The Belgian Physical Society (BPS) ( nl, Belgische Natuurkundige Vereniging and french: link=no, Société Belge de Physique) is the national physical society of

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, member of the

European Physical Society The European Physical Society (EPS) is a non-profit organisation whose purpose is to promote physics and physicists in Europe through methods such as physics outreach. Formally established in 1968, its membership includes the national physical so ...

. As a national scientific charity, its goal is to promote physics, advance physics education & research and support physicists in Belgium.

History

The Belgian Physical Society was founded on 16 February 1929 at the

University Foundation The Belgian University Foundation (French: ''Fondation Universitaire''; Dutch: ''Universitaire Stichting'') was founded in 1920. The goal of the Foundation, as was put forward by Emile Francqui, is to promote scientific activity at Belgian univer ...

, following an initiative of the national committee of physics. Its first president was the

spectroscopist Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets the electromagnetic spectra that result from the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and matter as a function of the wavelength or frequency of the radiation. Matter wav ...

A. de Hemptinne, and the first vice-president was Th. De Donder, who contributed i.e., to the field of

general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of gravitation in modern physics ...

. The early archives of the society were lost during the

second world war World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, when its activities were suspended. The rebirth of the BPS took place in 1949 under the presidency of Charles Manneback, and on 26 December 1962, the BPS became an

association without lucrative purpose Laws regulating nonprofit organizations, nonprofit corporations, non-governmental organizations, and voluntary associations vary in different jurisdictions. Australia In Australia, nonprofit organizations include trade unions, charitable entitie ...

. In 1950, the society created its first journal, the "Bulletin of the Belgian Physical Society". This publication was succeeded by "Physicalia" in 1964, and by BPhy-Magazine (an electronic journal) in 2009. In 1970, under the presidency of Lieven Van Gerven, the society started its series of "general scientific meetings" which bring together physicists from all Belgian universities and research institutes, and of all physics disciplines.

Conferences

One of the main activities of the BPS is organizing international conferences such as the annual BPS general meeting. The conference location cycles between the ten different universities that offer physics programmes in Belgium, and is still organised yearly.

Prizes

Every year BPS awards several prizes to promising young physicists such as the BPS Young Speaker Contest, the BPS Poster Contest and the BPS Best Master Thesis Prize.

Publications

Its electronic magazine is BPhy-Magazine (since 2009), the successor of its former letters journal, Physicalia Magazine.

Presidents

List of presidents of the BPS: *2014–present: Jozef Ongena, Royal Military Academy *2012–2013: Gilles De Lentdecker, Université Libre de Bruxelles *2010–2012: Jacques Tempere,

University of Antwerp The University of Antwerp ( nl, Universiteit Antwerpen) is a major Belgian university located in the city of Antwerp. The official abbreviation is ''UA'', but ''UAntwerpen'' is more recently used. The University of Antwerp has about 20,000 stud ...

*2008–2009: Luc Henrard, Facultés Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix de Namur *2006–2007: Patrick Wagner,

Hasselt University Hasselt University (Dutch: ''Universiteit Hasselt or UHasselt'') is a public research university with campuses in Hasselt and Diepenbeek, Belgium. It has more than 6,700 students and 1,660 academic, administrative and technical staff (2022). The ...

*2004–2005: Viviane Pierrard,

Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy The Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB) ( nl, Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Ruimte-Aeronomie - BIRA, french: Institut royal d'aéronomie spatiale de Belgique - IASB) is a Belgian federal scientific research institute. Crea ...

*2002–2003: Joseph Octave Indekeu,

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven KU Leuven (or Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. It conducts teaching, research, and services in computer science, engineering, natural sciences, theology, humanities, medicine, l ...

*2000–2001:

Petra Rudolf Petra Rudolf (born 1957) is a German and Italian solid state physicist. As of 2003, Rudolf has been a professor at the Materials Science Centre (now Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials), University of Groningen, Netherlands. Biography B ...

, Facultés Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix de Namur *1998-1999: K. Michel *1996-1997: H.-P. Garnier *1994-1995: E. Jacobs *1991–1993: Guy Demortier, Facultés Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix de Namur *1990-1991: Yvan Bruynseraede *1987–1989:

Charles J. Joachain Charles J. Joachain is a Belgian physicist. Biography Born in Brussels on 9 May 1937, Charles J. Joachain obtained his Ph.D. in Physics in 1963 at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Free University of Brussels). From 1964 to 1965 he was a Postd ...

Université Catholique de Louvain The Université catholique de Louvain (also known as the Catholic University of Louvain, the English translation of its French name, and the University of Louvain, its official English name) is Belgium's largest French-speaking university. It ...

*1986-1987: R. Dekeyser *1984-1985: Jean-Marie Gilles, Facultés Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix de Namur *1981-1982: A. De Ruytter *1980-1981: R. Ceuleneer *1978-1979: Jacques Lemonne,

Vrije Universiteit Brussel The Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) () is a Dutch and English-speaking research university located in Brussels, Belgium.The Vrije Universiteit Brussel is one of the five universities officially recognised by the Flemish Community, Flemish gov ...

*1976-1977: J. Vervier *1974-1975: G. Jacobs *1972-1973: J. Depireux *1970-1971: Lieven van Gerven,

*1968-1969: J. Franeau *1965-1967: W. Dekeyser *1960-1964: G. A. Homes *1955-1959: P. Swings *1949-1954: Charles Manneback,

Catholic University of Leuven University of Leuven or University of Louvain (french: Université de Louvain, link=no; nl, Universiteit Leuven, link=no) may refer to: * Old University of Leuven (1425–1797) * State University of Leuven (1817–1835) * Catholic University of ...

and

Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium (RASAB) is a non-governmental association which promotes and organises science and the arts in Belgium by coordinating the national and international activities of its constituent academies su ...

*1929-1939: Alexandre de Hemptinne,

References

External links

* {{authority control Physics societies Scientific organisations based in Belgium Scientific organizations established in 1929