Protokoll der Generalversammlung vom 02. September 2015 in Wien

Agenda

  1. Minutes of the General Assembly held in Fribourg on 2nd July 2014
  2. Brief Report from the President
  3. Projects 2015 - 2016
  4. 2014 Finances and Auditors Report
  5. Elections
  6. New Honorary Member
  7. Miscellaneous

The President opens the meeting at 12:00.

1. Minutes of the General Assembly held in Fribourg on 2nd July 2014

The protocol of the last General Assembly, published in the SPG Mitteilungen Nr. 46 on p. 5 - 6 is unanimously approved.

2. Brief Report of the President

You can find on page 5 of the last SPG Mitteilungen (Nr. 46) a brief report on the activities of last year.

During last year, the number of new members has increased significantly but when deducting the departing members the total does not change much even if we have a positive trend. Please talk about our Society in your circles and encourage your colleagues/friends to become member.

EPS has published a "Statement on European Energy Policy and Global Reduction of CO2 emission" that can be found on http://www.eps.org/?page=policy_energy_env. This statement has been sent to Mrs. Doris Leuthard. The SPS board will reflect on this subject and prepare a specific report at its next board meeting.

The contact with the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) has been revived and we have proposed Swiss candidates to become members of some IUPAP Commissions (18 commissions in total).

New award: COMSOL has offered to sponsor an SPS award and we will have, starting in 2016, an award in Computational Physics.
This means that the SPS will have 5 awards for young physicists. This number should not increase much more to guarantee high quality candidates. However, we could consider having some sort of "mid-career prize" for scientists who have contributed significantly to a field or for a series of articles, ...

Contact has been made with the Société Française de Physique and many events have been organised in collaboration. The last one this year will be the "Dautreppe seminar on Photonics" in Grenoble.

We have also, as in the past, supported activities of our Young Physicists Forum as well as the Swiss Physics Olympiads. Here, the Swiss team came back from the International Physics Olympiad 2015 in Mumbai with 2 bronze medals and 3 honourable mentions.

The SPS together with the Société Suisse de Photonique are sponsors of the International Year of Light events. The closing ceremony will be held at EPFL on 5th December 2015.

Discussion on the Membership: The number of students and PhD students is very low and the help of the professors could be asked to increase this number. Other suggestion: register all the PhD students for free. The Young Physicists Forum had been created in the past with the purpose to attract students but it is not very successful.
The advantages of becoming a member should be more clearly explained and advertised. The networking it can create should also be emphasised.
The Physics Olympiads could be approached too.
The EPS Young Minds are hoping for new sections in Switzerland. There is already one at ETHZ. The SPS Young Physicists Forum could be merged with them (www.epsyoungminds.com).

3. Projects 2015 - 2016

We are now in the process of changing our webpage to improve our communications.
We also want to strengthen our relationship with the physics teachers through their associations.
Some national societies will also be approached for better relations and interaction.
The next annual meeting will be held at the Università della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano in the week from 22 to 26 August 2016.

4. 2014 Finances and Auditors Report

The 2014 Annual Financial Report is presented by the treasurer, Dr. Pascal Ruffieux, on pages 6 and 7 of the SPG Mitteilungen Nr. 46. Prof. Dr. Ph. Aebi and Dr. P. Gröning, the auditors of this report, have approved the numbers and their statement can be found on page 7.

A benefit of CHF 32'561.78.- is accounted for. This positive number is mostly due to the very successful meeting of last year in Fribourg.

The Annual Financial Report is approved unanimously by the General Assembly.

5. Elections

The president thanks the resigning members of the committee, namely, Dr. Kai Hencken (Physics in Industry), Prof. Antoine Weis (Atomic Physics & Quantum Optics) and Dr. Tibor Gyalog (Education and Promotion of Physics).

The new committee members are elected unanimously by the General Assembly:

  • Physics in Industry: Dr. Thomas Brunschwiler from IBM (teaming with Patrick Ruch)
  • Atomic Physics & Quantum Optics: Prof. Philipp Treutlein from the University of Basel
  • Education and Promotion of Physics: Dr. Gyalog will be replaced in 2016, since the second chair of the section, Dr. Hans Peter Beck, is confirmed unanimously for his second term.

6. New Honorary Member

Prof. Herwig Schopper receives the title of Honorary Member of the SPS in recognition of his contributions and achievements in the field of particle physics, notably the realization of the Large Electron Positron (LEP) Collider at CERN, for his efforts to promote international scientific collaborations at CERN, also in the context of the SESAME project in Jordan, for his vision for science without borders which is also a guiding principle for Switzerland in its role as host state of CERN, and as a supporting nation of SESAME.

7. Miscellaneous

Please remember that the Committee is at your service and can be contacted for any question or suggestion.
The Mitteilungen need also your input, any suggestion of an article is welcome. Of course some kind of review will be performed by the Editor.
On 14th September will be the inauguration of the Einstein House in Bern as EPS Historical Site. You are welcome to participate.

 

The President closes the meeting at 13.00.

 

Protocol: Edith Grüter