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Posted By Gina Gunaratnam,
Tuesday 12 September 2023
Updated: Friday 15 September 2023
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FLTR: Monika Ritsch-Marte, Petra Rudolf and Ilaria zardo - images: Gina Gunaratnam/EPS
Author: Gina Gunaratnam
The award ceremony of the joint meeting of the Swiss
Physical Society (SPS) and the Austrian Physical Society (ÖPG) took place in early September
at the University of Basel. Started with several awards of the SPS, the event continued with the prizes attributed
by the ÖPG and with the distinction of the
European Physical Society (EPS) dedicated to female physicists.
Prof.
Petra Rudolf, chair of the EPS Equal Opportunities Committee and former
president of the Society, handed over the EPS Emmy Noether Distinction
2022 to Prof. Monika Ritsch-Marte (full career) and to Prof. Ilaria Zardo (mid-career).
Monika
Ritsch-Marte, from the Institute of Biomedical Physics, Dept. of
Physiology & Medical Physics, the Medical University of Innsbruck,
Austria, was awarded " for exceptional contributions to
optical microscopy and manipulation methods and for the promotion of
women’s careers in physics. "
Ilaria Zardo, researcher at the Department of physics of the University of Basel, Switzerland, was awarded "for
her contributions in the methodology of characterizing nanoscale
materials and the consequent discovery of their new functional
properties. "
The ceremony was followed by an
interview of both EPS laureates by Prof. Rudolf and a group photo with
laureates of all the presented prizes in the beautiful botanical garden
of the Swiss university.
More info

Petra Rudolf presenting the EPS Emmy Noether Distinction to the SPS-ÖPG audience at the University of Basel

Group photo with all laureates of SPS, ÖPG and EPS prizes in the university's botanical garden
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Posted By Administration,
Thursday 1 September 2022
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The European Physical Society is happy to announce that the winter 2021 EPS Emmy Noether Distinction is awarded to:
María Pilar López Sancho,
Research
Professor and researcher at the Instituto de Ciencias de Materiales de
Madrid (ICMM) of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones
Científicas (CSIC) on the Cantoblanco Campus near Madrid, Spain, “For
her contributions to the understanding of the electronic structure of
low-dimensional materials and in recognition of her continuous,
tireless and successful actions for the empowerment of women in
physics.”
Pilar López Sancho works in the Department of
Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics at ICMM. She obtained her PhD from
the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in 1979, and went on to work for
CSIC at what is today the ICMM, where she remained till today. A
theoretical physicist working in the field of condensed matter systems,
Pilar made her first important contributions by developing a new and
fast method for the calculation of bulk- and surface electronic Green’s
functions and transfer matrices. It is a remarkable feat that this work
remains of high actual value, being used by many groups around the
world, and enjoying higher citations today than ever before, placing
Pilar’s publications solidly in the “evergreen” class, and demonstrating
Pilar’s insight and acuity for choosing relevant problems.
Pilar
López Sancho went on to work to apply her methods to metallic interfaces
and dilute magnetic semiconductors. However, her most significant
contributions are on the electronic structure and transport properties
of low-dimensional carbon systems. Pilar thus performed groundbreaking
work on the effect of the Coulomb- and spin-orbit interaction on
electronic localisation and spin-dependent transport in carbon
nanotubes. Highly noticed and much-cited more recent work by Pilar
concerned the induction of localised states and magnetism by different
types of topological defects in graphene, and the effects of the
spin-orbit interaction on electronic transport in single-layer and
multilayer transition metal dichalcogenides.
Alongside this very
successful scientific career, María Pilar López Sancho has pursued what
can be called an impressive “second career” as a never-tiring advocate
for women in physics. Starting from the mid nineteen-nineties, Pilar has
been continuously active for the defence of women in physics, at all
levels. In 2001, she is the co-founder of the Association of Women in
Research and Technology AMIT[1],
of which she becomes the President from 2009 to 2013. AMIT, a member
organisation of the European Platform of Women Scientists, has grown to
be a powerful association of women in all scientific disciplines and at
all stages of their careers, and has more than 1000 members. Pilar is
also the founder of the Women in Physics Group of the RSEF and was its
Chair from 2002-2018.
In her institution, the CSIC, Pilar was at
the origin of and lent priceless support to the creation of the CSIC
Gender Equality Distinction. She has been delegate president of the
Women and Science Commission of CSIC, the first institutional commission
of this type created in Spain. Pilar has taken responsibilities in the Commission for Equality - launched to implement the plan of the General Spanish State Administration.
