author: Institute of Physics

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 Professor Qi-Kun Xue

The Institute of Physics (IOP) and IOP Publishing (IOPP) have appointed Professor Qi-Kun Xue as chief scientific advisor for China.

In the newly created role, Professor Xue will support the IOP and IOPP as they continue to strengthen relationships with the scientific community in China. He will advise on strategic engagement with key decision makers in government and the scientific community and provide expert insight into political and institutional processes. He will also lead a new Science Advisory Board made up of distinguished academic and industry professionals, which has been formed by the organisations to provide guidance on developments in research and academic publishing throughout China.

Professor Xue is currently Vice President of Tsinghua University, Beijing and President of Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences (BAQIS). He is also a Vice-President of the Chinese Physical Society.

He received his BSc from Shan-Dong University in 1984 and his PhD in condensed matter physics from the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOPCAS) in 1994.

His academic career began as a Research Associate at the Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Japan. He progressed to Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at North Carolina State University in 1996. Xue received his professorship from IOPCAS in 1999 and moved to the Department of Physics, Tsinghua University as a Distinguished Professor, in 2005.

In 2016, he was the first recipient of the Physical Science Award of the new Future Science Prize – China’s first non-governmental science award – for his ground-breaking discoveries of novel quantum phenomena using molecular beam epitaxy, including quantum anomalous Hall effect (QAHE) and monolayer FeSe superconductivity.

Commenting on his appointment, Professor Xue, said: “Thanks to substantial investment, and the hard work and dedicated focus of its research community, China is at the forefront of science globally. I am very proud to be helping the Institute of Physics and IOP Publishing in their efforts to forge closer working relationships with the scientific community in China.”

Professor Paul Hardaker, Chief Executive Officer at the Institute of Physics, said: “We are honoured that Professor Xue has agreed to become our first chief scientific advisor for China. It’s extremely important for us to strengthen and develop our links with China’s scientific community, to enable us to learn from one another and foster greater collaboration. I’m looking forward to working closely with Professor Xue and the Advisory Board in the coming years to achieve this.”

Antonia Seymour, Director of Publishing at IOP Publishing, said: “At IOP Publishing we’re very fortunate to have published some of the most significant research from scientists in China, many of whom are considered world leaders in their fields. Alongside our colleagues at IOP, we feel very privileged to have access to the advice and guidance of Professor Xue as we work to build our links with the Chinese research community.”

Angela Bracco and Luisa Cifarelli

Here comes my last editorial, as President, on SIF Prima Pagina, the electronic newsletter that supports Il Nuovo Saggiatore as from 2014. Bulletin of the Italian Physical Society, founded in 1985 on an idea by Pio Picchi, renewed in its editorial format since 2008, Il Nuovo Saggiatore – whose last 2019 issue has just been published – represents today not only the voice of SIF in Italy and abroad but also a well-known and appreciated magazine for the dissemination of scientific culture.

This year, during the Congress, the elections for the societal offices of the SIF were held, the outcome of which shows that overall almost 44% of eligible Members voted. A higher percentage would have been preferable but it was still a percentage comparable with or even higher than those usually obtained in other Societies, for example the IOP (Institute of Physics) or the APS (American Physical Society), in similar electoral consultations.  

The Council renews itself with two new Councillors, Antigone Marino and Bernardo Spagnolo, and a new President, to whom I am very happy to pass the baton after so many years of presidency. It is the eminent colleague and friend, Angela Bracco, from the University of Milan. Indeed, I am really happy to do this with a female SIF President, the second case in 122 years of the Society's history!

The SIF closes 2019 with a budget that does not raise particular concerns despite the current changing scenario of scientific publishing that does not seem to want to favor small publishing houses. But the SIF has excellent relations and international partnership contracts, in particular with Springer Nature, which for now "secured” it". Another security factor derives from the efficiency and effectiveness of its editorial offices, from the quality of its own journals, especially La Rivista del Nuovo Cimento, which exceeded this year seven points of impact factor, and from the value of its volumes. After the publication and presentation at the Library of the Italian Senate of the volume "I Fisici Senatori 1848-1943", the upcoming publications are: "Scientific Papers of Ettore Majorana – A new expanded edition" and "Laura Bassi - The world's first woman professor in natural philosophy – An iconic physicist in Enlightenment Italy" (the latter both co-produced by SIF and Springer Nature).

Of course, the good economic performance of the SIF is also and above all due to its virtuous personnel and careful management of resources. All this allows it to hold in Varenna its famous courses of the International School of Physics "Enrico Fermi" and of the EPS-SIF International School on Energy, to organize every year its National Congress, to establish its numerous and coveted awards for young and less young people, to carry out his multiple sponsorships of events, scholarships, etc.

