November 2004 SAIP Newsletter (Issue 28) (A) SAIP - Announcements Ms Jaynie Padayachee : secretary@saip.org.za 1. Council Meeting Minutes of the meeting held on 29 October 2004 will be made available on the website within the next week. 2. Changes to the Constitution and By-Laws Results of voting on changes to the constitution and by-laws - all changes were unanimously accepted. The by-laws take effect immediately while the changes to the constitution will be voted on at the next AGM. 3. Silver Jubilee Medal The closing date for nominations for the Silver Jubilee Medal is 25 February 2005. Please note that unsuccessful candidates from previous years are eligible to be re-nominated. Details of the application process may be obtained from the Secretary. (B) Student Opportunities Prof Reinhardt Botha : Reinhardt.Botha@upe.ac.za The Physics Department at the University of Port Elizabeth invites students who are interested in doing a research-based Masters or PhD degree, to apply for bursaries. Opportunities exist specifically in the field of mid-infrared materials for photo detection and lasing. For further details, contact Prof Reinhardt Botha at Reinhardt.Botha@upe.ac.za (C) A Student's Impression : SAIP 2004 (Bloemfontein) Johan Janse van Rensburg University of Pretoria The warm welcome at the opening of the 49th annual SAIP conference melted the preconceived idea of three long, cold days in the middle of the Free State. The well organized conference catered for all fields of physics with renowned speakers leading the way in their respective field of specialization. It was fascinating to see the enthusiasm and great commitment of our very own researchers and their outstanding work they shared with us all. The evening functions were as always big social events. Having the banquet in a dungeon was quite an experience! We left the conference with lots of new ideas, contacts, friends and a proud feeling of the excellent research conducted in South Africa. (D) Conference Announcement 50th Annual SAIP Conference and Winter School Jackie Nel : jnel@postino.up.ac.za The 50th Annual Conference of the SAIP will be hosted by the Physics Department of the University of Pretoria in Pretoria from 5 - 7 July 2005. The conference will be preceded on 4 July 2005 by a Winter School with the central theme of Bio-physics. The aim of the Winter School is to introduce a particular area of physics in such a way that it is informative and stimulates discussion particularly among students (senior undergraduate and post graduate levels). The guest speakers are all experts in their particularly area of Bio-physics, and will be announced in the near future. Another interesting event which will take place during the 50th Annual conference in 2005 is the Celebration of 100 years since Einstein published his legendary articles which provided the basis of three fundamental fields in physics: the theory of relativity, quantum theory and the theory of Brownian motion. The anniversary will be commemorated on the central day of the conference (6th July) and a number of excellent guest speakers are being lined up for an enlightening and entertaining day for all physicists - be they in academia, industry or consultants. Keep an eye on the conference web site for more details: http://SAIP2005.up.ac.za (E) Share your memories Jackie Nel : jnel@postino.up.ac.za You are invited to share some of your memories of the past 50 years with the larger physics community. Send any interesting photos with a short description to Jackie Nel and we will place it in the photo album pages of the conference web site. (F) Physics Education activities Dr Nadaraj Govender : govendern37@nu.ac.za 1. The SAASTE national physical science grade 10 &11 exams were written in October and the results will be announced in November 2004. 2. Regional Mintek Quiz for KZN takes place at Edgewood Campus on March 02, 2005 from 1-4:00 pm . 3. Dr N. Govender attended the IOSTE conference in Poland in July and presented a paper on "In-service teachers' conceptions in basic astronomy " and a poster presentation at International Physics Education Conference in Durban on "Physical Science teachers' attitudes and conceptions in basic astronomy" (G) Report on Workshop : High power femto second lasers and applications Dr EG Rohwer : egr@sun.ac.za A workshop on High power fs lasers and applications was held in Pretoria on the 28th September. The workshop was attended by 75 persons, consisting of NLC review panel members, SAIP members and colleagues from other disciplines. The workshop was organized in response to comments and recommendations made in the “Shaping the future of Physics” review panel report, namely to identify possible interdisciplinary flagship projects, the SAIP subgroup “Lasers, Optics and Spectroscopy” initiated this. The presence of international laser experts at the fs workshop provided a unique opportunity to consult with experts in the laser field about the challenges and possibilities in the field of high power fs lasers. The international visitors included: · Prof Reinardt Poprawe, Director: Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology, Aachen, Germany · Prof Rudolf Steiner, Director; Institute for Laser Technology in Medicine and Measuring Technology, University of Ulm, Germany · Prof Denis Hall, Deputy Principal (Pro-Vice Chancellor); Research, and Professor of Photonics in the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Herriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland · Prof Dino Jaroszynski, Director: Strathclyde Electron and Terahertz to Optical Pulse Source (TOPS), Department of Physics and Applied Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland · Dr Heinrich Schwoerer, Manager of the 10 TeraWatt Titanium : Sapphire laser system of the Institute for Optics and Quantum Electronics, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany The purpose of the workshop was to: · To provide up-to-date information about the current status of activities in the fs laser field, and to provide an insight into the directions that may be pursued in the future. · To provide an opportunity to ask critical questions about the value and potential of research in this field, in particular regarding applications in other fields of physics and science in general, and in view of this; · To discuss the need and feasibility, format and scale of such a project, in the South African and African context, in terms of capacity and funding, and considering this discussion; · To formulate a process for a strategy forward, and to identify people and institutions to assist in drafting this strategy and a possible proposal for a driver project. The meeting decided to appoint a steering committee consisting of the Chairman of the subgroup (Dr EG Rohwer), a representative from the NML (S Singh), a representative of the NLC(H Tromp), a representative of the solid-state/materials community (Prof D Comins), and representative of the radiation/nuclear physics community(Dr S Connell). This committee as tasked to produce a pre proposal for a program in high power femto second lasers to be presented to council and DST before the end of October 2004. A proposal for a strategy development in femto second science in the RSA was submitted to the council of the SAIP at the end of October. For a detailed report on the workshop see: http://www.lasers.co.za Addendum to November 2004 SAIP Newsletter Some astronomy contributions to 2005 International Year of Physics Patricia Whitelock (paw@saao.ac.za) SA Astronomical Observatory A symposium entitled "Scientific Requirements for Extremely Large Telescopes" will be held in Cape Town from 14 to 18 November 2005. More detailed information can be found via the SAAO web page at www.saao.ac.za. This symposium has been sponsored by both the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP); joint sponsorship by both bodies is unusual. Note that, when referring to optical telescopes, "Extremely Large" means telescopes with collecting areas over 20m diameter, usually in the range 30 to 100m diameter (SALT will be 11m diameter and the largest single optical telescope in the Southern Hemisphere). We hope that there will be considerable interest in this conference from South African and other African scientists, and some financial support will be available. Note also that this meeting follows closely on the SALT dedication on 11 November 2005 (no further information available at this time). There are also plans for a SALT related student workshop run by NASSP (www.star.ac.za) and AIMS (www.aims.ac.za) to be held at the AIMS institute in Muizenberg (more information in the next newsletter). These events will contribute to 2005 the "International Year of Physics"