Physics@FOM Veldhoven 2012 more successful and bigger than ever
On Tuesday 17 and Wednesday 18 January more than 1800 physicists gathered in Veldhoven for the biggest physics congress in the Netherlands: Physics@FOM Veldhoven. This was the ideal place to follow the latest developments in physics and to establish new contacts. The internationally renowned professors Alain Aspect, Charles Kane and Juan Maldacena provided this year's plenary programme. In addition to this delegates could choose from 200 lectures and 421 poster presentations covering all aspects of physics. True to tradition, FOM presented its four scientific prizes on the Tuesday evening.
For 100 PhD students, Physics@FOM Veldhoven had already started on Monday evening with a master class from a well-known foreign top physicist. And after the opening lecture by Kane on Tuesday morning the congress really got going. The 1800 plus delegates quickly made their way to their favourite parallel session. Good walking shoes and a map were needed because the NH Koningshof hotel where the congress was held is large and for newcomers a real maze. Between the lectures there was time to admire the posters in the main hall and to take a quick look at the live experiments.
After dinner on Tuesday evening the participants were informed that they had broken a record. They had just taken part in the largest sitting dinner ever held in Veldhoven! While the participants continued chatting at their tables after dinner, the official part of the evening started during which Prof.dr. Jos Benschop presented the four FOM Prizes. Dr. Klaas-Jan Tielrooij received the FOM Physics Thesis Award and Prof.dr. Maria Antonietta Loi the Minerva Prize. The FOM Valorisation Chapter Prize and the FOM Valorisation Prize for application-oriented research went to Dr. Silke Diedenhofen and Prof.dr. Pieter Kruit respectively. After that the entire room listened with bated breath to Aspect, who closed the evening with an interesting and amusing lecture about the dual character of light. Is light made up of waves or particles? And how do you measure that?
Wednesday's sessions were once again well attended. Maldacena gave the closing lecture on Wednesday afternoon and FOM awarded the Physics@FOM Poster Prize. According to the jury, Simon Huisman MSc had the best poster at this congress. Next year’s edition of Physics@FOM Veldhoven will be held on 22 and 23 January.
Impression of the congress on Twitter
• "At FOM meeting in Veldhoven. 1800 physicists at inspiring meeting. Physics is top in Netherlands! #FOMmaav" (Dave Blank)
• "Again at #FOMVeldhoven. First talks about Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, next a test of General Relativity #coolphysics" (Remy Notermans)
• "#FOMVeldhoven I feel like a ten-year-old who’s been to a party – had too much scientific food and sweets – mildly nauseous" (Daniël Vanmaekelberg)
• "Back from successful NL physics days. Included a fantastic story from future Nobel Prize winner Alain Aspect. #FOMVeldhoven." (Sense Jan van der Molen)
Additional information
• Further information about the congress can be found at www.fom.nl/veldhoven.
• Further information about the FOM Prizes can be found at www.fom.nl/prizes.
• The master classes, Tuesday evening lecture and FOM Prizes ceremony are available to watch here.