At the EPL Editorial Board meeting on 16 May 2014, Dr. Christophe Rossel was appointed as Chairman of the EPL Association (EPLA), responsible for the operation of the EPL journal. He takes over from Professor Markus Schwoerer who has held that role for the past three years. Dr. Rossel has been a member of the Board of Directors of the EPLA since 2012. Receiving a PhD in solid state physics in 1981 from the University of Geneva in the field of superconductivity he continued research at the University of California, San Diego. In 1987, he joined IBM Research Zurich and focussed on high-temperature superconductors (a hot topic for publications in EPL). Dr. Rossel has recently been appointed as EPS President Elect, due to become President in 2015. In addition to being a member of the EPS Technology Group, the Energy group and the Forum for Physics and Society, he was also member of the steering committee of the World Year of Physics (2005). A Fellow of both EPS and IOP Dr. Rossel is also a past president of the Swiss Physical Society.

In retiring from the EPLA Chairmanship Professor Markus Schwoerer has been replaced by Professor Robert Klanner as the representative on the Board of Directors for the Category B member societies in the EPLA. After a PhD in experimental particle physics from Munich in 1973 Professor Klanner pursued further research in the USA (Illinois) before returning to become Leading Scientist at DESY, Hamburg in 1984, Professor at the University of Hamburg in 1996, and now Director of Research, DESY since 1999.

The EPL management wishes to express their thanks to Professor Schwoerer for his guidance of the EPLA through recent years, including the 25th anniversary celebrations in which he took a major part in organising. We also wish to congratulate Dr. Rossel on his new role and to welcome Professor Klanner to the Board of Directors.

More info
epl website

2 May 2014, IOP - 

New and independent research has reconfirmed and quantified some of the economic and societal benefits of public investment in scientific research.

The Economic Significance of the UK Science Base, written for the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE), and funded by the IOP and five other partner societies, looks in detail at the relationship between public funding of science and engineering and economic activity.

Read the full article on the Institute of Physics' webite.

EuCheMS Brussels News Updates, April gives news on the following topics:

• EU scientific programme for Expo 2015 in the making: work kicks off;
• EuCheMS responded to public consultations;
• Public consultation on introducing the European Professional Card;
• 5th EuCheMS Chemistry Congress;
• Calls for EuCheMS Award. 

In this issue, you can read about the LHC, the Asia-Europe-Pacific School of High-Energy Physics and much more:
http://alicematters.web.cern.ch/.

The European Research Council presents a new issue of the ‘ideas’ newsletter.

In this issue you will read about:
gender aspects in science and in the ERC competitions
Greece, currently holding the EU Presidency
ERC promoting science in Davos and the US

Access Ideas online here.