Statement by the Executive Committee of the European Physical Society about the organisation of the 2024 International Physics Olympiad in Tehran, Iran

14th December 2023

"The European Physical Society (EPS) supports the International Physics Olympiad, which provides a wonderful opportunity to gather promising young physicists from around the world to discuss physics and solve physics problems in a safe, peaceful, and collaborative atmosphere.

Nevertheless, the EPS asks the organisers of the upcoming International Physics Olympiad in 2024 to reconsider Tehran, Iran, as a suitable location. The EPS is deeply concerned about the actions of the Iranian regime, particularly its ongoing repression of women and girls, as well as the recent violent crackdowns on political protests. Such circumstances, the EPS believes, create an environment where the safety of future physicists cannot be assured and where the diversity found among physicists is not respected.

Supporting the International Physics Olympiad in Iran is an endorsement of the actions of the Iranian government. Consequently, the EPS cannot endorse the event if it is held in Iran and recommends relocating it to a country where democratic ideals are respected and all participants will be welcomed regardless of their nationality, religion, or gender identity."

Statement by the Executive Committee of the EPS about the current situation in the Middle-East

2nd November 2023

We remain convinced of the fundamental importance of the free exchange of scientific ideas, transcending national boundaries, as a key vector for the progress of civilization. This progress is hindered by acts of violence which the EPS will always oppose. Fostering peaceful international cooperation, EPS played a founding role in the SESAME facility where both Israel and Palestine are represented and it created Young Minds sections in Palestine (Bethlehem) and Israel (Jerusalem).

We stand with our colleagues of the Israeli Physical Society, a Member Society of the EPS, and extend our heartfelt support to our Palestinian colleagues suffering in these dark times.

Imagte credit: Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach

3rd October 2023 - Press release Nobel Prize Foundation

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics 2023 to

Pierre Agostini
The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA

Ferenc Krausz
Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Garching and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany

Anne L’Huillier
Lund University, Sweden

“for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter”

Experiments with light capture the shortest of moments

The three Nobel Laureates in Physics 2023 are being recognised for their experiments, which have given humanity new tools for exploring the world of electrons inside atoms and molecules. Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier have demonstrated a way to create extremely short pulses of light that can be used to measure the rapid processes in which electrons move or change energy.

Fast-moving events flow into each other when perceived by humans, just like a film that consists of still images is perceived as continual movement. If we want to investigate really brief events, we need special technology. In the world of electrons, changes occur in a few tenths of an attosecond – an attosecond is so short that there are as many in one second as there have been seconds since the birth of the universe.

The laureates’ experiments have produced pulses of light so short that they are measured in attoseconds, thus demonstrating that these pulses can be used to provide images of processes inside atoms and molecules.

In 1987,Anne L’Huillier discovered that many different overtones of light arose when she transmitted infrared laser light through a noble gas. Each overtone is a light wave with a given number of cycles for each cycle in the laser light. They are caused by the laser light interacting with atoms in the gas; it gives some electrons extra energy that is then emitted as light. Anne L’Huillier has continued to explore this phenomenon, laying the ground for subsequent breakthroughs.

In 2001,Pierre Agostini succeeded in producing and investigating a series of consecutive light pulses, in which each pulse lasted just 250 attoseconds. At the same time,Ferenc Krausz was working with another type of experiment, one that made it possible to isolate a single light pulse that lasted 650 attoseconds.

The laureates’ contributions have enabled the investigation of processes that are so rapid they were previously impossible to follow.

“We can now open the door to the world of electrons. Attosecond physics gives us the opportunity to understand mechanisms that are governed by electrons. The next step will be utilising them,” says Eva Olsson, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics.

There are potential applications in many different areas. In electronics, for example, it is important to understand and control how electrons behave in a material. Attosecond pulses can also be used to identify different molecules, such as in medical diagnostics.

We encourage our Ukrainian colleagues to participate in our European projects and to attend the conferences organised by the EPS. The EPS will make sure that their participation will be facilitated.

• Read again the EPS statement: https://www.eps.org/news/597021/
• And be aware of the Initiatives to support Ukrainian scientific community
  

Message from the President of the Ukrainian Physical Society to the European Physical Society, March 2023

"The Ukrainian Physical Society is grateful to you and the entire management of the European Physical Society for the constant support of our country, which has become a victim of unprovoked aggression by Russia. We highly appreciate the support from European countries and the United States, which enables us to confront the enemy. We believe in our joint victory."

Statement by the Executive Committee of the European Physical Society

2 April 2022

The European Physical Society (EPS) supports the International Physics Olympiad. It is a wonderful opportunity for young physicists from around the world to gather to solve problems and discuss physics in a peaceful, collaborative atmosphere. The EPS very strongly urges the organisers of the International Physics Olympiad 2022 to reconsider the location of the event, which is scheduled to take place in Belarus. The EPS believes that the conjunction of the political situation in Belarus and the manner in which the Belarus government has compromised itself in the unprovoked aggression against a sovereign democratic country does not provide for the serenity required for an event such as the International Physics Olympiad. To organise and to participate in the International Physics Olympiad in Belarus would be to condone the Belarus' government actions. Therefore, the EPS cannot support the International Physics Olympiad if it is held in Belarus.