Pilar
López Sancho performed large-scale research on position of women in
science, published more than 30 articles, books, and conference papers
on the topic, and presented dozens of lectures. As a recognised
international expert on the matter, she has served on the Evaluation
Committee for projects and grants financed by the European Commission in
the programs "Monitoring Progress Towards Gender Equality (FP6)"
(2005-2007) and "Meta-Analysis of Gender and Science Research" (FP7)
(2008-2010). During the period 2015-2017, she was the Spanish Deputy in
the Helsinki Group for Research and Innovation.

More info:
[1] Asociación de Mujeres Investigadoras y Tecnólogas
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Posted By Administration,
Tuesday 13 October 2020
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Author: Elina Koistinen, EOS Executive Director
This year the conference was first time ever online
The EOS Annual international conference and industrial exhibition, EOSAM, was initially planned to take place under the warm sun of Porto, Portugal in 7-11 September 2020, organized together with the Portuguese Society for Optics and photonics, SPOF. However, due to the circumstances with the covid pandemic, we wanted to ensure the safety of our attendees and their families, and made the difficult decision to move the onsite event into online form, for the first time ever in the history of the EOSAM conference.
During the conference week, 7-11 September, EOS offered live and on-demand presentations free of charge for attendees, with a chance to register and view the presentations also after the conference week, free of charge.
The conference week included the School of Physics on Optical Metrology, four live plenary talks and over 120 invited and contributed presentations covering all topics of optics and photonics under the 12 topical meetings.
At the conference, we had the pleasure of hearing the plenary talks of four esteemed researchers, one of which, was Hatice Altug from the Institute of Bioengineering, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland. She presented her talk on New Frontiers in NanoPhotonics: Next-Generation BioSensors. This session was special, as Prof. Altug also received the esteemed Emmy Noether distinction for Women in Physics from the European Physical Society (EPS) after her talk. The EOS warmly congratulates Hatice for this honor and thanks the EPS for this collaboration. In fact, the EPS and the EOS are collaborating societies since many years, and this collaboration is highly valued at the EOS.
The year 2020 has certainly been challenging for all, but it was nice to see the community coming together online to present and view the latest research in the field. It was a great pleasure to provide a platform for the researchers to present their research, in times when conferences in person cannot be held.
We warmly invite all EPS members to join us for the next EOSAM conference to be held in person in Paris in 6 - 11 September 2021

The European Optical Society, EOS, is a non-profit society, and an umbrella organization for all national optical societies around Europe. Our members extend from Europe to all over the world.
The EOS mission is to bring together and encourage the cooperation of all with an interest in optics, optoelectronics and related scientific fields, to make practical use of research results, and to support the industrial exploitation of optics. To this end, the EOS e.g. organizes international conferences, scientific, technical and cultural meetings, training courses, exhibitions, and other events…
Read more about the European Optical Society (EOS): https://www.europeanoptics.org/
EOSAM 2020 conference website: www.eosam2020.org
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Posted By Administration,
Monday 16 March 2020
Updated: Tuesday 17 March 2020
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In 2013, the European Physical Society launched the Emmy Noether Distinction to recognise noteworthy women physicists having a strong connection to Europe through their nationality or work.
Emmy Noether, with her fundamental and revolutionary work in the areas of abstract algebra and on the conservation laws in theoretical physics, is an exceptional historical figure for all generations - past, present and future - of physicists.
The laureates of the Emmy Noether Distinction are chosen for their capacity to inspire the next generation of scientists, and especially encourage women to pursue a career in physics. Attribution criteria are based on research achievements, coordination of projects and management, committee memberships and teaching activities. The nominees should also be recognized by their peers as role models in the physics community.
The EPS Emmy Noether Distinction for Women in Physics is awarded twice a year, in winter and in summer.
The selection committee, appointed by the EPS Equal Opportunities Committee, will consider nominations of women physicists working in Europe for the 2020 Summer Edition of the Emmy Noether Distinction from May 2020.
For the present edition, nominations will be received until Friday, April 18th, 2020.
To make a nomination, please, email the following information to the EPS Secretariat:
- A cover letter, detailing (in no more than 3 paragraphs) the motivation for awarding the EPS Emmy Noether Distinction to the nominee;
- The nominee’s name, institution and email;
- The nominee’s CV;
- The nominator’s name, institution, and email.
- Optional: No more than 3 support letters.
Download the distinction charter and read more about the EPS Emmy Noether Distinction on the EPS website.
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Posted By admin,
Monday 27 January 2020
Updated: Monday 27 January 2020
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author: Luc Bergé
In late 2019, Cristiane Morais Smith from the Institute for Theoretical Physics, Utrecht University in the Netherlands, was awarded the Winter 2019 EPS Emmy Noether Distinction.
