SPG/SSP/SPS: Schweizerische Physikalische Gesellschaft
The Swiss Physical Society unites people interested in physics who are active in teaching, didactics, research, development in all branches of industry, at schools, in universities, and research laboratories and is actively organizing and participating in a variety of projects and events. The following highlights stand out:
The annual meeting 2018 was held at EPFL in Lausanne, 28-31 August. In even years, SPS is the sole organizer of the annual event, whereas in odd years, we join together with our Austrian colleagues. With the participation of CHIPP, the Swiss Institute for Particle Physics, and the MARVEL, the NCCR for Computational Design and Discovery of Novel Materials, an interesting and diverse programme could be set up that was well attended.
A special focus was given on energy, with plenary talks discussing the transition in energy production and use that Switzerland has to undergo, progress with the international large fusion machine ITER, the current state of art in climate modelling, and last but not least also linking climate changes with anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission. It was obvious in that context to give an outlook into a possible and promising scenario of a Thorium burning nuclear plant in an evening talk by Maurice Bourquin, which is also interesting for the reduction of nuclear waste. About 360 physicists and students gathered in this 2018 Annual Meeting, with a total of 283 contributions (208 orals and 75 posters).
The full programme of the Annual Meeting can be found in the Issue No 55 of the SPG Mitteilungen (https://www.sps.ch/artikel/communications) and interactively on the indico conference server, where many of the slides shown can be downloaded (https://indico.cern.ch/event/716246/timetable). A summary of the full event, with articles of the invited plenary speakers can be found in Issue 56.
SPS is also fostering its presence at regional events, symposia, and meetings. Special highlights of 2018 were the 2nd Jost Bürgi Symposium, 14 April 2018, in Lichtensteig, Toggenburg. This symposium attracted about 250 participants to learn about the times of renaissance physics where Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei are the big and well-known names. Jost Bürgi from Lichtensteig with his contributions need not fear the comparison (SPG Mitteilungen No 55). The second symposium was organized together with the Physikalische Gesellschaft Zürich PGZ about ?Joseph Fourier, Moderne Wissenschaft in seinem 250. Geburtsjahr? on 26 May 2018 in Zurich (SPG Mitteilungen No 54 & 57).
A more modern event was the celebration of the 100st anniversary of Richard Feynman, organized jointly by SPS and the History and Philosophy of Science Unit of the Geneva University. The symposium helped call to mind some of Feynman?s most famous contributions to 20th century physics and showed how his ideas are alive and continue to inspire in contemporary research (SPG Mitteilungen No 57).
Effective communication within and across the various sections of our society is assured by publication of the highly-appreciated bulletin, the ?SPG Mitteilungen? (or ?Communications de la SSP?, or ?SPS Communications?; https://www.sps.ch/artikel/communications), and by deferring regularly up-to-date information and news over the SPS Web portal. At ca. one month?s intervals, the SPS Newsletter complements the SPS communication scheme, allowing to disseminate actual news at the Swiss, European, and global level more promptly.
Whilst SPS is a member organization of the Swiss Academy of Science SCNAT and part of the platform Mathematics, Astronomy and Physics MAP, we also maintain strong links with the Swiss Academy of Engineering Science SATW. The many activities of the Swiss Physical Society, like those summarized above, could only be carried out thanks to the continuous organizational and financial support of SCNAT. The Society made best use of the allocated funds and could close its budget with a positive balance in 2018, slightly recovering from losses made in previous years.
The SPS publishes its Bulletin, the ?SPG Mitteilungen?, three times per year, which is the most important SPS publication to disseminate information about on-going activities within the society and to review scientific progress in various areas. Thanks to the initiative of the scientific editor Bernhard Braunecker and to the many contributors within our society, high-class articles are published in the specific rubrics of ?Progress in Physics?, ?Milestones in Physics?, ?Plenary talks?, ?Physics Anecdotes?, ?Physics and Society?, as well as ?History of Physics?. A paper copy of the Bulletin is distributed to all individual members and associate members. Furthermore, open access to this publication is also granted after a few weeks? courtesy delay to the entire Swiss and international scientific community via the SPS homepage under https://www.sps.ch/artikel/communications.
The SPS also issues an electronic Newsletter that is edited and issued at high quality by Céline Lichtensteiger from University of Geneva at a monthly interval. News items inform about actualities in research, on prize winners, on conferences, symposia and workshops that are of interest to a broad audience among SPS members.
As already summarized above, the most important event organized by the SPS is its annual meeting. In total about 360 physicists and students gathered in this 2018 Joint Annual Meeting, a total of 283 contributions (208 orals and 75 posters). The additional participation of CHIPP and NCCR MARVEL at this meeting contributed to the global success. There were 8 plenary talks, 3 public events, of which two evening talks and the projection of a film closing the meeting. At the General Assembly of the Society, Bernhard Braunecker was elected vice-president, while the term of the president, Hans Peter Beck, continues and did not need renewal. A large number of board members were coming to the end of their term, leading to a broad renewal of the board. Further, the ?History of Physics? section has been renamed to ?History and Philosophy of Physics?, enlarging its scope. Maurice Bourquin was unanimously elected as new Honorary Member (SPG Mitteilungen No 56).
