It’s been a busy, but enjoyable month… Here are some of our spring highlights:

EPS Forum, Paris

It was our great pleasure to attend the EPS Forum and meet many of you in person. We particularly enjoyed the outstanding plenary talks with Barry Barish, John Michael Kosterlitz and Serge Haroche. Also the Hands-on Sessions which included a “Masterclass on scientific writing” with Anne Ruimy (Senior Publisher and EPL Executive Editor) and Gonzalo Muga (EPL Editor-in-Chief). Our thanks to everyone involved!

Find out more about Science Publishing Masterclasses here or the partner journal, Emergent Scientist, a hands-on open access journal for students.

FISA 2022 and EURADWASTE ’22, Lyon

Our journal, EPJ N Nuclear Sciences & Technologies, is delighted to be the publishing partner of the 10th Euratom Conference on Reactor Safety & 10th Euratom Conference on Radioactive Waste which took place recently. The event brought together around 500 participants from all over Europe and addressed two major aspects of nuclear energy at a time when energy security and sovereignty are hot topics. EPJ N is a member of the European Physical Journal (EPJ) series of peer-reviewed journals many of which are EPS Recognised Journals.

EPJ Web of Conferences – Applied Nuclear Physics Conference 2021, Prague

We are pleased to share the open access proceedings from the first Applied Nuclear Physics Conference (ANPC 2021) held in Prague last year. The European Physical Society (EPS) introduced the new Applied Nuclear Physics Conference “to contribute to the advancement of nuclear physics in Europe and neighbouring countries…”. Find out more here or browse the proceedings.

EPJ Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) – Kristel Crombé joins

The EPJ Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) has recently welcomed Prof. Dr. ir. Kristel Crombé as the new representative for the Belgian Physical Society. The SAC advises on editorial matters and is supported by the SAC secretary; currently our colleague, Solange Guéhot.

Books – celebrating 35 years of Savoirs Actuels

The Savoirs Actuels collection publishes reference works in French in the fields of physics, astrophysics, mathematics and chemistry. The most recent title is Symétries Continues by Franck Laloë. Coming soon is Théorie statistique des Champs – Vol 2 by François David which will be out on 16 June. The collection is overseen by Michèle Leduc and is co-published with CNRS Éditions. Find out more.

If you have a question or publishing project you would like to discuss, feel free to contact us. In the meantime, we look forward to seeing you at some other upcoming conferences such as the EAS in Valencia or Optique Nice in… Nice!

Best wishes

EDP Sciences

The new year may only be a few days old, but there is plenty of news we’d like to share with you…

Scientific Advisory Committee

The EDP Sciences Scientific Advisory Committee has been established to advise EDP Sciences on strategic matters and ensure a permanent, formal link between the publisher and the scientific community. The Committee provides editorial advice to ensure that EDP Sciences’ high publishing standards are maintained. It also ensures that the governance of EDP Sciences continues to be based on the values of learned societies.

Journal de Physique digital archives 

The Journal de Physique archives are full of the biggest names in physics (Curie, Planck, Rutherford, Becquerel and, more recently, Giorgio Parisi…) and span 1872-1997 – undoubtedly, one of the most exciting periods in physics research. Through them, researchers gain historical insight into current research and are inspired to explore new research ideas. Visit the archives to read some original articles and complementary modern commentaries or take a look at Discovery through multi-lingual science archives published recently in Research Information.

Astronomy & Astrophysics Subscribe-to-Open (S2O)

Astronomy & Astrophysics is moving to a Subscribe-to-Open model (S2O) in 2022 and therefore, if libraries renew their subscriptions, to full open access. “It was important for us to apply a collaborative, transparent and rapid conversion to open access and balance that with a model that works for the astronomy community, and we consider S2O a promising approach.” Professor André Moitinho de Almeida, Chairperson of the A&A Board of Directors.

More journal news

EPJ Applied Physics – EPJ AP is published in partnership with the Société Française des Microscopies. Editors-in-Chief Professor Suzanne Giorgio and Professor Damien Jacob lead the journal which is officially recognised by the EPS. Visit the website to find out more and sign up for free e-mail alerts.

European Physical Journal (EPJ) – visit the EPJ portal to browse all open calls for papers and watch the informative videos. There’s something for everyone! 

EPJ Web of Conferences – we recently had the pleasure of publishing the open access proceedings of the EOS Annual Meeting (EOSAM 2021) which took place in Rome last year. In related news, we are looking forward to seeing the first articles published from the Journal of the European Optical Society-Rapid Publications since its move to EDP Sciences.

Books

For all bibliophiles, start the year with What is Space-Time made of? or the free e-book Neutrons for Science. For a bit of fun, try La physique du popcorn – it’s thoroughly entertaining!

Free anniversary posters 

In 2020, EDP Sciences celebrated its 100 year anniversary. We commissioned an A1 poster for the occasion featuring some of our best-known authors. A few posters are still available. If you would like to receive one, please contact 100@edpsciences.org.

Wishing you all a healthy and happy new year 2022! EDP Sciences

ESRF welcomes its two new Directors of Research: Gema Martínez-Criado (left) and Annalisa Pastore (right) - image credit: ESRF

Gema Martínez-Criado and Annalisa Pastore have been appointed new ESRF directors of research. Martínez-Criado will cover Condensed Matter and Physical and Material Sciences and Pastore Life Sciences, Chemistry and Soft Matter Science.

Read the full article from ESRF, an EPS Associate Member, here: https://www.esrf.fr/home/news/general/content-news/general/esrf-appoints-two-new-directors-of-research.html

Author: DIPC

SPRING (Spin Research In Graphene) is a EU-funded H2020 interdisciplinary project that has the objective of developing new graphene-based magnetic components that contribute to the creation of faster and environmentally friendly electronic devices. The coordination institute of this international alliance is CIC nanoGUNE (ES) in partnership with IBM (CH), University of Santiago de Compostela (ES), Technical University of Delft (NL), University of Oxford (UK) and Donostia International Physics Center (ES).

SPRING combines recent scientific breakthroughs from these six European consortium members to fabricate custom-crafted magnetic graphene nanostructures and test their potential as basic elements in quantum spintronic devices. This interdisciplinary project is covering scientific fields such as two - dimensional nanostructures, graphene, spintronic, natural sciences and data processing amongst others. The targeted long-term vision is the development of an all-graphene – environmentally friendly – platform where we aim to use spins for transporting, storing and processing information.

With that mission, in a first stage, open shell graphene nanostructures will be fabricated with atomic precision and designed functionality. Their magnetism and spin-states will be then characterized. Finally, their potential as basic elements in quantum spintronic devices will be tested. 

Find all the information in SPRING´s official portal: https://www.springfetopen.eu/

Representatives of all involved institutions. Image: DIPC

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