The 6th Young Minds Leadership Meeting took place at the Federico II University of Naples (UNINA) on 12th-13th May 2017.
The meeting was organized by PONYS-Physics and Optics Naples Young Students, the local EPS Section, and the Young Minds Action Committee, supported by EPS, the Physics Department of Naples University Federico II, Italian Physical Society (SIF), the local section of National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN Napoli) and the Institute of Applied Sciences and Intelligent Systems of the National Research Council (CNR-ISASI).
This year there were representative people from 27 sections and most of them presented their activities to the rest either with an oral presentation, a poster or in both formats. The poster session focused on one specific activity per section, and the EPS Young Minds Committee assessed them based on originality, effort and relevance. This year, for the first time, there were given two prices. The 2nd price was for EPS Young Minds & OSA Messina Student Chapters , whereas the Best Activity Prize – sponsored by European Physical Letters (EPL) – was awarded to the European Physical Society Young Minds Vilnius, for Open Readings, an international conference for students of physics and natural sciences. Finally, the winner of the contest “5 minutes scientific talk” was Gabriel Bleotu, from the INFLPR in Romania.
Apart from the presentations of the sections, there were great invited speakers. Prof. Carlo Altucci officially welcomed the sections with an overview of the department of Physics at the UNINA in Naples. Prof. Luisa Cifarelli presented the history and activities of the Società Italiana di Fisica. Christophe Rossel, past president of the EPS, provided a lecture highlighting the importance of networking for scientific carrier, followed by Francesco Tafuri, from Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II & CNR-SPIN, who explained some of their main research topics. In the afternoon session, Karen Davies from the London Science Museum, engaged everyone with some tips to improve outreach activities. During the second day, Dr. Fatema Tanjia explained her research career inspiring young minds to break barriers.
Programme available here
Presentations and posters of the leadership meeting will be soon available.