Minutes from the BPU Executive Committee Meeting 19 - 20 December, 1997 Thessaloniki, Greece

1. General

Professor Zerefos: - Welcome and introduction to the Agenda - Adoption of the Agenda - The Executive Committee decided to express its appreciation to Professor E. Burzo and Professor V. Popfor the excellent organization of the BPU meeting in Cluj-Napoca in September 97 (see Tables I and II).

Professor Lalov: The activities of BPU are directed towards the 21st century. The role of BPU in secondary schools and Universities. The 20th century was the century of Physics. Next century will not be so but it may well be the century for education. Announced the Conference on Experiments in Education in Physics to be held in Lovech in May 1998.

Professor Urumov: We should be concerned about the education of young people and their place in Science. Welcomed the Institute envisaged by Professor Economou. Many people in our area have the dream to cooperate in Science, as Professor Economou is proposing.

Professor Arik: We should be more organized to be established better in the Balkans as a body and next internationally.

Professor Bek-Uzarov: Research Programs, Olympiads in Physics and Education from fundamental to higher Education should start.

Professor Zerefos: Reported on the ceremony of the Award by BPU of Professor G.O.P. Obasi, Secretary-General of WMO and on the participation of BPU in the closing of UNESCO International Meeting on "Environment and Society, Education and Public Awareness for Sustainability" held in Thessaloniki on December 12, 1997.

2. Balkan Physics Letters

Professor Erduran: Balkan Physics Letters (BPL): 158 articles have been published (publication sponsored by the Turkish Research Center). Libraries need to know how the continuation will be guaranteed. We need better distribution facilities. The Editor should be congratulated. Prepared to publish proceedings from Cluj (BPU-3). Oral presentations in BPU-3 will be published before June 98.

Professor Arik: Urges all colleagues to publish prompt articles in BPL. It has 5 years of history.

Professor Polychroniadis: BPL can not be equivalent to International Journals. So, this edition must be also an internal way of communication. For this reason I propose to include not only scientific articles but also announcements, advertisements, reports etc.

All: Agreed to add a few pages under a name called Balkan Physics News with the same body of BPL continuing on a quarterly journal.

Professor Spyrou: BPL should be advertised.

Professor Mateev: We have to elect a new editorial Board

Professor Erduran: The attached table shows the distribution by subject of papers in BPL (see Table III).

The Editorial Board can be found in Annex I

3. News from BPU Institutes and Study Groups and new proposals

News from the existing Study Groups and Institutes were presented by Professors Arik, Polychroniadis and Zerefos.

They referred to the following activities:

A. The Balkan study group on High Energy and Nuclear Physics (Coordinator Prof. E. Arik) (5 groups). Results from these groups will be published in BPL.

And B. The BPU Institutes: (1) BERDI - Coordinator Prof. C. Zerefos, (2) Solid State Physics - Coordinator Prof. I. Antonopoulos.

Two proposals were put in the Table:

The proposal for the establishment of a Balkan Institute of Metrology to be hosted at Vinca Institute, Beograd, Yugoslavia under the coordination of Prof. Djordje Bek-Uzarov was unanimously approved. Attachment of proposal.

- Bulgaria expressed interest to participate and supports it

- Turkey supports this establishment. Measurements are also done in the Bulgarian Antarctic station at Balabanski and metrology is important for these sedimentary environmental measurements.

- FYROM standards for industry are welcomed.

- The proposal should include QA/QC to be mentioned explicitly.

The Vice President of BPU, Professor M. Mateev announced a proposal on non-linear phenomena which will be forwarded to the Executive Committee by Bulgaria in the next meeting (October 98).

4. BPU Activities

  1. · BPU is endorsing the Balkan School on Nuclear Physics in Istanbul, Turkey September 1-10, 1998.
  2. · BPU is endorsing the Advanced Study Institute by EC in Halkidiki, Greece 20-27 September 1998.
  3. · The Balkaniad for the Environment, October 1998.
  4. · The Wiegner Symposium in 1999 under BPU.
  5. · The Balkan Summer School on Materials Physic, September 1998.
  6. · Balkan Conference on Physics in Culture, June 1999.

