Plattform Mathematik, Astronomie und Physik
2024 was a very active year for the Platform MAP with as highlight the simultaneous publication on 18 December of five community roadmaps for research infrastructures in different fields of physics. SCNAT coordinated their elaboration together with complementary community roadmaps in biology, chemistry and geosciences on a mandate by the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI). The content of the eight documents was presented at an SCNAT event on 15 November to the vice-rectors for research, or other representatives, of the cantonal universities and the federal institutions of the ETH-Domain.
The Platform MAP also completed in June its series “Science opens doors” of 12 video portraits of women scientists who have left academia and now use their skills in various jobs at the service of society. The third Young Faculty Meeting (YFM) of the Platform MAP attracted again some 20 participants at the Generationenhaus in Berne, who could benefit from the experience of very prominent guests, such as Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, president-elect of EPFL.
The Swiss Quantum Initiative (SQI) lead by the Swiss Quantum Commission (SQC) continued its activities successfully with support from the start of 2024 by Anina Steinlin for the communication, including the website and LinkedIn posts. The activities of the SQI are reported separately.
At the start of 2024, the Swiss Neutron Science Society (SNSS) joined the Platform MAP as a new society. Philippe Jetzer succeeded to Christophe Rossel, as SCNAT Executive Board member and was replaced in the MAP Presidium by Louise Harra (PMOD/ETHZ).
The Swiss Committee on Space Research (CSR) of the Platform MAP published its biennial COSPAR report “Space Research in Switzerland 2022-2024”. The Platform also supported its societies and commissions for the publication of five community roadmaps for research infrastructures in particle physics, astronomy, space research, photon science, and neutron science. These documents shall serve as basis for the whole process leading to the Swiss Roadmap for Research Infrastructures 2027.
The Platform MAP supports its member societies for their own publications. These are the international journals Astronomy & Astrophysics and “Elemente der Mathematik”, plus communication tools of member societies: the SPS Communications and the SSCr Newsletter. The former
SSS-Bulletin was discontinued in mid-2023 and replaced by an electronic Newsletter.
The Platform MAP supported the organisation of the SPS symposium on Louis de Broglie celebrating 100 years of wave-particle duality. The event was held at the ETHZ on 9 September opening the week-long annual meeting of the society.
The Platform MAP supports every year the schools of its member organisations, such as the Saas-Fee Course in astronomy, the CHIPP PhD Winter School alternating with the Zuoz summer school, or the School of Crystallography held at PSI or Zurich.
The usual meetings of the Round Table "Swiss Representation in International Organisations and Research Infrastructures" (RoTIORI) were interrupted in 2024 to give the priority to the elaboration of the community roadmaps for research infrastructures by the end of the year. Indeed, this concerned three societies (CHIPP, the SNSS and the Swiss Society for Photon Science (SSPh)), as well as two commissions (CSR and the Swiss Commission for Astronomy (SCFA)), whereas the Swiss Center for Accelerator Research and Technology (CHART) published independently its own roadmap in 2024.
The Prix Schläfli 2024 in Mathematics was awarded to Jonathan Gruber for his PhD thesis at EPFL on breaking down multidimensional objects into coordinates. The ceremony took place on 19 November at the EPFL as part of a conference on Groups and Representation Theory.
The third MAP Young Faculty Meeting (YFM) was successfully held on September 6th. The focus was on managing people/leadership. After a round of presentations, the participants could exchange ideas on a set of case studies and learn from four prominent senior researchers, who kindly accepted to share their experience on the subject and to participate to a panel discussion moderate by a professional coach.
The portraits of women in science in the fields of MAP was successfully completed with the twelfth video-portrait released in June 2024. This monthly series “Science open doors” was on women scientists who have left academia in order to show different career paths to inspire and motivate young (female) students to study mathematics, physics, or astronomy.
The Prix de Quervain is biennially awarded for high-altitude research by the MAP Jungfraujoch commission (SKHFJ) in alternance with polar research by the Swiss Commission for Polar and High-Altitude Research (SCPH). In 2024, the prize was awarded to Amy R. Macfarlane for her study of the microstructure of artic snow.
The Platform MAP supports many projects by member societies for the promotion of young scientists. A dedicated webpage reports PhD prizes, events and other news on the topic, including press releases on Science Olympiads.
Two MAP Plenum meetings with the representatives of the MAP member organisations were held in March and October 2024 in hybrid format. The scientific talks were given by Prof. Renato Renner (ETHZ) on Quantum information and information security and by Prof. Fabian Natterer (UZH) on Sparse sampling and parallel spectroscopy for fast quasiparticle interference imaging. The first meeting was the occasion to get an update on the Swiss Quantum Initiative, while the second led to an animated discussion on concerns about the recent difficulties to get SNSF Project Funding (see next section).
The MAP Presidium held three ordinary meetings in 2024 and one teleconference to discuss the renewal of its membership. Stefan Antusch (Uni Basel) and David Ginsbourger (Uni Berne) have been identified as candidates to succeed to Ernst Meyer and to Thomas Studer, respectively. Concerning the presidency, Julian Sonner is willing to serve, but not before 2026 being in sabbatical the first semester of 2025. The SCNAT Board therefore approved to exceptionally prolong the presidency of E. Meyer by one year.
The Presidium discussed the status of its four National Committees (SCOSTEP, URSI, IHES and IUHPST). It concluded that the activities of the IUHPST correspond more to those of a national contact point and therefore suggests to have this changed in 2025.
As a reminder, at the Plenum meeting of October 2023, it was decided to form a small group to summarise in written the main points of concern of the MAP community especially concerning the decrease of the success rate of SNSF project funding. A three-pager was finally prepared and agreed to be presented at the MAP Plenum of October 2024. The document triggered again a lot of discussions and statements about own experiences. Globally it was very positively received except for a few more critical voices.
It was also provided on November 1st to the SCNAT Extended Board, which decided to get feedback from the presidia of the three other Platforms (Biology, Chemistry, and Geosciences) in order to know whether it can be endorsed as a general statement of SCNAT. While the other platforms also shared most of the concerns, they were less convinced by the tone and would not like to endorse the document in the current form. Based on this feedback, the SCNAT Executive Board decide on 13 December to shorten the document to a one-pager, which could be addressed to SNSF.
The funding initially foreseen for launching an exhibition on Math, Art and Philosophy (MAP) was highly appreciated to help materialise a very didactic and interactive exhibition on the mathematical and geometrical roots of the artistic work of M.C. Escher (1898-1972). The exhibition called “PERSPECTIVES – L’univers mathématique de M.C. Escher” was open to the public at the University of Geneva from 19 February to 26 April. Being very successful, it was moved to the faculty of sciences of the University of Neuchâtel, where weekly guided tours took place from 26 September to 22 November.
The website of the Platform MAP and the file “Physics and Astronomy” under “SCNAT knowledge” announce most of the events and activities of the Platform and of its member organisations. The SCNAT web portal continues to be attractive for member societies, such that the SSS and the SPS completed their migration in 2024, whereas the SSAA will follow in early 2025.
The Platform MAP is one of the national nodes of the International Day of Light (IDL, May 16). The number of related activities in Switzerland varies from year to year, but remains low.