On behalf of the Executive Committee of the European Physical Society,

Luc Bergé,
President

Statement by the Executive Committee of the European Physical Society

26 February 2022

The European Physical Society (EPS) strongly condemns the continuing attacks by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, an independent and sovereign country.

In clear violation of international law, the Russian government's decision will have drastic and negative consequences that are difficult to foresee, including on the development of the scientific cooperation between Eastern and Western European nations.

The values of the EPS are based on the free exchange and free expression of ideas and concepts in physics that nourish the development of our civilisation, and thereby contribute to the advance of humanity.

A country that invades its peaceful neighbour and threatens the other nations clearly violates these fundamental principles.

Therefore, the EPS calls on the entire scientific community and all citizens working in physics and beyond, to be uncompromising in their protest and to take active measures against the ongoing violence of the Russian army in Ukraine.

Today, the EPS expresses its deepest solidarity with the suffering Ukrainian people who find themselves in an unwanted and tragic situation in which not only their basic freedoms but also their very lives are threatened by the armed intervention of a foreign army. The Ukrainian Physical Society is a Member Society of the EPS and, as such, the EPS will do everything in its power to help to ensure the continuity of its cooperation with Ukrainian physicists.

Today, the EPS also sympathizes with the Russian physicists who refute the aggression of their government and suffer similarly from not being able to freely express their disagreement in their own homeland.

Today, in solidarity with our Ukrainian and Russian colleagues, the EPS suspends all joint actions co-sponsored with the Russian State for the time being. Further measures to be undertaken will be considered and acted by the next EPS Council in June 2022 in Paris, as the situation dictates.

Today, despite the dreadful and extremely dangerous crisis that the European continent is going through, the EPS firmly believes in a better future for tomorrow.

On behalf of the Executive Committee of the European Physical Society,

Luc Bergé,
President

Download the statement here.

Read its Letter to the EPS and their further requests below.

Download the letter of the Ukrainian Physical Society here.

• German Physical Society, DPG: The Situation in Ukraine: Response and Actions of the DPG // Wissenschaft soll auch in der Ukraine-Krise verbinden
• Institute of Physics: IOP statement on Ukraine
• Italian Physical Society: SIF Statement against the invasion of Ukraine
• French Physical Society: Positionnement de la SFP contre la guerre en Ukraine
• EPS Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics Division : statement from the EPS AMOPD.
  

• CERN: The CERN community stands in solidarity with the people of Ukraine, a CERN Associate Member State
  
• EDP Sciences: EDP Sciences Statement on Support for Ukraine
  
• IUPAP: IUPAP Statement on the events occurring in Ukraine, 2022-03-01
• IOP Publishing: Ukraine crisis: updates on the response from the physics and astronomy community
• IAPS, International Association of Students in Physics: IAPS Statement on the Current Conflict in Ukraine
• CNR: Cnr president joins call for peace in Ukraine
• Max-Planck-Gesellschaft: Call for Peace
• EUROfusion: EUROfusion condemns war in Ukraine and initiates measures
• EUCHEMS: EuChemS statement on the invasion of Ukraine
• ISE: ISE condemns the Russian government’s illegal war against Ukraine
• DESY: Ukraine war, Information of the research centre
• EPWS: EPWS statement in support of Ukrainian women in science
  

• Thousands of Russian scientists sign petition against war: https://www.zmescience.com/science/russian-scientists-and-journalists-ukraine-war-25022022/
• Open letter of Russian scientists participating in CERN experiments
  

Flag of Ukraine - image: Wikimedia Commons/Alex Maisuradze

The group comprises 16  societies: the Acoustical Society of America, the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, the American Association of Physics Teachers, the American Astronomical Society, the American Crystallographic Association, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the American Institute of Physics, the American Physical Society, AVS Science & Technology of Materials, Interfaces, and Processes, the Chinese Physical Society, the European Physical Society, the Institute of Physics, the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine, the Laser Institute of America, the Optical Society (OSA), the Society of Rheology, the Biophysical Society.

In a joint statement ‘Achieving greater open access in physics’ the societies detail how they have long embraced open science and OA to research results.  Their proactive engagement, such as the launch of high-quality OA journals, switching hybrid journals to full OA and establishing transformative agreements, has contributed to an average annual growth in OA physics articles of more than 25%, compared with an overall average annual growth in physics articles of around 2%.

Having supported open publishing in physics for decades, the group’s common ambition is that all OA models provide financially sustainable support for author choice and the quality of peer-review and publication upon which excellent physics research relies.

The statement highlights how policies, such as the proposed cOAlition S Rights Retention Strategy, could undermine the viability of high-quality hybrid journals and the important role they play in balancing OA expansion with the researchers' freedom to publish where they choose. It stresses the need for broader international financial support for OA to be in place before hybrid journals can fully transition, pointing out that adjustments to the global flow of funding will take time.

The group also acknowledges the strong culture of sharing results before peer review via preprint platforms and calls for funders to increase their recognition and encouragement for this practice in physics as a complement to peer-reviewed journal publication.