5. Next Ceremony

BPU decided to participate, host or encourage the following:

  1. · Award with the Golden Medal of BPU Prof. Mejdani, President of Albania, for his outstanding contribution to the ideals of BPU. This will take place at a ceremony in October or November 1998.
  2. · The BPU council decided to honour Professor Urso and Akdeniz, former Presidents of BPU as honorary members of BPU and to award them with an appreciation award at the October 98 ceremony.
  3. · Offer the prizes of Balkaniad to young Balkan students.
  4. · Participate to the ceremony of the Mariolopoulos WMO prize.

6. EU Proposals and BPU

Dr. G. Amanatidis (EU) and Dr. S. Paschalidis (Zeus Balkan SA): Presented a variety of programs from EU involving Universities, Institutions and other scientific bodies.

Tempus is addressed to all Balkan countries except Turkey. It involves training and education. Leonardo Da Vinci: For higher education, Youth for Europe, TMR, Incocopernicus, ECO-UVERTURE for local authorities - attached is a text ect.

Professor Zerefos: The BPU home page should include an updated list of all calls for proposals from EU.

Professor Lalov: Discussed possibilities to participate with partners in general activities (conferences etc.) and to receive funding for Bulgarian Union of Physicist as an organization of the civil society.

Professor Bek-Uzarov: President of BPU is endorsed to help in writing and submitting proposals of BPU or nominate candidates.

Professor Urumov: My country was recently accepted as part of PHARE and we look for partners.

7. BPU and International Bodies

- NGO organizations have subventions with EU or ICSU etc.

- BPU as a legal body would be better hosted by a country member of the European Union.

Professor Polychroniadis: We need a leaflet and a brochure for BPU and asked for the completion of a questionnaire by the participants.

Professor Lalov: Need to be careful with the number of members when applying to EPS or ICSU. A large number may require higher fees.

8. Council and Executive Committee Members of BPU

To be officially sent from the National Societies. Turkish Physical Society representatives: Erduran, Arik, Gultekin. Union of Bulgarian Physicists: Lalov, Mateev and Petrov. FYROM: V. Urumov, K. Milan, S. Backovic. Yugoslavia: Dj. Bek-Uzarov. Albania: Apologies for absence. Romania: Apologies for absence. Greece: C. Zerefos, E. Polychroniadis, A. Lambros

9. WWW page for BPU

  1. · Information on National Societies
  2. · Executive Committee
  3. · Council of BPU
  4. · Institutes
  5. · Activities and BPL news and titles of BPL papers
  6. · Constitution of BPU
  7. · National Societies home pages
  8. · Send a tune to the BPU President

10. Professor Economou Proposal

Professor Economou: The proposal for the establishment of a large Institute in Physical Sciences is highly appreciated, the National Societies to provide input for such an organization and the President to try to include in the 3rd EU package to Greece. Education, Environment, Material Science, Solid State, Radioactivity etc. are welcomed.

11. BPU - Student Branch

Prof. Polychroniadis: It is a good idea, but the constitution must be approved by the BPU Executive Committee.

All: The subject was postponed to be discussed in the next meeting.

12. Next meeting

October 98 (before the 26th of October).

TABLE I

UNIVERSITATEA "BABE·-BOLYAI" FACULTATEA DE FIZIC° Str. M. KogØlniceanu nr.1, 3400 Cluj-Napoca, Romania Fax: +40-64-191906; Tel: +40-64-194315 E-mail: burzo@phys.ubbcluj.ro; viorel@phys.ubbcluj.ro; BPU-33rd GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE BALKAN PHYSICAL UNIONCluj-Napoca, Romania 2-5 September, 1997

STATISTICS OF PARTICIPANTS

Pays Number of participants Invited lectures 1. Albania 67 2 2. Bulgaria 47 3 3. Switzerland 5 3 4. France 15 6 5. Germany 2 2 6. Greece 15 4 7. FYROM 48 1 8. Poland 2 1 9 Romania 416 9 10 R. Moldova 45 2 11 Slovene 4 1 12 Spain 2 1 13 U.S.A. 3 2 14 Turkey 190 4 15 Ukraine 14 1 16 Hungary 10 5 17 Yugoslavia 75 4 TOTAL 960 51

