Our scientific communication project “Turbulence | Voice of Space” was recently featured in European Research Council (ERC) social media. In a video created in the context of the ERC Public Engagement with Research Award announcement, Luis OS explains how creating virtual reality (VR) environments from real simulation data helped us engage experts and the general public with our research on extreme plasma astrophysics. Learn more about our VR Lab and check our demos here.

EPP team member Óscar Amaro won a best student presentation award in the 3rd Laser-Plasma Summer School held at Centro de Lásers Pulsados in Salamanca. Óscar presented his work on “Optimal laser focusing for positron production in laser electron scattering”. This is his second distinction this month. Óscar was also awarded a poster prize in Encontro Física 2020, a national meeting held remotely for the Portuguese physics community. Congratulations Óscar!

In a paper published today, September 14, in the journal Nature Physics, Extreme Plasma Physics (EPP) team members Jorge V., Miguel P. and Ricardo F. along with the founder of GoLP, Tito M., report a generalised superradiance mechanism, which uses transversely modulated – instead of longitudinally modulated – charged particle beams. Superradiant emission is desirable because it leads to the brightest x-ray beams, being at the core of free electron lasers. It has been long thought that the existence of many particles per radiated wavelength is a key requirement for superradiance. Fulfilling this requirement is a challenge, but according to the work published today, superradiance can occur even for bunches that are arbitrarily diluted, as long as they are suitably modulated in a transverse direction. This work thus breaks a long standing tenet at the core of today’s most advanced light sources. Generalised superradiance may…

EPP team member Fabrizio del G has successfully defended his PhD thesis on September 8, 2020. Due to the current pandemic situation, Fabrizio’s defence was held remotely. His thesis committee was composed by Mattias Marklund (University of Gothenburg), Dmitri Uzdensky (University of Colorado Boulder), Jorge Vieira (IST) and Thomas Grismayer (IST), and was presided by Luis Lemos Alves (IST). Many congratulations to Fabrizio and the best wishes for his future life and career.

In 2020, the Ministry of Science celebrates 25 years of the first Ministry of Science in Portugal. Our team will be present with the installation of Giannandrea I and Fabio C, Turbulence Voice of Space and GoLP VR Lab on April 17th 2020 in Teatro Thalia.

 

And now they come in three flavours! Following our tradition (see the “2014 Natas”, “2015 Natas”, “2016 Natas”, “2017 Natas”, “2018 Natas“), the prizes for the winners of the image, video, and VR of 2019, the “natas” of visualization, were awarded to Kevin Schoeffler (center), Nitin Shukla (right, in the slide, 2nd time winner), and Fabio Cruz (left, 4th time winner). The term “Nata” was coined by one of the previous winners Paulo Alves: “Nata” is a tasty Portuguese pastry that everybody likes. It’s as enjoyable as having our simulations running nicely on a big supercomputer. It can also mean being at the top, at a high level, important.” Nata is also a new open source visualisation framework recently launched by epp team members. Many congratulations to the 2019 winners! The images and videos have been posted on the team website here and will…

Luis OS will deliver a plenary talk at the 47th European Physical Society Conference on Plasma Physics (EPS2020) in Sitges near Barcelona, Spain, that will be held from June 22 to 26, 2020. The talk will address recent advances in the emerging field of extreme plasma physics.

On December 5 2019, Luis OS was elected corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon. Founded in 1779, the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon, comprises two classes (Sciences and Letters), each with seven sections, with up to 5 members and 10 corresponding members per class. Luis OS was elected in the section of Physics.

Happy holidays to all our researchers, professionals, families, alumni, and friends, and a Happy 2020 with lots of personal and professional successes and great science! (and don´t forget to check the GoLP VR Lab with your new Oculus!)

Luís OS was recently elected fellow of the European Academy of Sciences (EurASc). IST has two professors that are fellows of the EurASC, Luis OS and Armando Pombeiro. Luis is the first Portuguese to be part of the Physics division and the sixth Portuguese to join the prestigious academy.