The SPS has tight links to the European Physical Society (EPS). M. Q. Tran is Member of the Executive Committee of the EPS. In this function, he is in charge of relation with Russian, Spanish and Swiss Member Societies and with the Joint European Solar Physics Division and the Energy Group. H.P. Beck is the Swiss Delegate at the EPS Council.
To foster communication among physicists within all of Europe, SPS is distributing to its members together with its own bulletin the magazine «europhysicsnews» of the European Physical Society (EPS).
M.Q. Tran is delegate of SPS and SCNAT to IUPAP, is chair of the C16 Commission (Plasma Physics), and is Associate Member of the C14 Commission (Particle Accelerator).
The SPS has developed links with the SFP, Société Française de Physique, in the aim of exploring synergies and activities crossing boarders. The SPS and the SFP signed a contract to establish a joint prize named the Charpak?Ritz prize. This prize is given alternately one year to a French physicist (in odd year) and to a Swiss Physicist (even year). The laureate will be selected from a list of three candidates nominated by one Society and selected by the Prize Committee of the other Society. The applications from the SPS were sent to SFP in 2017 and the winner, Roland Horisberger was selected in 2018 by the SFP Prize Committee. Roland Horisberger has received the award at the Journées de la Matière Condensée (JMC) on 27 August 2018 in Grenoble. JMC is the prime event of the French Physical Society in 2018, organized bi-annually, alternating with Le Congrès Général de la Société Française de Physique. The presidents of SFP, C. Langlais, and of SPS, HP. Beck were both present, with HP. Beck introducing the awardee and reading the laudation and C. Langlais presenting the medal (SPG Mitteilungen No 56).
SPS maintains strong links with the Austrian Physical Society (ÖPG), which is manifested by the bi-annual organization of joint annual meetings, alternatively taking place either at a Swiss or an Austrian venue. The joint meeting 2017 took place at CERN and the next SPS-ÖPG joint meeting will also take place in Switzerland, 26-30 August 2019 in Zürich. Exceptionally, the joint meeting will be organized twice in a row in Switzerland, to correct for the twice in a row organized joint meetings in Austria (2013 Linz, 2015 Vienna), which was a wish of our Austrian colleagues and the 200 years anniversary of TU Vienna, the venue of the joint annual meeting.
The president, HP. Beck, was invited to the Awards Ceremony and the Awards Dinner during the annual DPG conference that took place in Erlangen, Germany. Among awarding young scientists for their works, the German Physical Society awards also the prestigious Stern-Gerlach Prize and the Planck Medal, for honouring experimental and theoretical works, respectively. At the award dinner, useful and interesting discussions took place with presidents of physical societies from neighbouring countries of Germany that all were invited as well.
The SPS is awarding prizes to young talents in five domains of physics. The SPS Award committee, presided in 2018 by Minh Quang Tran, had the great pleasure to select the SPS award winners 2018 from many submitted works of excellent scientific quality. The SPS Prize in General Physics by ABB is awarded to Lavinia Heisenberg (ETHZ) for her pioneering and essential contributions to the exploration of alternative theories of gravity. Petar Jurcevic (University of Innsbruck) is awarded the SPS Prize in Condensed Matter Physics by IBM for his contributions to a broad spectrum of topics in quantum information processing with trapped ions, including quantum correlation, quantum computation and quantum simulation. The Applied Physics Prize, by Oerlikon Surface Solutions AG, is shared between Wolfgang Tress (EPFL) for his contribution to the fundamental understanding and physics of different types of emerging photovoltaic technologies based on novel organic and hybrid semiconductors, in particular of perovskite, and Giulia Grancini (EPFL) for her ground-breaking advancement in the field of physics behind new emerging photovoltaic materials and devices. Andrea Hofmann (ETHT) is awarded the SPS Prize by Metas related to metrology for her outstanding PhD work, specifically on the dynamics of a single electron in a quantum dot coupled to a heat reservoir. The SPS Prize in Computational Physics by Comsol is awarded to Claire Donnelly (ETHZ, PSI) for her outstanding PhD Thesis ?Hard X Ray Tomography of 3 D Magnetic structure? which combines breakthroughs in both experimental work and the development of computer algorithm to interpret the experimental results (SPG Mitteilungen No 56).
This year, it was EPS to co-sponsor three prizes for the best posters at the Joint Annual Meeting at EPFL in Lausanne. The winners Serhii Polishchuk (EPFL), Michael Schenk (EPFL) and Jaianth Vijayakumar (PSI) have been awarded for the quality of their poster, both terms of poster presentation and content.
