The EPS Council in front of the Fundação Dr. António Cupertino de Miranda, Porto

The Council of the European Physical Society (EPS) took place in Porto this year. In the beautiful premises of the Fundação Dr. António Cupertino de Miranda, representatives of EPS Member Societies, Individual Members, Associate Members, chairs of Divisions, Groups and Committees gathered to exchange ideas on the Society's activities.

The first day was dedicated to reports from the EPS president, the treasurer and various work groups. Discussions were launched around changes in the EPS constitution and participants had the opportunity to discover the candidates for several elections.  The day concluded with a dinner in the impressive contemporary building of Casa da Musica in the centre of Porto. A tribute to David Lee, former EPS Secretary General, was presented by the current EPS President Luc Bergé and several of his predecessors: Luisa Cifarelli, Maciej Kolwas, Ove Poulsen, Christophe Rossel, Petra Rudolf and Rüdiger Voss.

The second day revealed the results of elections for a renewed EPS Executive Committee. Mairi Sakellariaou, is the EPS President-Elect. A professor of Theoretical Physics at King’s College London, former co-editor at the EPL journal and current chair of the EPS Gravitational Physics Division, Mairi will succeed Luc Bergé as EPS President in 2024. Presentations of the activities of ISBSSD (International Year of Basic Science for Sustainable Development) and the congress of the French Physical Society, celebrating its 150th anniversary this year were also on the agenda. The Society's Awards were attributed as follows:

• EPS Gero Thomas Medal to Christophe Rossel
• EPS Fellows to José Maria De Teresa and Nicola Bianchi
• EPS Honorary Member to Karl Heinz Langanke
• EPS Early Career Awards to Adolfo Grushin and Jose Lado
• EPS Edison Volta Prize 2020 awarded to Klaus Ensslin, Jurgen Smet and Dieter Weiss. Profs Ensslin and Weiss each presented their work prior to the award of the prize. 

Details of all 2023 EPS Awards can be found here: https://www.eps.org/?page=distinctions

The Council ended with an online meeting with our colleagues from the Ukraine Physical Society (UPS):  Prof. Maksym Strikha Taras Shevchenko, Kyiv National University Ukraine, UPS Board Member, UPS President (2013-2016) and Prof. Mikhail Belogolovskii Comenius University, Bratislava, UPS Vice President. Both described the harsh living conditions and the losses among the scientific community who stayed in the country and carried on their work despite the war. They thanked the EPS for its support and encouraged the assembly to work on further common actions.

Nominations are now open for the EPS Early Career Prize. The EPS has two Early Career prizes to be awarded each year – one each for achievements of a mainly theoretical or experimental nature. Those eligible for these awards should have made a substantial contribution to the development or reputation of physics in Europe. "Early Career" is defined as those individuals in the first 12 years of their career in physics following their first degree or equivalent, with allowance for any career breaks.

More information on what is needed to make a nomination can be found here.

The deadline to submit a nomination is 15th February 2022.