The European Physical Society (EPS) is happy to announce that the second edition of the EPS Forum will take place in the Henry Ford Building of the Freie Universität Berlin (FUB), Germany, from 25th-27th March 2024.
 
The EPS Forum builds on the success of the first edition held in Paris in 2022. The EPS joined forces with its 42 National Physical Societies, 18 Divisions and Groups and 40 Associate Members (https://epsforum.org/v1). After more than a year of preparation by 75 representatives of EPS members all over Europe and the EPS staff, the first EPS Forum welcomed 487 participants including 184 students from 30 different countries.

The second edition is expected to gather about 500 participants with a majority of PhD students, Postdocs and early-career researchers. It will include presentations and round-table discussions on the following topics:
·      Atomic, molecular and optical physics for quantum technologies
·      Applications of nuclear and particle physics to society
·      Condensed matter and its applications to industry
·      Physical models for energy management, pollution and climate; neuromorphic computing
·      Photonics.

The EPS Forum represents a unique opportunity to interact with both upcoming physicists and outstanding established researchers including Nobel Prize and Wolf Prize winners. It will offer a series of scientific talks bringing together researchers from all over Europe, CEOs and managers from academic institutions, large research infrastructures, multi-national companies, SMEs and start-ups involved in the above fields of research.

The first day, called “Physics meets industry”, will bring doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows closer to physics-based companies. It will promote research and technological developments carried out in the industrial sector and favour direct exchanges between attendees.

The second day will host a general conference on physics in the same fields, addressed from a more fundamental perspective and featuring high-profile scientists from Europe and beyond. Round-table discussions will also be dedicated to societal issues.

The third day will be devoted to the EPS Council, the Society's annual meeting.
 

Save the dates! The EPS Form will take place on 25th-26th March 2024 in BERLIN.

Students
The EPS will once again support the attendance of students by offering a reduced registration fee and support the travel and lodging expenses of 100 students.

A poster session will be organised to give young physicists the opportunity to present their scientific results.

Organisations and exhibitors
The EPS is convinced that the objectives of the Forum (details at https://epsforum.org), match a number of organisations' and exhibitors' priorities. To promote physics-based companies or institutions at the EPS Forum and to increase their visibility, the EPS offers the following options:
‐ Attend the Forum as an exhibitor on 25th March and/or on 26th March 2024.
‐ Advertise an organisation by choosing a promotional package.

Sponsors
The EPS offers sponsorship opportunities to support the attendance and activities of early career researchers at the EPS Forum and to support the attendance of scientists from Ukraine. These can be tailored to each sponsor. Contact us for more details at secretariat@eps.org.
 
The EPS is actively preparing the second EPS Forum and looks forward to welcoming you in Berlin in 2024!

Download the poster of the EPS Forum 2024

Author: Anita Pokorska

The team of researchers from the Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion in Warsaw has performed systematic numerical (particle-in-cell) studies of the properties of laser-driven carbon ion beams produced under conditions relevant for ion fast ignition (IFI) of DT fuel, and the feasibility of achieving beam parameters required for IFI were discussed. The ignition of nuclear fuel initiated by an intense laser-driven ion beam is a promising option of Inertial Confinement fusion (ICF) which is currently one of the two main paths towards an energy source based on thermonuclear fusion. 

It was found that a 1 ps 200 kJ infrared laser driver is capable of producing ion beams with parameters required for IFI, even with a simple non-optimised target, but only at small distances (<0.1 mm) from the target. At such distances, the beam intensity and fluence exceeds 5 × 10²¹ W cm⁻² and 2 GJ cm⁻², respectively, while the beam energy approaches 30 kJ. The ion beam parameters can be significantly improved by carefully selecting the target thickness and shape. However, even with an optimised target, achieving the beam parameters required for IFI is possible only at distances from the target below 0.5 mm.  

It was shown for the first time that laser-accelerated heavy ion beams produced under conditions relevant for IFI achieve higher parameters determining fuel ignition than light ion or proton beams and, therefore, may be more useful for IFI than previously thought. 

The ion acceleration is accompanied by the emission of powerful (>50 PW) pulses of short-wavelength synchrotron radiation which are the source of significant ion energy losses and may pose a threat to the fusion infrastructure.  

In addition to ICF, the extremely intense ion beams can be a unique research tool for research in nuclear physics, high energy-density physics or materials science.

The intensity and the temporal shape of the ion pulse are two of the most important characteristics of the ion beam that determine the fuel ignition. These characteristics recorded at a distance x equal to 100 µm, 200 µm and 500 µm from the front of the target and averaged over the area of aperture d_ap = 50 µm (the “useful part of the beam”) for Li, C, Al, Ti and Cu ions are presented in figure. The highest peak intensity and the shortest duration are achieved by the Cu ion pulse, both in the near-expansion and far-expansion zone.

Author: Luc Bergé

Adriana Pálffy is a theoretical physicist working at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany. By understanding light-matter interaction at the borderline between atomic, nuclear and quantum physics, she aims at obtaining quantum control over nuclear transitions. Her first contacts with physics started in her home town Bucharest, Romania, where she did her undergraduate studies. Adriana received her Ph.D. in theoretical physics at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen, Germany in 2006. She later moved to the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics and became a group leader in 2011. Adriana was a Distinguished Visitor Fellow of the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance in 2012 and 2013 at the University of the West of Scotland and the Strathclyde University. In 2019 she was awarded the Hertha Sponer Prize of the German Physical Society and the Röntgen Prize of the Justus Liebig University in Giessen for her research on the mutual control between x-ray photons and atomic nuclei. Just recently, Adriana obtained a Heisenberg Fellowship from the German Science Foundation that will allow her to move to the Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen-Nueremberg in the fall 2020.

