Tenth edition of Physics@FOM huge success
On Tuesday 19 and Wednesday 20 January about 2,000 physicists came to the congress Physics@FOM Veldhoven 2016. International top physicists Anton Zeilinger (University of Vienna), Peter Littlewood (University of Chicago) and Laura Baudis (University of Zurich) gave the plenary lectures. In addition to these, physicists working in the Netherlands gave more than 200 lectures and 400 poster presentations. The Minister of Education, Culture and Science, Jet Bussemaker, awarded the FOM prizes to four top scientists.
For 100 young researchers the congress started a day earlier. On Monday evening, top physicists Peter Littlewood, Laura Baudis, Tilman Esslinger and Dirk van der Marel gave masterclasses for this select group. On Tuesday morning, the other 1900 scientists arrived at the congress. Anton Zeilinger kicked off with a lecture about experimental breakthroughs in the areas of quantum entanglement, teleportation, communication and cryptography. During the second plenary lecture, Peter Littlewood discussed the surprising effects of polaritons. Laura Baudis closed the congress with a lecture about the experimental techniques with which physicists hope to expose dark matter.
The rest of the congress provided a broad range of lectures across the entire breadth of physics. There was plenty of opportunity to network or to visit one of the three live experiments. For example, participants could discover hands-on how gravitational waves can be detected or how you can safely encrypt information thanks to quantum techniques. In addition, congress delegates could attend the workshop 'Scientific Storytelling for Laymen' or visit the Physics meets Industry event. Scientific posters also had a prominent position at the congress. This year the jury chose the poster of Diego Cohen-Maldonado as the best: he won the Physics@FOM Poster Prize 2016.
On Tuesday evening, the Minister of Education, Culture and Science, Jet Bussemaker, presented the FOM Prizes. Anouk Rijs received the Minerva Prize. Said Rodriguez received the FOM Physics Thesis Prize. And the FOM Valorisation Chapter Prize and the FOM Valorisation Prize for application-oriented research went to Gabriele Bulgarini and Jo van den Brand respectively.
Next year Physics@Veldhoven will be held on 17 and 18 January 2017.
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 will soon be available on YouTube.
- Public photo album (will follow soon).
- Delegates can view the entire photo set. The password for this album can be found in the programme booklet. (will follow soon)
- The cartoons made during the congress can be found in the Archives. (will follow soon)