Sébastien Mouchet - image credit: S. Mouchet

Authors: Sébastien Mouchet & Gina Gunaratnam

In 2024, the EPS released a calendar of "Inspiring Physicists". Read the interview of Sébastien Mouchet, researcher & honorary senior lecturer at the University of Mons, Belgium and the University of Exeter, UK. He wrote the editorial of the calendar, together with Lorena Ballesteros Ferraz and Riccardo Muolo.

How did you get to know the European Physical Society?
As a master’s student at the University of Namur, Belgium, I attended the annual meeting of the Belgian Physical Society (BPS) organised in Namur in May 2011. BPS is a member society of the European Physical Society. I became a member of the BPS and started receiving the Europhysics News. I remember that the issue that I got at that conference featured an introduction to natural and bioinspired photonics co-authored by Pete Vukusic (https://www.europhysicsnews.org/articles/epn/abs/2011/03/epn2011423p20/epn2011423p20.html) whose group hosted me for about 4-5 years as a postdoctoral researcher later on in my career. It was a surprising coincidence as I was at the time carrying out my master’s thesis in this field.

Could you describe your current field of research in a few words?
The field of natural and bioinspired photonics investigates optical effects in natural organisms, typically phenomena arising from photonic structures, and takes inspiration from these effects and the related optical structures to develop novel technological applications.

What are the challenges of your field?
One of the main challenges in natural photonics is to understand how nature produces photonic structures, often very regular structures at the 100-nm scale that compete in terms of performances with structures fabricated by nanotechnology. Unveiling the exact developmental stages of these structures would be a big step forward.

How would you encourage students to work in this field?
This field of research is very multidisciplinary. It involves some aspects of physics and photonics, of materials science as well as of biology. It also relies on both experimental and numerical approaches. I often try to adapt the project of eager students to what they want and what motivates them: more simulations, only simulations, more experiments or only experiments; more physics, more materials science, or more biology depending on what they are interested in.

Why is it important for you to encourage girls to study physics?
Since the second year of my bachelor’s degree to the end of my master’s degree in physics, my cohort was exclusively composed of men. I had a great time but one must admit that it was a bit peculiar. I could not imagine that girls and women are less good at or less interested in physics. I think that science and research have much to gain from being more inclusive and diverse.

More info

• EPS calendar of inspiring physicists 2024

• Opinion letter by Sébastien Mouchet, Lorena Ballesteros Ferraz and Riccardo Muolo in Europhysics News

Nominations Open: October 1 - December 1, 2024

Elections Period: January 1 - March 31, 2025

Mandate Begins: July 2025

Term Length: 4 Years (renewable for an additional 4 years)

We invite all members to participate in the upcoming elections for new Board members of the EPS Plasma Physics Division. This is an excellent opportunity to shape the future of our community and contribute to the advancement of plasma physics.

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All EPS Individual Members, member of the EPS member societies, EPS associate members and members of the collaborating societies. Self-nominations are possible.

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Submit the nomination form via email with the subject line “EPS Plasma Physics Division Board Nomination”.

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Elections for EPS executive committee members will be held at the next EPS council meeting in May 2025. Members are elected for a two year term and can serve a maximum of two terms. 

We are looking for candidates with expertise and interests in issues relevant to the EPS community including education, outreach, science policy, gender equality, scientific publishing as well as excellent contact with the scientific community.

The Executive Committee is responsible for developing and steering the activities of the EPS.  Its members are expected to actively participate in the discussions and work of the Executive Committee. The members draft discussion documents, represent the EPS in various circumstances (Member Society meetings, Division and Group Boards, EPS projects, etc.), chair EPS Action Committees, and contribute to the aims of the Society.  Executive Committee members also ensure a dialog with various EPS constituents -- Member Societies, Divisions and Groups, Individual Members, Associate Members.

The members of the executive committee are drawn from lists nominated by the constituents of the EPS. 

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Jens Limpert and Jan Rothhardt win the Prize for Research in Laser Science and Applications of the European Physical Society

The Division of Quantum Electronics and Optics of the European Physical Society is delighted to announce that the 2024 laureates of the prestigious Prize for Research in Laser Science and Applications are Prof. Jens Limpert (Friedrich Schiller University and Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering, Jena, Germany) and Dr. Jan Rothhardt (Helmholtz Institute Jena, Germany). The prize is awarded to Prof. Limpert and Dr. Rothhardt in recognition of their pioneering research “for the development of compact high-power coherent extreme-ultraviolet sources and material-specific nanoscale extreme-ultraviolet imaging.” . The prize will be presented on August 27, 2024 during the 11th EPS-QEOD EUROPHOTON conferenece in Vilnius, Lithuania.