Finally, since I don’t want to retrace all the many actions taken by the SIF during the years of my presidency, also internationally thanks to its lively collaboration with other Societies, especially the EPS (European Physical Society) and the APS (American Physical Society), I leave it to you to do the repertoire. I just like to remember some of them, starting from the report "The impact of physics on the Italian economy", commissioned by the SIF to Deloitte in 2014, in collaboration with the major Italian research institutions; passing through the battle for the Association of professional physicists and then for the Order of professional chemists and physicists (which was carried out after many "fibrillations"), for which the SIF continues to be activate through various institutions, in particular ConPER (Consulta dei Presidenti degli Enti di Ricerca); and ending with the very recent and immediate signing by the SIF of the open letter in support of Education and Research as priority areas for Europe. The letter has achieved an unexpected success and allowed to modify the portfolio’s title of the new European Commissioner M. Gabriel from "Innovation and Youth" to "Education, Research, Culture, Innovation and Youth".

Having reached this year the end of my mandate, I sincerely thank the SIF and its staff. I thank all the Councillors with whom I have had the honour of collaborating and express my warmest wishes to the President and to the newly elected Councillors.

To all SIF Members, who with their support and trust have granted me in all these years a fabulous and unforgettable opportunity, my warmest thanks.

To them and to all our readers, Happy 2020!

Luisa Cifarelli
SIF President

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This editorial is a republication from the Editorial of SIF Pagina, the newsletter of the Italian Physical Society, dated 20 December 2019

The European Group for Atomic Systems (EGAS) will hold its 52th annual conference from July 6 to 10, 2020, in Zagreb, Croatia. Several highly distinguished plenary and invited speakers will present their research in Zagreb, including Ignacio Cirac, Jean Dalibard, Frédéric Merkt, Christiane Morais Smith, Ruth Signorell and Jun Ye, among others. More than two hundred scientist from across Europe are expected for this 52th EGAS conference.

Registration is now open, and detailed information can be found at https://www.egas52.org

The EGAS group is part of the Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics Division of the EPS with the aim to promote studies in atomic, molecular, and optical physics and related topics. Information on the EGAS activities and on previous EGAS conferences is found at http://www.eps-egas.org

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author: Rosario Gonzalez-Ferez, chair of the EPS EGAS board

During the EPS 2019 conference held in Ghent last summer, Rob Appleby, Chris Edmonds and Robyn Watson were awarded the Outreach Prize of the EPS High Energy Physics Division " for the Tactile Collider Project that brings particle physics to blind and visually impaired schoolchildren through touch and sound."

On 14 and 15 September 2019, Tactile Collider was installed at the CERN Open Days. These were attended by 6,000 visitors who had the opportunity to discover the project and it’s unique way of delivering science.

What is Tactile Collider?

The installation consists of a series of metal tubes of  around 2 metres in length which are assembled in a ring representing the CERN Large Hadron Collider, a circular particle accelerator of almost 27 km in circumference. Placed within this tube network are tactile representations of the (RF) cavities and dipoles which are made from different materials to encourage participants to touch and explore the accelerator model. Other 3D-printed elements show magnets and the movements of particles inside the accelerator. Participants are also able to touch tactile diagrams to bring to life the Higgs boson.

 

Tactile Collider invites participants to touch the elements to grasp the principles of a particle accelerator

A clash outside the collider

In 2014, Manchester welcomed "Collider", a temporary exhibition looking at the discovery of  the Higgs boson.  When two blind visitors asked if there was a way for them to access the exhibit the idea for Tactile Collider was born.

Dr Rob Appleby (University of Manchester) worked alongside Dr Chris Edmonds (University of Liverpool) to look at ways of delivering particle accelerator physics to a visually impaired audience (VI). Using an online forum they asked for people with visual impairments to give advice on what their expectations were in similar situations and what could be suggested to improve facilities in exhibitions. Robyn Watson, a teacher of the visually impaired replied and she became the link between the scientists and the children.

It took 6 months to develop the Tactile Collider installation. In 2017, a prototype was created at Cockcroft Institute and Robyn and her students worked alongside Rob and Chris to finalise the tactile objects and delivery of the project. Later in the same year, a "soft launch" was organised as test event at St Vincent’s School in Liverpool. Robyn went there to observe the participants and she gave feedback again.

In 2018, the Tactile Collider team organised several events throughout the UK: science museums, schools, music festivals. Tactile Collider was taken on tour with the hope of being accessed by as many students as possible. It was intended for children with VI but also worked for a non-VI audience to raise awareness of visual impairment and to make science accessible to all. The project evolved every time it was presented and encountered huge success everywhere.