Luc Bergé [LB], chair of the EPS Equal Opportunities Committee, interviewed her [CMS].
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LB: At what point in your education did you consider a career in physics?
CMS: I did my studies in Paraguacu Paulista, a little village in Brazil, where I was born. When I was 13 years old, the Science teacher gave us a problem to solve: Calculate the acceleration of a particle sliding down an inclined plane without friction. This is the celebrated problem of Galileo, the fact that the acceleration does not depend on the mass. The teacher did not expect that any of us would be able to do it, he considered it as a game. I solved the problem, and when he realized that I had done it, he started shouting for joy. He was a very serious and shy person, and we were all astonished by his expression of genuine enthusiasm. I then asked him: if I would like to play this kind of games when I am older, which profession should I have? He answered: Physicist! That was it! I was decided to become a physicist, although I had never seen one before.
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FIG. 1: Prof. C. Morais Smith, Utrecht University, Netherlands (copyright: Ivar Pel)
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LB: Did you find a resistance to girls succeeding in science?
CMS: The first resistance came from my own family. In Brazil, there is no exam to finish the school, like the Baccalaureate degree, but there is an exam to enter the university. It is extremely difficult: 4 hours of exam per day during 5 days, and usually there are 100 candidates for each available place. The best universities are the public ones, which are free, but you can usually access one of those only if you study in good private schools, which are very expensive. There were no private schools in my little village. I knew that I should go to a neighbouring town named Marilia to study, otherwise I would have no chance to access a really good university, but this was expensive. One year before my entrance exam to the University, my parents decided to send my youngest brother to a private school in this town. He had still 3 years to go before his exam, but I had only one. If they had money for one kid, I should logically get priority because my exam was closer. But my father argued: your brother will be a family head, so he should have priority to enter the university. I contested and finally my parents sent me too. I studied 16 hours a day to catch up all what I should have learned during the previous years and succeeded to go to UNICAMP, one of the best universities in Brazil. Despite this incident, I must say that I come from a family of very strong women: one of my grand-Moms (102 years old by now) was the first woman to work as a public employee in my village, my mom worked and studied all her life, despite her 4 kids… but boys had a preference in case of scarce funds.
LB: Do you believe that physics should positively discriminate in favour of women?
CMS: I did not think so when I was young and naïve. I wanted to get everything on my own, and I would have been offended to get anything based on quotas… but now that I have enough experience, I am very much in favour of positive discrimination. We are all constantly discriminating against women, even if we do not wish or even if we are not aware of it. One has to compensate for that somehow, at least until we reach a higher percentage of female physicists. Very often I am the only female speaker in a conference, and this is not normal.
LB: Do you have advices to girls that wish to start a career in physics?
CMS: Yes. It is fascinating to do physics and to understand how the world around us works. I cannot imagine a better career and a more interesting job. You will be in contact with young students and will discuss with colleagues from all nationalities. You will travel the world and discover that people think and do things differently in other countries. This is an international profession, you can easily be a physicist in any country in the world. And if you decide to change your life and quit the academic career, you can always find a job in industry because physicists learn how to solve problems in general, and people love to have them in their companies!
FIG. 2: Prof. C. Morais Smith at a PhD ceremony of one of her students in front of a wall of the Academy building
covered with the portrait of female professors at Utrecht University, for a campaign launched during the 100 year Jubilee
of the first woman professor.
Tags:
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Equal Opportunities Committee
Theoretical Physics
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Posted By Gina Gunaratnam,
Tuesday 23 October 2018
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In 2013, the European Physical Society launched the EPS Emmy Noether Distinction to recognise noteworthy women physicists.
Emmy Noether, with her fundamental and revolutionary work in the areas of abstract algebra and on the conservation laws in theoretical physics, is a role model for future generations of physicists. The laureates of the Emmy Noether Distinction are chosen for their capacity to inspire with their scientific merits the next generation of scientists, and especially encourage women to pursue a career in physics.
The previous recipients of the Emmy Noether distinction are:
- Dr. Françoise Remacle, University of Liege, Belgium (2017)
- Dr. Catalina Curceanu, INFN Frascati , Italy (2017)
- Dr. Patricia Bassereau, IC-CNRS Paris,France (2016)
- Dr. Eva Monroy (2016), INAC-CEA Grenoble,France (2016)
- Prof. Sibylle Günter, MPI- IPP Garching, Germany (2015)
- Prof. Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland (2015)
- Prof. Anne L’Huillier, Faculty of Engineering, LTH Lund, Sweden (2014)
- Dr. Rumiana Dimova, MPI Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam, Germany (2014)
- Prof. Nynke Dekker, TU Delft, Netherlands (2013)
- Dr. Alessandra Gatti, IFN-CNR Como, Italy (2013)
The EPS Emmy Noether Distinction for Women in Physics is awarded twice a year. The selection committee, appointed by the EPS Equal Opportunities Committee, will consider nominations for female scientists working in Europe.