TOTAL number of participants: 1011

TABLE II

BPU - 3 Section Presentation form Abstractsreceived for BPU-3 Contributions presented at BPU-3 Papers proposed for publication(5+6) Papers to be published Un-presented papers or rejected papers 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 1. Nuclear and High Energy Physics Oral 13 8 5 5 - Poster 36 23 22 20 2 2. Astrophysics, Gravitation and Oral 6 5 5 5 - Cosmology Poster 19 6 14 6 8 3. Atomic and Molecular Physics Oral 18 15 15 15 - Poster 61 52 48 48 - 4. Condensed Matter Physics Oral 54 45 44 41 3 Poster 349 244 236 205 31 5. Optic and Plasma Physics Oral 15 13 13 13 - Poster 86 62 73 61 12 6. Theoretical Physics. Oral 13 9 9 8 1 Computer Science Poster 59 28 32 21 11 7. Environmental and Health Oral 19 16 16 15 1 Physics Poster 93 62 66 59 7 8. Applied and Technical Physics Oral 27 22 22 21 1 Poster 201 141 115 101 14 9. Physics Education. Oral 5 3 2 2 - History and Philosophy Poster 48 29 30 23 7 10. Poster deadline contributions Poster 27 18 18 9 9 1149 801 785 678 107

I. Invited Papers Invited lectors 74 Present at BPU-3 51 Colon 2. The number of abstracts received for BPU-3 3. The number of papers presented by authors at BPU-3 4. The number of manuscripts proposed (after presentation to BPU-3) for publications by Organising Committee 5. The number of manuscripts that will be published in BPL. OBSERVATION. This number is greater than 678. The final situation is not yet finished. There are some papers accepted after modifications. 6. The number of papers (manuscripts received) un-presented at BPU-3, manuscripts with modifications or rejected TABLE III

Balkan Physics Letters (Table provided by Prof. Erduran)

amp ap ast cmp cos ele enp hep mp np pe pp Total Albania 1 1 1 3 6 invited 1 1 2 original 1 1 Bulgaria 1 9 1 2 1 1 15 21 invited 1 2 1 4 original 1 1 2 Egypt 7 7 7 France 2 1 1 4 4 FROM 1 1 2 3 original 1 1 Greece 8 invited 1 4 1 6 original 1 1 2 Hungary 2 invited 1 1 original 1 1 Italy 2 2 2 Moldova 2 original 2 2 2 Palastine 1 original 1 1 Poland 1 invited 1 1 Romania 1 4 8 1 2 5 3 24 33 invited 2 2 original 2 5 7 Turkey 1 2 7 2 1 2 3 2 20 67 invited 1 1 1 1 4 original 3 2 8 2 2 12 4 2 8 43 Ukrania 1 invited 1 1 TOTAL 5 13 2 55 3 6 9 7 20 25 4 17 158 158

ANNEX I

New editorial board of Balkan Physics Letters

Owned by:

The Albanian Physical Society The Physical Society of Bosnia-Herzegovina The Former Yugoslavia Republic of Macedonia Physical Society The Hellenic Physical Society The Romanian Physical Society SR Yugoslavian Physical Societies The Turkish Physical Society The Union of Physicists of Bulgaria

Published under the scientific policy and control of BPU

Editor - in Chief: E. Rizaoglu, Turkey Editor: J. Freely, Turkey Co - Editors: Z. Akdeniz, Turkey (Solid State) Dj. Bek-Uzarov, SR Yugoslavia E. Girt, Bosnia-Herzegovina I. Lalov, Bulgaria (Solid State) M. Mateev, Bulgaria (High Energy Physics) R. Mejdani, Albania (Solid State) B. Milic, Yugoslavia (Plasma Physics) E. Polychroniadis, Greece (Solid State) C. Popov, Bulgaria (Education) I. Sahalos, Greece (Electronics and Telecommunications ) A. Sandulescu, Romania (Nuclear Physics) N.K. Spyrou, Greece (Astronomy, Relativity and Cosmology) V. Urumnov, the Former Yugoslavia Republic of Macedonia (Mathematical Physics) C. Zerefos, Greece (Environment) (Applied Physics) ________________________________________________________________

Balkan Physical Union

Presidents: I. Ursu 1985 - 1989 K.G. Akdeniz 1989 - 1997 C.S. Zerefos 1997 - ________________________________________________________________

List of Advisory Editors at Date of Publication

(To be modified by the Editor - in Chief in consultation with the members of the Executive Council)

ANNEX II

Proposal: "Establishment of the Balkan Institute of Metrology"

by Prof. Dr. D. Bek-Uzarov Institute of Nuclear Sciences "Vinca"

(Copy of the proposal can be found in the archives of BPU)