The Swiss Physical Society is supporting young physicists via the Young Physicists Forum (YPF). YPF could foster links across all students? associations at Swiss universities and is organizing a yearly young physicists forum event. In 2018, the topic chosen was ?Particle Physics? and was organized 4-6 May at CERN, with participants from all over Switzerland and the help of SPS. A full review of the event, where the SPS president was invited giving a talk on his academic career in particle physics is available on the web site of YPF (https://www.young-physicists.ch/review).
The SPS was again involved in the Swiss Physic Olympiad, SwissPhO. The two best performing students, Julius Vering and Arthur Jaques, have been rewarded with the "SPG Nachwuchförderpreis" / "Prix de la Relève de la SSP", given with the support of the Academy SCNAT.
Also the International Physics Tournament, IPT, is among those activities promoting young talents that is pushed and supported by SPS. Six 3rd-year students from EPFL, Alberto Rolandi (captain), Laurent Michaud, Noémie Planat, Virginie Solans, and Mathieu Suter. They were representing Switzerland in the final of the IPT 2018, http://2018.iptnet.info, at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), competing against teams from fifteen countries, and won the final. The 2019 edition of ITP will therefore be held in Switzerland, 21-26 April, at EPFL.
The winners of SwissPhO and IPT were invited to the SPS annual meeting at EPFL, where they were mentioned in the award session. They were further given a tour through the Swiss Plasma Centre of EPFL ? an event that will stay in their memory. SPS supports SwissPhO and ITP and with the help of the Academy SCNAT.
?Physik im Advent?, http://www.physik-im-advent.de, is an online physics Advent calendar, presenting 24 small, simple experiments and physics riddles to young pupils and anyone interested during advent period every December. The SPS is promoting and sponsoring Physik im Advent in Switzerland and is offering special prices for participants from Swiss schools. Such prizes include visits to CERN and to the Technorama Winterthur, as well as book prizes and physics gadgets to puzzle the mind.
SPS is in need of modernizing its infrastructure for online and print communication, its member management, and for organizing its conferences. This need is recognized already since a couple of years, and a dedicated communication working group, a commission from board members, has been put in place to work out a communication plan and a list of requirements upon which a company can start implementing a modernized system for managing the society. IDM-studios has been mandated for this work, for which no additional resources could be found, and which will cause a deficit in the SPS budget. Elements of this new infrastructure have already come into existence with the infrastructure to edit and send out the SPS Newsletter (see also here above). A new and revamped web-site was planned for being operational in 2018 and a fully electronic SPS member management system to be installed then after. These implementations got delayed, but given the need for modernizing our platform, we will continue pursuing implementing our communication plan.
The Swiss Physical Society unites people with deep knowledge and understanding in physics research and development in all branches in industry, at schools, in universities, and research laboratories, who are at the forefront of new developments, that often lead to new tools and products interesting for industry, SMEs and potentially leading to new start-up companies.
SPS president HP. Beck and vice-president B. Braunecker were invited to the Journées de Réflexions to Yverdon les Bain, organized by the SATW board. Aim of this two-day meeting was to discuss early recognition and to contribute to the Technology Outlook Report, a report that SATW produces bi-annually. The need of physics ? and with it the physicists ? was clearly recognized at this meeting and the SPS could add substantial value in the definition and outcome of the Technology Outlook Report. Quantum developments in many specific areas lead to new products and new markets, where new opportunities are opening up for Switzerland. Examples are quantum-based photonics, quantum-sensing devices, quantum cryptography, quantum electronics, and quantum computing. Given the complexity of the matter and the sometimes early phase in view of developing market-ready products, pre-recognition is indeed crucial for Switzerland.
Climate change, the energy strategy 2050 that was voted by the Swiss population, drastic reduction of burning of fossil fuels are other areas where early recognition is of crucial importance. This was a main reason for centering the 2018 annual meeting around the topic of energy production (see here above), and was a key-driver for awarding Maurice Bourquin honorary membership in SPS for his enormous scientific achievements ? and for his far-sighted commitment to the promotion of future thorium based nuclear reactors, which have increased efficiency and produce less long-lived waste.
Ethics is at the heart of all human endeavor, and there is no exception for physics and the Swiss Physical Society. SPS is participating in the discussions on ethics in an initiative by the European Physical Society on the ?Grand Challenges in Physics for Society in the Horizon 2050?
An open, transparent dialogue with society is a core value of scientific research, and is one of the fundamental mission statements of SPS.
In addition of organizing lectures, seminars, and congress events that are open to the public, and in addition to conduct strong liaisons with schools and teachers in the form of the Physics Olympiad, the Swiss and International Young Physics Tournament, and an initiative for establishing a Physics Teacher education support network started early in 2019 (with support of SCNAT), we have launched in project supported by SCNAT to study the impact physics to the Swiss Society. The data collection and statistical analysis has concluded in 2018 and a report is in preparation for 2019.