Physics in Austria

europhysics BULLETIN OF THE EUROPEAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY J.A. Volume 10 Number 5 news ________________________________ Physics in Austria May 1979 H. Heinrich, Linz (Johannes Kepler University) N. Pucker, Graz (University) Physics research and teaching in Austria have grown up together, and, in the modern view of science, date back to Christian Doppler (1803-1853), Josef Stefan, the teacher of Ludwig Boltzmann, and Ernst Mach. Research in physics is performed primarily at the institutes of the Austrian Universities as well as at research institutes, espe cially those of the Academy of Scien ces (Institute for High Energy Physics, Institute for Radium Research and Nuclear Physics, both in Vienna, ErichSchmidt Institute for Solid State Physics in Leoben, in close connection with the University of Mining there), the Institute for Solid State Physics of the Ludwig Boltzmann Society and various institutes of the Austrian So ciety for Studies in Atomic Energy (Seibersdorf). The ‘‘Atominstitut of the Austrian Universities” in Vienna, is a joint institution of all Austrian Universi ties. In the industrial sector, physics is dominated by development pro grammes. Here the main areas of interest are metallurgy, optical instru ments and electronics. Physics research at the Universities is financed out of the regular budget and with the help of research con tracts with two foundations, one for the support of scientific research and one for applied research. Funds are gran ted in two ways: for individual pro jects, proposed and performed by small groups, and as “ high priority topics” usually a joint project of several groups. During the past years one such high priority topic was high energy and elementary particle phys ics (now discontinued), others were plasmaphysics and semiconductor technology. High priority projects are being reconsidered at present. Gene rally speaking, the level of financial support for science has been raised dramatically in the past 15 years in Austria starting from a comparatively low base line; it is now levelling off. Well proposed, small and medium scale projects have still a good chance of financial support by one of the diffe rent funds. It is evident that a country like Austria may set up its own big experimental installations in a limited way only. The Atominstitut of the Austrian Universi ties has a 250 kW Triga reactor at its disposal and the Austrian Society for Studies in Atomic Energy runs a swimming-pool reactor with a power output of 8 MW. At the Technical University in Graz there is a small Argonaut reactor. It is therefore clear that Austrian physicists seek to under take experiments at more powerful and bigger installations through inter national cooperations. Austria is a member of CERN and a valuable cooperation has been esta blished by the Academy of Sciences with SIN, extending significantly the experimental possibilities in the field of subatomic physics. Austria’s efforts in this area are not without tradition. The present Institute for Radium Research and Nuclear Physics was founded already in 1910 and has been making recognized contributions ever since. Among its most distinguished members during the pioneering days of nuclear and elementary particle physics we should like to mention the names of such scientists as St. Meyer, V. F. Hess, M. Blau. At present, access to intense neutron sources is being sought through international cooperation, in order to extend the experience obtained already in Aus tria on a smaller scale. Apart from very official projects of international cooperation almost every institute has friendly and professional contacts with numerous colleagues in the neighbouring countries. Fruitful scientific work is done without bureau cratic regulations and with relatively small expenditure. An outstanding example in this area is the so-called “TriangleCollaboration” in elementary particle physics, which had its origin in an almost completely informal, but nevertheless intensive cooperation between the Universities of Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest. Today the Triangle Collaboration encompasses, besides elementary particle physicists of the above mentioned Universities, also physicists in Graz, Prague, Trieste and Zagreb. The scientific value of this collaboration is highly rated and it has been recommended by UNESCO (and others) as a model for regional scientific cooperation. One of the firmly established events in the scientific calendar is the Schladming-Winterschool in Styria. It was founded in 1962 under the patronage of the University of Graz and subse quently acqired an international re putation through the efforts of P. Ur ban, who is also the editor of Acta Physica Austriaca. Contents Physics In Austria..................1 Research at Brown Boveri . . 3 Nobel Prize for 1978 P. L. Kapitza..................... 5 Council Report from Rome . . 6 EPS Scholarships..................8 EPS Lecturer Exchange Scheme .................... 9 Dedication of PETRA . . . . 10 Solar Physics Workshop . . . 10 European Great Projects: Errata and Addenda . . . . 11 1979 Hewlett-Packard Europhysics Prize................ 11 New Individual Ordinary and Associate Members . . 12 Europhysics News is published monthly by the European Physical Society. © 1979. Reproduction rights reserved. 1 A statistical survey, conducted several years ago, shows that solid state physics is represented very strongly in Austria. It is followed by elementary particle and high energy physics, nuclear physics, atomic and molecular physics. In the following, a few illustrative examples of research areas are described, starting with the high priority topic plasmaphysics. The research activities connected with plasma physics had their origin in the studies of the plasma theory group at the University of Innsbruck, which is still active in investigations of theoretical aspects of the project, especially plasma instabilities and plasma confinement by magnetic fields. From this beginning a substan tial expansion took place directed towards experimental investigations at both the University of Innsbruck and the University of Technology in Vienna. In the coming years, besides macroscopic plasma phenomena, diagnostic methods and elementary processes will be especially studied. Topics of interest are the investigation of instabilities and the propagation of plasma waves as well as the study of ion-molecule reactions, the ioniza tion cross-sections and the interaction of energetic ions with surfaces. Through cooperations with a number of institutions abroad these investiga tions are tied into the international network of plasma research. Solid state physics is represented in Austria primarily by the fields of metal physics and semi-conductor physics as well as by the development oriented activities in metallurgy. These last are concentrated in the laboratories of Voest/Alpine (associa ted Austrian steel industry) and partly at the Erich Schmidt Institute in (...truncated)