Physics@FOM 2015: Dutch physics in a single glance
On Tuesday 20 and Wednesday 21 January almost 2000 physicists attended the annual congress Physics@FOM. The international top physicists Alan Guth (MIT), David Awschalom (University of Chicago) and Sharon Glotzer (University of Michigan) gave the plenary lectures. In addition, physicists working in the Netherlands provided more than 200 lectures and 400 poster presentations. Hans Clevers, president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), awarded the FOM Prizes to four top scientists.
For one hundred young researchers the congress had already started a day earlier. On Monday evening the plenary speakers, and Heinrich Jaeger from the University of Chicacago, gave masterclasses for this select group. On Tuesday morning the other 1900 scientists arrived at the congress. Alan Guth kicked off with a lecture about inflation cosmology in which he described the possibility that our universe is part of a multi-universe. During the second plenary lecture, shortly after the Tuesday evening dinner, David Awschalom suggested that we must let go of the urge for perfection in order to realise the following generation of electronics with quantum technology. The third plenary speaker, Sharon Glotzer, closed the congress with a lecture about entropy, information, order and chaos in soft condensed materials.
The rest of the congress offered a wide range of lectures about all different research areas in physics. There was also the opportunity to network or to visit a live experiment. For example, participants could build their own solar cells or view a live proof of tunnelling. Scientific posters were also put in the limelight during Physics@FOM. The jury chose the poster of Jolijn Onvlee this year as the best: she received the Physics@FOM Veldhoven Poster Prize 2015.
On Tuesday evening, Hans Clevers awarded three FOM prizes. Hanneke Gelderblom received the FOM Physics Thesis Prize. The FOM Valorisation Chapter Prize went to Mark Beker and the FOM Valorisation Prize for applied research jointly went to Guus Rijnders and Dave Blank.
The next edition of Physics@FOM Veldhoven will be held on 19 and 20 January 2016.
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
- Plenary lectures and masterclasses can soon be viewed here
- Public photo album
- Participants can view the entire set of photos from the congress. The password to this album can be found on your programme booklet.
- Photos that were taken inside the Lumasolator, one of the live experiments, can be found on 360player.nl.