Ernie Malamud

Introducing Maria Longobardi, Our New FIP Editor

I am very pleased in this issue to introduce our new Editor, Maria Longobardi, who will edit FIP newsletters beginning in 2017.

In the accompanying article by Maria, she establishes her deadline for receipt of materials for her issue as February 1, 2017.

Please be considerate and respect this deadline!

Maria was born in Naples, Italy and did her PhD work at the University of Salerno and the University of California, Berkeley. She worked in experimental condensed matter physics at the University of Geneva on the electronic properties of atomic scale systems. Currently, she has moved to the biophysics field at the Section of Microbiology at the University of Geneva.

Maria served also in the FGSA as an elected International Student Affair Officer during the last 4 years and as the FGSA Newsletter Editor.

About this issue

This issue will be my 12th (and last) for the FIP (two 3-year terms). Many thanks to the authors for their excellent articles in this issue. I also thank the Newsletter Committee who have also served a 3-year term and have helped in many ways: suggesting authors and subjects and helping by proofing the final draft.

Throughout my career I have had a passion for participating in international physics activities and also for reaching out to young people at all stages of education. By soliciting specific articles and helping non-English-speaking authors with editing I have been able to fulfill some of these goals. The articles in this issue cover a wide range of international physics activities and events in different countries and several concern reaching out to physicists in developing countries.

Although producing newsletters is time-consuming, I have greatly enjoyed this activity as it has served to keep me in touch with physics and physicists. An added bonus for me has been to work with the outstanding people in the FIP leadership. I can’t mention everyone who has been an FIP EC colleague during these 6 years but would like to express my appreciation to Maria Spiropulu, our current FIP Chair, and to Ed Berger, the Past Chair, for the excellent job they each have done. It has been a pleasure to work with them.

Ernie Malamud spent three decades at Fermilab participating in high energy physics experiments and accelerator design and construction. He is a Fermilab Scientist Emeritus and is on the adjunct faculty at the University of Nevada in Reno. During a meeting in November last year in Grenoble he was elected to the African Light Source (AfLS) Steering Committee. A recent activity has been participation in preparation of the preliminary conceptual design report for the Chinese CEPC-SPPC project.