Parents of  the children who attended have explained their delight in feeling that their children can access the same information as other pupils.  Tactile Collider is designed to be accessible for children with VI, however this also makes it an exciting project for all students and adults who are interested in discovering science. It simplifies complicated physics concepts and breaks them into smaller, digestible parts.

The project also brings together scientists and children with VI, this is a key aspect of the programme and allows students to connect with someone working with science everyday. For the children with VI having subject specialists like physicists explaining the science gives them the opportunity to explore ideas for further study and employment that they may otherwise have felt wasn’t possible.

Robyn, in her work as teacher of the visually impaired, works with teachers to make their lessons accessible to children. She teaches them that there is value in diversity and inclusion.

Before receiving the 2019 EPS HEP Outreach Award, the Tactile Collider team won the "2018 University of Manchester People’s Vote for the Faculty of Science and Engineering’s Better World Showcase" and was "Highly Commended in the Making a Difference Awards for Social Responsibility 2018 for Outstanding Contribution to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion".  They have since won the "RNIB 2019 Innovator of the Year Award" in the UK.

The future of the Tactile Collider

Tactile Collider would like to inspire a generation of children with visual impairements as well as members of the general public. To allow them to engage with high level learning in places like schools, science festivals and museums.

The next step is to develop new projects, organise events in the UK and beyond. Rob, Chris and Robyn are currently planning a workshop to train educators on how to deliver the science behind Tactile Collider and on how to include learners with VI in their lessons and workshops.

So stay tuned for more news about the Tactile Collider team. And let yourself be inspired by their enthusiasm to spread science to everyone!

• http://tactilecollider.uk
• https://twitter.com/tactilecollider

Rob Appleby and Robyn Watson participated in the CERN Open Days
and welcomed almost 6,000 visitors to explore Tactile Collider

The Tactile Collider team

• Rob Appleby: Physicist at the University of Manchester and the Cockcroft Institute.
• Robyn Watson: Teacher for visually impaired children at Bolton Sensory Support Service.
• Chris Edmonds: Physicist at the University of Liverpool and the Cockcroft Institute.

You can listen to the article here: https://tinyurl.com/tmwvmuo
(Robyn Watson reading)

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author: Gina Gunaratnam

Last year Hungary solemnly commemorated, under the aegis of UNESCO, the centenary of the passing away of Roland Eötvös (1848-1919), the founding father of Geophysics. As is generally known, Eötvös developed the ‘torsion balance’ carrying his name, an instrument sufficiently sensitive to charter the variation of gravitation in the field. Since gravitation is a matter of masses, the ‘torsion balance’ is able, so to speak, to look in the underground. In 1916, its first important achievement, namely the confirmation of the existence of oil fields at Egbell (now Gbely, Slovakia), showed its fiability.

 

 

Fig.1  Roland Eötvös (1848-1919) by Gyula Éder (1941; oil on canvas).

Courtesy: Roland Eötvös University (ELTE), Budapest.

 

In a next issue of the series ‘Tributes’, in Europhysics News, details of theory and practice of the instrument will be discussed. Accidently, during the preparation of the ‘Tribute to Roland Eötvös’ crucial new souvenirs of Eötvös showed up in the Archives of the Ruprecht-Karls-University, at Heidelberg. Indeed it was at Heidelberg’s University that Eötvös studied Physics as his ‘major’—under no one less than Gustav Kirchhoff (1824-1887)—with Chemistry and Mathematics as ‘minors’. In 1870, he also passed the PhD at Heidelberg, ‘summa cum laude’, that is, with the highest possible honours. Importantly, the formalities at the time were not our’s. Passing the PhD, mostly, occurred without a dissertation. It consisted of an oral examination in German of 2-3 hours before the assembled Professors of the Heidelberg Faculty of Philosophy.

 

For the EPS-community it is interesting that the PhD-files concerning Eötvös still exist: the Archives of the University of Heidelberg, the oldest of all of Germany, is able to document almost all doctorates awarded in its long past. In the case of Eötvös, something fully unknown showed up: a handwritten curriculum vitae by Eötvös himself, and in still compulsory Latin. As we may imagine, this find will enable to further detail Eötvös’ already exciting biography. It was announced last January 23^rd before the Aula of the Ruprecht-Karls-University, Heidelberg (Fig.2).

 

Fig.2  Presentation of the Eötvös files as (re)discovered in the Archives of the

Ruprecht-Karls University, Heidelberg, on January 23^rd, 2020.

In the middle: Matthias Weidemüller, Pro-Rector of the University and physicist.

On the right: Ingo Runde, Director of the Archives.

On the left: Henk Kubbinga (EPS-History of Physics Group).

Picture: Oliver Fink (Press Departement, Heidelberg).

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 author: Henk Kubbinga