To make a nomination, please, email the following information to the EPS Secretariat:
A cover letter, detailing (in no more than 3 paragraphs) the motivation for awarding the Emmy Noether distinction to the nominee;
- The nominee’s name, institution and email;
- The nominee’s résumé;
- The nominator’s name, institution, and email.
Download the distinction charter and read more about the Emmy Noether Distinction on the EPS website.

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Posted By Gina Gunaratnam,
Thursday 23 February 2017
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The EPS Emmy Noether Distinction for Women in Physics 2016 (Automn/Winter) was given to Dr. Patricia Bassereau, for "her important and innovative work on the studies of soft matter and in vitro biological systems at the forefront of the Physics-Biology science. Her rich and fruitful career is an inspiration for young women researchers.”

Tags:
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Posted By Administration,
Thursday 19 May 2016
Updated: Thursday 19 May 2016
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In 2013, the European Physical Society [EPS] launched the Emmy Noether Distinction to recognize noteworthy women physicists.
Emmy Noether was an influential theoretical physicist, and a role model for future generations of physicists. The laureates of the Emmy Noether Distinction are chosen for their capacity to inspire the next generation of scientists, and especially encourage women to handle careers in physics.
The previous prizes were awarded to:
- Prof. Sibylle Günter, IPP, Germany (2015)
- Prof. Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland (2015)
- Prof. Anne L’Huillier, Faculty of Engineering, LTH in Lund, Sweden (2014)
- Dr. Alessandra Gatti, Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnologies [IFN-CNR], Como, Italy (2014)
- Prof. Nynke Dekker, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands (2013)
- Dr. Rumiana Dimova, MPI Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam, Germany (2013)
The EPS Emmy Noether Distinction for Women in Physics is awarded twice a year. The selection committee, appointed by the EPS Equal Opportunities Committee, will consider nominations for female scientists working in Europe.
To make a nomination, please email the following information to the EPS Secretariat:
- A cover letter, detailing (in no more than 3 paragraphs) the motivation for awarding the Emmy Noether distinction to the nominee;
- The nominee’s name, institution and email;
- The nominee’s résumé;
- The nominator’s name, institution, and email.
Download the distinction charter.
Read more about the Emmy Noether distinction on the EPS website.
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Equal Opportunities Committee
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Posted By Administration,
Monday 2 February 2015
Updated: Monday 2 February 2015
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Professor Anne L'Huillier has been awarded the European Physical Society’s Emmy Noether Distinction for Women in Physics
“… for playing a key role in a field at the interface of atomic and molecular physics and advanced optics, nonlinear optics and laser physics: high-order harmonic generation in gaseous media exposed to intense laser fields and its applications. Her rich and fruitful career is an inspiration for young women researchers”.
The Emmy Noether Distinction is awarded to recognize achievements in areas such as research, education, outreach and industry.
Read more
The Emmy Noether Distinction
Professor Anne L'Huillier
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Posted By Administration,
Tuesday 18 November 2014
Updated: Tuesday 18 November 2014
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In 2013, the European Physical Society [EPS] launched the Emmy Noether Distinction to recognize noteworthy women physicists. Emmy Nother was an influential theoretical physicist, and a role model for future generations of physicists. The laureates of the Emmy Noether Distinction are chosen for their capacity to inspire the next generation of scientists, and especially encourage women to handle careers in physics. The first prizes were awarded to: - Dr. Alessandra Gatti, for her contributions to physics, the introduction of concepts of quantum images, spatial entanglement, and quantum entangled images.
- Professor Nynke Dekker, for her research including the study of different proteins on DNA and RNA.
- Dr. Rumiana Dimova, for her distinguished contributions to membrane biophysics.
The EPS Emmy Noether Distinction for Women in Physics is awarded twice a year: in winter and in summer. The selection committee, appointed by the EPS Equal Opportunities Committee, will consider nominations for woman scientists working in Europe. To make a nomination, please email the following information to the EPS Secretariat: - A cover letter, detailing (in no more than 3 paragraphs) the motivation for awarding the Emmy Noether distinction to the nominee; - The nominee’s name, institution and email; - The nominee’s résumé; - The nominator’s name, institution, and email. The distinction charter can be downloaded here.
Read more about the distinction on the EPS website.
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