Author: Richard Zeltner

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Traditionally, the Young Minds programme chair is elected by the action committee during the annual leadership meeting. As the Corona-pandemic prevented a physical meeting in 2020 so far, the voting was instead held online early in May. Dr. Richard Zeltner, former president of the hBar Omega section in Erlangen and action committee member since end of 2018, has been elected and follows Dr. Roberta Caruso into office. During the electoral process he sketched and discussed possible new perspectives for the project`s in the upcoming years: First, the consolidation of the current infrastructure of the project, including the webpage and the social media presence. Second, the objective to develop Young Minds, its sections and its members towards being a voice of the new generation of scientists in Europe. In this vision Young Minds will contribute more strongly to raise the understanding on scientific practices and the awareness on topics of major concern, such as climate change, Fake News or disinformation campaigns, in the broad public on both the local, national and international level. As we are currently witnessing, in the midst of the Corona-pandemic, there are never enough efforts made to bring science and society closer together and to reduce communication barriers, creating mutual benefits. Third, increasing the prominence of industry-related activities in the project, thereby expanding and diversifying the network of its members, and opening perspectives towards career paths outside of academia.

Besides the election of the new chair there were further changes in the committee: Dr. Araceli Venegas-Gomez and Giorgio Nocerino left to pick up new challenges, and Hripsime Mkrtchyan (from Yerevan, Armenia) and Tanausú Hernández (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain) , who joined early this year, were formally introduced. Many thanks to Araceli and Giorgio for their valuable contributions over the years and all the best for their future and to Roberta for leading the project during the previous two years successfully, and welcome to Hripsime and Tanausú.

Moreover, during the meeting the newly composed committee decided to aim at organizing a series of online seminars on networking and professional development. As some sections have already successfully launched online formats during the crisis to stay in touch with their audience, e.g. the outreach format Fisica in quarantena from Naples, the Action Committee would like to provide the sections content that would otherwise be included in the postponed leadership meeting. The first edition will be launched on 9^th of June: Francesca di Franco, former member of the Naples YM section PONYS, will share her know-how on the production of multimedia contents to maximize the impact of science-related activities on social media.

From left to right: Hripsime Mkrtchyan, Tanausú Hernández, and Richard Zeltner

 

Dr. Hanieh Fattahi, a young physicist at the Laboratory for Attosecond Physics (LAP) at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich and the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, has been chosen for the Max Planck Society’s Minerva Fast Track Programme.

On an annual basis, the programme currently supports two outstanding postdoctoral female scientists from the fields of the CPTS (Chemistry, Physics and Technology) Section to plan their careers in a more targeted way.

As the name of the programme suggests, it aims to pave the way towards establishing an own research group. In the first phase a three years position is funded by the Max Planck Society. This first phase includes a stay at an internationally renowned Research Institute for an extended period. From June 2017 on Hanieh Fattahi will work in the group of Prof. Sunney Xie at Harvard University (Boston, USA) for one year. When she will be back at MPQ, she will be able to set up a group with two PhD Students. Funds for the equipment and personnel resources will be made by the Institute. After this first stage she can apply for a Max Planck Research Group with a funding period of five years.

Hanieh Fattahi studied biophysics at Sharif-University in Teheran (Iran) where she received her Master of Science in Applied Physics in 2007. In her thesis she investigated the effect of laser irradiation on collagen bundles in the skin. Afterwards, she was accepted at the International Max Planck Research School for Advanced Photon Science (IMPRS-APS), joining the Laboratory for Attosecond Physics headed by Professor Krausz. In 2015 she received her doctoral degree with summa cum laude on the topic “Third Generation Femtosecond Technology”. Since then she has been leading a group in laser development with the focus on waveform synthesis and four-dimensional imaging of electronic motion.

Since 2016 she has been Co-coordinator of the IMPRS-APS. In addition, she became Fellow of the Max Planck Center for Extreme and Quantum Photonics in Ottawa (Canada) in 2016.

Within the Minerva programme, Fattahi and her team will develop an innovative micro-spectroscopy tool for lable-free imaging of biological samples. The new tool combines femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy and field-resolved detection in order to achieve a higher sensitivity for distinguishing molecular fingerprint. This novel method keeps promise for in-vivo, early detection of cancerous cells.

Hanieh Fattahi is member of several scientific organizations, such as the Optical Society of America (OSA), the German Physical Society, and Young Professional Member of the OSA. She is also member of the executive committee of the OSA technical group “Short Wavelength Sources and Attosecond/ High Field Physics” and at present president of the “Young Mind Section of Munich” (ALPS) of the European Physical Society (EPS).
Olivia Meyer-Streng

Read an interview of the EPS president Christophe Rossel in the last newsletter of the ICFO.

He shares his vision for EPS and reflections on opportunities for the EPS Young Minds initiative on outreach and education as well as the role of physics in industry and society.

Download the ICFO newsletter at: https://www.icfo.eu/doc/ICFONIANS_25_fall15_web.pdf

Dear Members,

Young Minds is providing International Year of Light (IYL) Activity
Grants to support YM Sections in developing local community events and
activities that highlight the critical role that light plays in our
daily lives.
The International Year of Light in 2015 is a unique opportunity to
showcase optics and its impact on our daily lives to world, and students
are encouraged to take advantage of this unique opportunity.

EPS Young Minds Sections can apply up to 500€. This grant has to be
considered an Extra Grant with the respect to the 1000€ ordinary YM Grants.
The deadline for the application is January 15th.

To be eligible, each YM Section must be in good standing to apply for grants.
This means that its members are members of EPS or one of its national
societies. Sections need to have an annual election, around September,
to renew their officers.

Funding decisions were made based on the following criteria:
- potential to raise awareness of optics and its impact in daily life
- potential to reach a large audience
- clarity and structure of the project
- clear timeline and budget.

Don't loose this opportunity!
http://www.epsyoungminds.org/benefits/iyl2015/

The YM Action Committee