Luc Bergé, President-Elect of the EPS and chair of the EPS Equal Opportunities Committee (LB), interviewed Adriana Pálffy (AP).

LB: Why did you choose to study physics?
AP: According to a family joke, when I was three years old, visiting family friends asked me what would my profession be when I grew up. I replied “I’ll be a physicist like my mother”, although my mother is actually an electrical engineer! So you might say that my interest in physics began in the cradle. It was definitely supported by my mother, who was making up nice children’s stories for me about physical phenomena. This interest remained as I grew older, so I ended up indeed studying physics and becoming a physicist, “like my mother”.

LB: Any worry to match your family life and a career in physics?
AP:I have two small children, so far no permanent position, and the academia job market in Germany is very competitive. This does not make things easy. I am trying my best, but obviously I have less time to work long hours than my – mostly male and often childless – colleagues have. However, no matter the consequences, I wouldn’t have liked to miss a family just because of the career. Society should work on avoiding that scientists – male or female – need to make such a choice. It should not be about family OR job. But it takes some effort to offer conditions that enable having both family and a job.

LB: Are you worried about finding a job in physics?
AP: Yes, I worry about finding a job in academia within the geographical area which is also suitable for my family. The famous two-body or many-body problem for physicists and in particular female physicists with a family is notoriously difficult to solve. Generally speaking, I believe that finding a job as a physicist in the industry or other fields should be reasonably easy. Finding a permanent position in Germany in the academic milieu is very difficult, since there are only very few open positions. There were years where only one or no position with my profile (theoretical atomic/nuclear physics and quantum optics) was advertised at all. At the end of the day, you almost have to believe in miracles.

LB: What has been the personally most rewarding experience and also the biggest difficulty encountered so far in your career?
AP: Scientifically, I had many rewarding moments when projects were completed with nice results and good publications. A clear highlight was the year 2019, when I was awarded two prizes, the Hertha Sponer Prize of the German Physical Society, and later on the Röntgen Prize of the Justus Liebig University in Giessen for my research on x-ray quantum optics. I did my PhD in Giessen, and being awarded the Röntgen Prize from my Alma Mater meant very much to me. As for difficult moments, I think I cannot complain much – apart from minor disappointments, only the overall career situation poses a major question mark.

LB: Did you encounter any difficulty in finding funding for PhD or a post-doc position related to the fact that you are a woman?
AP: No, at that level definitely not. And also later in my experience with third-party funding so far I cannot say I felt any disadvantages in being female. What does feel strange is to be the only female candidate at interviews for professorships. This always raises questions in my head. Am I what they call in Germany the “quota” female candidate? Is this for real?

LB: Any suggestion to guarantee a balanced gender representation in physics?
AP: We probably ask for the impossible! Although the situation is much better in this respect in France than in Germany. You might therefore have better answers than me. However, I can throw in some arguments. We need more female students in physics to start with. For this we need a cool and more “female” image for physics in schools and early education. We need more female role models. And we need measures to support doing physics and having a family in the same time. It is with having a family that men and women stop being equal through the very asymmetry implemented by nature. This turning point comes early – with young people usually in their twenties or thirties – and it is decisive for what career paths women decide to pursue.

LB: Any particular advice for a young aspiring researcher?
AP: Choose your goals realistically but strategically and then give everything to reach them!

LB: Do you have any female ‘physicist cult figure’ or ‘role model’?
AP: That is a good question. I don’t think I have a particular role model, although I do admire very much the life and work of Marie Skłodowska Curie. What did help a lot was to see that there are women in physics and natural sciences which have succeeded with career and family. I think this is very important for young women. I would say that we are less bold to choose a path that wasn’t taken so far (and this makes Marie Curie so special). If all your successful colleagues are male, single or with a housewife at home taking care of the kids, then you start wondering whether this is the right place for you. I was very luck to meet early on as a young postdoc a number of successful female scientists that encouraged me to continue. This was not by chance – it was part of a mentoring program of the Robert-Bosch Foundation – and I am very grateful that I was given this opportunity.

Adriana Pálffy

This prize is awarded every second year for Applied Nuclear Science and Nuclear Methods in Medicine. Therefore the NPD board welcomes proposals which represent the breadth and strength in these fields in Europe.

In the past, the prize has been awarded for research in radiation biophysics, in the application of accelerator mass spectrometry, in the Ion Beam Analysis techniques in the field of Cultural Heritage studies, in tumor therapy with heavy ions, in the development of spin polarized 3He targets by optical pumping and in improving PET-scans.

Last winner in 2015, was Prof. Salehpour who has been awarded in recognition of the considerable impact he has made in the field of biomedical Accelerator Mass Spectrometry by facilitating routine analysis of ultra-small DNA samples in the microgram range. The Prize was presented to Prof. Salehpour at a ceremony during the 3rd European Nuclear Physics Conference, in Groningen, The Netherlands.

Nominations should be accompanied by a completed nomination form, a brief curriculum vitae of the nominee(s) and a list of relevant publications. Up to two letters of support from authorities in the field, outlining the importance of the work of the nominee(s), would also be helpful.

The deadline for the submission of the proposals is 15th January 2017.

The prize rules, nomination form and more detailed information about the prize can be found on the website of the EPS Nuclear Physics Division:

http://eps.site-ym.com/members/group_content_view.asp?id=620959&group=85199

F. Azaiez , Chair of the Nuclear Physics Board of EPS