The 2024 Prize for Research in Laser Science and Applications is awarded to Professor Jens Limpert and Dr Jan Rothhardt from Jena, Germany. In close collaboration, Jens Limpert and Jan Rothhardt have developed new insights and technologies for the realisation of benchtop extreme ultraviolet sources with synchrotron-like brilliance. By applying high-power femtosecond fibre laser systems and the concept of coherent combination of multiple fibre amplifiers, Jens Limpert and Jan Rothhardt have invented high-harmonic sources with high conversion efficiency, where the photon flux exceeds the state of the art by several orders of magnitude. Jan Rothhardt and Jens Limpert have used their invention to explore new approaches to nanoscale imaging and wavefront sensing. For example, their extreme ultraviolet microscopy has enabled the first mapping of the chemical composition of semiconductor samples at the nanoscale. Their work opens up untapped potential in nanoscience and materials science, for example in the development of efficient nanoelectronics, energy and data storage devices, and in biological imaging, with applications ranging from the detection of cancer cells to the study of the interaction of pathogens, drugs or nanoparticles with biological cells. The committee particularly appreciated the collaborative spirit and innovative approaches to research that have led Jens Limpert and Jan Rothhardt to these remarkable achievements.

Jens Limpert is Professor of Physics at Friedrich Schiller University and Head of the Fibre Technology Centre at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Finemechanics in Jena, Germany. He earned his doctorate in physics from the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena in 2003 and was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bordeaux, France. Since 2005, he has been leading research activities on high-power laser sources in Jena. He has received three (Starting, Consolidator and Advanced) grants from the European Research Council ERC and numerous distinctions such as the Lothar Späth Award in 2019.

Jan Rothhardt is a research group leader at the Helmholtz Institute Jena and a lecturer at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany. Jan Rothhardt received his doctorate in physics from the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena in 2010. After a post-doctoral period at the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique in Saclay, France, he returned to Jena and held several leading positions before becoming a research group leader at the Helmholtz Institute. Jan Rothhardt's research has been recognised by several awards, including the 2020 Röntgen Prize.

Jens Limpert and Jan Rothhardt now receive the 2024 Prize for Research in Laser Science and Applications , a major prize awarded on behalf of the European Physical Society by its Quantum Electronics & Optics Division (QEOD). The prize is awarded every two years in recognition of recent work by one or more individuals (not more than three) for scientific excellence in the field of laser science and applications, broadly defined.  Relevant topics include laser source development, power scaling concepts, pump source development, nonlinear optics, ultrafast sources, materials science, spectroscopic and characterisation techniques, and applications both in optics and photonics and in other fields.

Prof. Jens Limpert (left) and Dr. Jan Rothhardt (right) - image credit: Fraunhofer IOF Jena

Author: Michael Gregory

Discovery Space is an EU-funded project to develop an Exploratory Learning Environment to facilitate students’ inquiry and problem-solving through learning scenarios featuring virtual and remote labs. Students will be guided through differentiated learning pathways, customized by their input as they progress through learning scenarios covering a variety of topics. For more information on Discovery Space, please see: https://discoveryspace.eu/.

EPS is one of eight project partners, and is in charge of the teacher training academy for Discovery Space, and will be developing a number of in-person and online workshops and courses throughout the project.

In October and November, EPS will be running an online mini-course on AI in the classroom: AIMLOW - Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Online Workshops. The course will be led by Michael Gregory (EPS EU Project Officer) in collaboration with Kalina Dimitrova (Sofia University, PADME, ALICE). Sessions will include:

• Language models / text generation
• Image recognition
• Image generation
• Misconceptions on AI
• Classroom applications
• Discovery Space

Sessions will be semi-independent, and can be attended individually according to interest. Certificates of completion will be provided for teachers who attend the whole course. The course will finish with an introduction to Discovery Space as a tool to transform your classroom into an AI-assisted deep-learning environment.

Thursday Sept 26th, Michael will present a Scientix webinar to introduce Discovery Space and AIMLOW. As a Scientix Ambassador, this will be Michael’s 6th Scientix webinar, and is expected to generate excitement about Discovery Space throughout the Scientix community. There are also plans to present Discovery Space at an upcoming PhET webinar.

In-person workshops are being planned across Europe to train teachers on the Discovery Space Enhanced Learning Environment, with learning scenarios created from project partners:

• University of Bayreuth (Germany)
• University of Deusto (Spain)
• Ellinogermaniki Agogi (Greece)
• Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (Greece)
• LabsLand (Spain)
• Athens Technology Center (Greece)
• NUCLIO – Núcleo Interactivo de Astronomia e Inovação em Educação (Portugal)
• European Physical Society

EPS-led workshops will kick-off in Sofia, Bulgaria on September 28th to coincide with European Researchers’ Night celebrations, and more will follow in France and Spain. Please get in touch if you are interested in organising a workshop for teachers in your part of the world.

image credit: Michael Gregory

Discovery Space is funded by the European Union under grant agreement No 101086701. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.