Author: Dimitris Gkavakos

Do you write? Can you communicate science? The journal of the International Association of Physics Students (jIAPS) is under new editorship, and we need articles for our upcoming issue. We are looking for articles covering all aspects of physics, from the latest breakthroughs in laboratory research all the way to the physics of Iron Man, and everything in between. If the subject is interesting and is somehow related to physics, we would be glad to hear about it. Try your hand at scientific journalism, or just send in a comment on something you think other physicists should know about. Strong opinions and controversial topics welcome.

Do you have ideas already? Great! If not, don’t worry, we have. What are the issues facing young physicists today? Is industrial physics crushed by the sublime thrill of unravelling the mysteries of the universe, or does anyone actually need astrophysicists and theoreticians when we already have poets?

Whatever your point of view, whatever your issue, let us know what you think.

Euan and Danielle – Editors, jIAPS

Euan Monaghan, Danielle Wills and Deniz Kozlu are our new jIAPS editors. Contact them on jiaps (at) iaps . info

APSKNU (LC Kyiv) have kindly extended an invite to this conference to all IAPS members. See the events section and their website for details.

The EC are working hard trying to do as much as possible for IAPS members this year. There are more things we’d like to do than we can possibly find time for, which is where you come in. We’re looking for volunteers to help with a variety of projects. The work is fun and it’s very rewarding to see your efforts become reality. We can’t pay you, but we can supply a worthwhile experience that will enhance your CV.

Specifically, we need people for the following jobs:

jIAPS editor(s)- Edit the articles already collected, commission more, publish pdf versions during the year and a ‘best of’ compilation to be printed and handed out at ICPS. jIAPS can include scientific articles, opinion columns, letters, interviews with physicists or other interesting people, cartoons, crosswords or anything else you think would be worth reading. Great experience for anyone considering working in publishing or science journalism.

jIAPS authors- Write articles for the journal- contributions from anyone and everyone welcome. Tell us about your research or the area of physics which interests you most, what you think about hot topics of the day, why the previous author was completely wrong- debate is good! Decisions on what to publish will be taken by the editing team.

Regulations committee- We have a few people working hard to write some internal regulations as a guide for the future, explaining things which are important to IAPS but don’t legally need to be in the charter. There’s a lot to do and more volunteers would be very welcome. The resulting document will be put to the vote at this year’s AGM.

Event organisers- If you can think of something IAPS members would benefit from, we want to hear from you. All ideas welcome. If you just want to organise something and don’t mind what, please get in touch as we have plenty of possibilities. Individuals or groups could help us.

Finally, if you want to do something that isn’t mentioned above, please let us know. Perhaps you’ve thought of something we haven’t.

As always, contact us on ec (at) iaps . info

The EC has decided to meet in Helsinki instead of Mulhouse to avoid spending IAPS money, as three committee members are based there and it was not deemed necessary to have an EPS representative present this time.

The meeting is open for all members as usual, but we cannot cover your travel or accomodation expenses. We will, however, assist in finding the cheapest place to stay if you wish to participate.

If you have any ideas you would like the EC to discuss at this meeting, please get in touch with us by the end of March.

Minutes are now available in the meetings section.  

As you might have noticed registration for ESTEC trip, Mafihe/IAPS summer school and ICPS 2008 have opened.

ESA is having a competition for European university students, where you need to propose an experiment that could fly on board the International Space Station.

Also there is an essay competition running worldwide and the point is to explain a mathematical topic or application they think the world needs to know about.

Minutes available to members in the meetings section.