companies

• Access to the broad EPS scientific and technological network of academic and industrial facilities, as well as to databases of professionals

• Free access to Europhysics conferences dedicated to technological developments

• Free-of-charge publication and consultation of job offers on EPS dedicated websites

•  Participation to career development and societal (e.g., citizen science) meetings.
  
  

The present authors wish to thank again all the respondents for their important participation to the questionnaire and hope, with these new offers, to make EPS more attractive to physicists and engineers from the industry.

If you wish to join the EPS in this renewed framework of collaboration, do not hesitate to contact us at president@eps.org or ophelia.fornari@eps.org for complementary information.

Sources:

[1] American Physical Society

[2] “The Importance of Physics to the Economies of Europe”, European Physical Society, Sept. 2019

[3] “Encouraging STEM studies for the labour market”, European Parliament – Directorate General for Internal Policies (2015)

[4] “Europe needs more scientists”, European Commission - Directorate-General for Research (2004).

* STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

Author: Guido Bacciagaluppi

The plaque unveiled on 7 April 2021 | photo: Marieke Wijntjes

The EPS has declared the Sonnenborgh Museum and Observatory in Utrecht an EPS Historic Site. The only places in the Netherlands that had previously received this honour are the Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory in Leiden and the NatLab in Eindhoven.

The designation EPS Historic Site is awarded to places that have made an extraordinary contribution to physics. Meteorologist Christophorus Buys Ballot founded the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) in 1854 at Sonnenborgh. This is where the first weather reports for the Netherlands were issued, where Buys Ballot formulated his famous law, and where a start was made on international meteorological cooperation. The adjoining institute of astronomy at Sonnenborgh also grew into a scientific place of great importance, particularly due to the solar research of Marcel Minnaert and Kees de Jager in the 20th century. In 1961 de Jager founded the Laboratory for Space Research at Sonnenborgh, which later became the Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON).

FLTR: Gerard van der Steenhoven, Guido Bacciagaluppi, Valerio Cugia di Sant'Orsola, Leen Dorsman, Maarten Reichwein, and Petra Rudolf

photo: Marieke Wijntjes

 On Wednesday 7 April 2021, as one of her last duties as President of the EPS, Petra Rudolf unveiled a plaque on the exterior facade of Sonnenborgh “to keep alive the memory of Sonnenborgh's extraordinary contribution to physics”. At the unveiling were present the director of the KNMI Gerard van der Steenhoven, the director of Sonnenborgh Maarten Reichwein, and the chair of the History and Foundations section of the Netherlands' Physical Society (NNV) Guido Bacciagaluppi. The NNV is celebrating 100 years of existence in 2021 and nominated Sonnenborgh as EPS Historic Site. Maarten Reichwein: “Sonnenborgh is very honored to be one of the three Historic Sites in the Netherlands. With this award there is even more appreciation for Sonnenborgh and the researchers who have contributed to science at Sonnenborgh”. Originally part of the fortifications of the city, today Sonnenborgh is a well-preserved historic city observatory as well as a popular museum. On 29 April Kees de Jager also celebrated his 100th birthday, which was marked by a separate ceremony at Sonnenborgh.

More about the EPS Historic Sites programme

• The Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory and the Instituut-Lorentz
• Philips Nat Lab
• EPS Historic Sites
  

EPS Gero Thomas Medal 2020 and 2021

The EPS Gero Thomas Medal in 2020 is awarded to Professor Jozef T. Devreese "for his outstanding contributions to a better understanding of physical phenomena in quantum matter including polarons, superconductivity and superfluidity, and structures with reduced dimension and dimensionality. He is also recognised for his dedication to the European Physical Society and his many achievements, including creation of the EPS Condensed Matter Division Conference, and the creation of the EPS Europhysics Prize for Outstanding Achievements in Condensed Matter Physics."

The EPS Gero Thomas Medal in 2021 is awarded to Professor Luisa Cifarelli "for her strong involvement in the design, construction and running of the very large size time-of-flight detector of the ALICE Experiment at CERN, her important contributions to the development of academic journals and books, her extraordinary commitment to the academia, other science organisations and cooperation in the international physics community, and her outstanding contributions to the European Physical Society including her initiative for the creation of the EPS Historic Sites programme."

