The board produces publications on various nuclear physics related topics, for example so called EPS Position Papers and provides input to the EPS on issues related to nuclear physics and relations to other European and international bodies interested in nuclear physics and policy.  

For more information, you may visit the NPD website.
http://www.eps.org/?page=npd  

For a nomination to be valid:
 - the nomination has to be supported by two other Individual Members. They may either sign the nomination form or send a support letter independently by email.
 - it must be accompanied by a statement of consent from the nominee
 - the elected candidate must be or become an EPS Individual Member (https://www.eps.org/general/register_member_type.asp? )
 - the nominee must send a short CV in pdf or .doc format
- the nominee must send a half page candidate/campaign statement (length ½ page)

- it must be received at the EPS secretariat by 30th April 2025.
 
Please send it by e-mail to the two following addresses:
secretariat@eps.org and raquel.crespo@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Author: Silvia Nicolai

The Nuclear Physics Board of the European Physical Society has awarded the 2020 IBA-Europhysics Prize to Professor Thomas Haberer, scientific and technical director of the Heidelberg Ion Beam Therapy Center at the Heidelberg University Hospital, Germany.

The prize was motivated by Prof. Haberer’s “outstanding scientific discoveries and innovative technological breakthroughs in the use of high energy accelerators and heavy ion beams for the Heavy Ion Cancer therapy”.

Prof. Haberer has devoted his scientific career to the interdisciplinary field of ion-beam tumor therapy. In particular, he introduced a crucial innovation in particle therapy: the raster-scan technique. It consists of a method to deliver the dose that focuses the relativistic ion beams down to pencil size, and scans them over the volume of the tumor. This method allows the full clinical exploitation of the advantageous properties of ion beams, as the highly efficient stopping ions are guided into the target volume only, thus sparing healthy tissue and organs close to the tumor. In the initial phases of Prof. Haberer’s research, raster-scanned carbon beams were produced at the Germany's Heavy Ion Research Center, GSI, to treat, with excellent clinical outcomes, more than 400 patients predominantly suffering from tumors at the base of the skull. Afterwards, the first hospital-based ion-beam therapy center at the Heidelberg University Hospital (Heidelberg Ion Beam Therapy Center, HIT) was established, following the specifications of Dr. Haberer and the principles of the raster-scan method. Since 2009, roughly 6000 patients have been treated at HIT’s fix beam lines, using its world-unique gantry with proton and carbon pencil beams. HIT’s research infrastructure allows for the constant development of the technology for ion-beam treatments. In particular, it recently saw the introduction of novel treatment protocols based on helium and oxygen beams. Today the beam scanning technology is widely adopted in the field of particle therapy.

The award ceremony of the 2020 IBA prize is planned to take place during the Applied Nuclear Physics Conference (Prague, September 12-17, 2021). 

Thomas Haberer in-front of an ion source at HIT - Image: T. Haberer

The Nuclear Physics Board of the European Physical Society has awarded the 2020 Lise Meitner Prize to

• Klaus Blaum (Max-Planck-Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg, Germany),

• Björn Jonson (Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden) and

• Piet Van Duppen (KU Leuven, Belgium)

"for their development and application of on-line instrumentation and techniques, for their precise and systematic investigation of properties of nuclei far from stability, and for shaping the scientific program at the online isotope separator facility ISOLDE, CERN."

The Lise Meitner Prize 2020 for Björn Jonson, Piet Van Duppen and Klaus Blaum honours three scientists representing different experimental techniques and three generations of researchers who have made outstanding contributions to the field of nuclear physics, both scientifically, techno-logically and in terms of science administration. Björn Jonson's name stands for the study of the lightest exotic nuclei, namely halo nuclei, whose surprisingly large matter radius he was the first (together with the late Gregers Hansen) to explain. Piet Van Duppen pushed the production and investigation of post-accelerated radioactive beams with REX-ISOLDE, for which he laid the foundation with his early work in Louvain-la-Neuve. Finally, the scientific work of Klaus Blaum is focused on the high-precision determination of nuclear ground state properties with laser and mass spectroscopic methods and the development of new techniques in this field.

Klaus Blaum, Björn Jonson and Piet Van Duppen have played a decisive role in turning a small-scale nuclear-physics experiment at the European Nuclear Research Centre CERN, which focuses mainly on high-energy experiments, into a facility that enjoys high recognition and respect in the CERN environment and has been the undisputed world leader in ISOL facilities for nuclear structure investigations for 50 years. All three have contributed to this outstanding success at CERN in a variety of ways and functions: as ISOLDE Physics Group Leader, chairman of the ISOLDE Collaboration Committee, member or chairman of the CERN scientific advisory committees, of the CERN Research Board and the Scientific Policy Committee, and as organizers of international conferences and schools in the field of nuclei far from stability.

The award ceremony of the Lise Meitner Prize 2020 will take place during the ISOLDE workshop on Nov-26 2020 as an online event.