The joint statement is a call for a pragmatic, inclusive and sustainable approach to OA. It is also a commitment, as major physics societies representing the interests of their communities, to work together to make it happen.

Link to the Initiative for Science in Europe statement

Prof. Mauro Ferrari participating in one event before his resignation as President of the ERC (© ERC)

The European Physical Society (EPS) subscribes to the principle that the results of publicly funded research must be widely available to the scientific community and to the general public, with no paywalls for authors and readers, and across all scientific disciplines. The physics community has been a pioneer of Open Access (OA) and open repositories, and for many years, the EPS has advocated a responsible transition to OA publishing which preserves high-quality peer review, secure archiving, and a strong and successful scientific enterprise. The position of the EPS has last been made public in 2013 in a statement issued jointly with the European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences (EuCheMS)[1]. This statement serves as the benchmark against which the EPS evaluates Plan S.

The EPS welcomes the initiative “cOAlition S for the Realisation of Full and Immediate Open Access”, and supports the rationale on which it is built.

At the same time, the EPS is concerned that several of the governing principles proposed for the implementation of Plan S are not conducive to a transition to Open Access that is well-managed and preserves the important assets of today’s scientific publication system.

• The core values added to the publication process by quality journals need to be protected. In a gold-standard OA environment, these are professional editing, independent peer review, and reliable long-term archiving. A forced transition to full OA over a short period of time risks to undermine the economic viability of many journals, causing irrecoverable damage to established, well-functioning networks of editors and referees. Publication in OA repositories can only complement, not replace publication in peer-reviewed outlets.
• Diversity and competition need to be preserved. Learned societies and other not-for-profit publishers contribute significant diversity to a publication landscape dominated by a small number of commercial publishing giants, but operate with limited financial reserves, and are particularly vulnerable to economic damage from rash transition scenarios.
• Scientific publishing is a global undertaking. Non-European authors account for a significant fraction of articles published in European journals today, but have generally no access to dedicated OA funding. Plan S can only succeed when it is coordinated with major stakeholders outside Europe. A Euro-centric implementation risks to accentuate knowledge divides, both inside Europe and between North and South.
• Plan S limits researchers' freedom to choose where to publish, which is inherent in the current culture. This restriction is difficult for the scientific community to accept while academic recruitment and career advancement are still based on publication metrics and journal prestige rather than on the scientific merit of individual publications.
  • Hybrid journals do not represent a sustainable business model. However, they are a valuable – or even necessary – instrument to manage a smooth and successful transition to full OA for limited transition periods.

The EPS welcomes and supports Plan S as a medium to long-term vision, but is concerned that a rushed enforcement may cause irrecoverable damage to the European academic publishing system and, in particular, to not-for-profit publishers. It is also noted that Plan S is presently supported by a minority of funding agencies from EU Member States. The EPS recognizes that its reservations are addressed in part by the implementation guide “Making full and immediate Open Access a reality” published on November 27, 2018, but urges cOAlition S to engage further with funding agencies, publishers – both not-for-profit and commercial – and the scientific community towards a plan that can be supported by all stakeholders. In this process, scientists are most credibly represented through the learned societies. The EPS, as the top-level representation of the European physics community, stands ready to work with cOAlition S on a successful and sustainable implementation.

About the European Physical Society (EPS)

The EPS, founded in 1968, is a grass roots, member-driven learned society, providing a European forum for physicists representing scientific, topical, and national interest. The EPS presently federates 42 national member societies, which in turn represent more than 130’000 individual members; about 40 Associate Members, which are mostly major research institutions, universities, and industry; and more than 3’500 Individual Members. The seat of the Society is in Mulhouse (France).

The EPS Statement supports the position in the Open Letter^[2] published by the European Research Council (ERC) and the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT) calling for the approval of Euro 80 billion for H2020, as well as the Open Letter to the EU Heads of States and Governments^[3] signed by 42 Nobel Laureates and 5 Fields Medallists expressing their support for maintaining the research and innovation budget in H2020.

More information:

• Download the full statement of the EPS on Horizon 2020.
• Visit the website of Horizon 2020.

[1] The EPS brings together national physical societies in 41 countries, representing over 130,000 researchers in Europe.
[2] Download the Open Letter published by the European Research Council.
[3] Read the Open Letter to the EU Heads of States and Governments.

The European Physical Society in its role to promote physics and physicists is concerned about the increasing use of bibliometric indices in evaluation procedures of individuals, groups and their scientific projects.

In recent years, various studies on the potential adverse consequences of a purely numerical assessment on the quality of funded scientific research have been conducted in Europe. Different institutions have published best practices regarding the review process of scientists and projects.

In this ongoing debate, the European Physical Society insists on the importance of peer review for all evaluation procedures. It takes position against a purely numerical assessment. Only the cautious application of bibliometric indices during a peer-review procedure can guarantee non-biased results. "Rigorous but broader assessment procedures - says EPS President Luisa Cifarelli -must take into account the research environment and particularities of the domain in the evaluation of the scientific content.”

View complete assessment (pdf file)