EPS Fellows 2021

The EPS distinguished Lucia Sorba, from Italy, as EPS Fellow "for her very important contributions to the conception and engineering of reliable semiconducting nanostructures, permitting the observation and control of novel hybrid excitations in condensed matter and the conception of novel semiconductor-based radiation detectors; for her many years of service to the European Physical Society as chair of the Semiconductor- and Insulator Section Board of the EPS Condensed Matter Division."

More info

• EPS Gero Thomas Medal
• EPS Fellows
  

Authors: French Physical Society & Swiss Physical Society

The French Physical Society and the Swiss Physical Society  are proud to announce the 2021 winner of the Charpak-Ritz Prize:

Marie-Emmanuelle Couprie

image credit: Philippe Berteaud

Marie-Emmanuelle Couprie, researcher at the 2.75 GeV electron synchrotron SOLEIL, located south of Paris, has received this award for her outstanding contributions "in light sources using particle accelerators to emit synchrotron radiation of high spectral purity and high degrees of longitudinal and transverse coherence".

Dr. Couprie is the head of the Magnetism and Insertion Device group at SOLEIL and she is in charge of piloting the Free Electron Laser activities. She is an expert of Free Electron Laser theory and applications, she has an outstanding track record of referred publications, and she is strongly involved in the development of technologies with industries.

The Swiss Physical Society congratulates Marie-Emmanuelle Couprie warmly on this prestigious award. [More: spf-website, sps-website].

Marie-Emmanuelle Couprie will receive the Charpak-Ritz medal on 1 September 2021 in the award ceremony of the annual meeting, jointly organised by the Swiss and Austrian physical societies, 31 August to 3 September 2021 in Innsbruck, Austria, where she will also present her work in a plenary talk to the participants of the conference.

The Liechtenstein Astronomical Working Group offers public observation workshops for the population and school classes.  Recently it supported a school project in the Malbun Alpine Valley, an ideal place to observe the starry sky without parasite light.

”We started with the daybreak and the  observation of the course of the sun, then we  built a sundial to measure the true solar time. In the evening the schedule was the observation of  stars and the planets Saturn and Jupiter. Even before the Summer Triangle could be seen in the sky, an “Elon Musk swarm” crossed the dark sky, much brighter than any stars already visible, high above the majestic Mount Augstenberg at regular intervals in a long chain of small satellites over the peacefull Malbun valley ! ”  remembers a shocked participant.

Privatization of Space

Space travel was once the arena for superpowers, but in recent years it has increasingly become a playground  for  billionaires. Now many big businessmen are competing  for satellite orbits;  Elon Musk , Jeff Bezos, Florian Krenkel and many others want to grab a place in the sky.  With a global satellite network, they want to secure their access to  high-speed internet for business purposes.

In addition there are hundreds of satellites launched into orbit.

Who is responsible ?

The International Telecommunications Union, ITU , a specialized agency of the United Nations and  the only organization that deals officially and worldwide with technical aspects of the  Telecommunications, indeed does attribute frequencies to governments who may resell them to private operators, but there is no internationally responsible body for the control of the near-earth orbit. This orbit is crowded with  active satellites and the remainders of disused satellites. Satellites that are shot up today, will be space debris tomorrow, because the technical development of  space industry is fast. If some accident occurs up there , there could be serious breakdowns on our planet, we think about telecommunications, navigation, internet, research, weather  and much more.

Satellite cemeteries

One of the biggest problems of modern space exploration is the disposal of space debris. Currently thousands of cheap satellites are planned. A single rocket can carry  up to 600 such mini satellites. These small satellites  cannot be deorbitated, since they don't have controls, but are cheap and easily built. Steerable satellites can be sent back to earth and with luck will burn up when  re-entering. Another option is to kick them higher to the so-called satellite cemetery. That's where the garbage will be  orbiting for centuries, if not millennia,  around the earth. If a low orbit becomes a  debris dump, it becomes a great danger for space travel and astronomy.

Who will pay ?

The orbit has to be  cleaned from space junk. Up to now , all measures are based solely on commitments from  space nations, not on legal regulations. As is well known, commitments are eagerly broken, especially if they cost a lot of money. Clearing the orbit of its trash will be  very expensive , and  will cost billions annually .  Who will pay for the cleaning ?

With tens of thousands  of these small communication satellites, the view of the starry sky is severely obstructed. Will we soon see more satellites than stars in the sky?