Frontiers of Science, the FDS meeting that tempts future physicists

Years after the pandemic, the “frontiers of science” meeting, funded by the Duques de Soria Foundation (FDS) and organized by the Physics Faculties of the Universities of Salamanca and Valladolid, took place again this week for two intense days of work.

What do physicists do in the hospital? Can a physicist help with statistics? And in nanotechnology? These are the questions that were shared and discussed by the experts who participated, on April 13 and 14, in a meeting on the frontiers of science, held at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Valladolid, and attended by students of the Universities of Valladolid and Salamanca, in particular, of a Physics degree.

FDS President Rafael Benjumea noted at the opening ceremony that these meetings had been held since 1999 and praised the great reception that each edition had among students. On this occasion, 130 students were registered. “It is a clear sign of the commitment that FDS has to science,” emphasized Benjumia, who highlighted the “great benefit” they provide to the students themselves.

“This is a conference in which the two universities interact with very current lecturers in the field of physics to be able to offer students different insights into it, far beyond the academic and traditional training they receive in the classroom,” explains Abel Calle Montes, UVA Meeting Coordinator with José Miguel Mateos Roco, Coordinator of the University of Physics. Salamanca. At these conferences, they were able to learn about the different work environments in which they can work as physicists.

One example was the first presentation by the Head of the Department of Radiation Physics and Radiological Protection at Clinico Universitario, Ricardo Torres Cabrera, who gave an encouraging vision of the future career of physicists in a hospital environment, focused on control, maintenance, radiotherapy and nuclear medicine tips, areas that include high technology which require the professional work of a physicist. At this meeting, the role of physics was also discussed, the 75th anniversary of one of the most important inventions of the 20th century such as the bipolar transistor, the tsunami of technology, physics helping statistics, Bell’s theory or device-independent quantum information. protocols, among others.

The act was inaugurated by UVA Rector, Antonio Largo, with Fernando Tejerina, promoter of the event, and included interventions by the meeting coordinators, Abel Calle Montes and José Miguel Mateos Rocco, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Sciences, Ana Burgos, and President of the Duques de Soria Foundation, Rafael Benjumea. The Secretary General of the Defense and Security Forces, José María Rodríguez Bonga, was also present.