Our meeting was generously supported by the
John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation.
Within Switzerland, the Latsis Foundation awards individual prizes
to young researchers
(at Geneva university, 32 prizes in 1983-2014;
at EPFL, 26 prizes in 1986-2013;
at ETHZ, 31 prizes in 1984-2013;
at St Gallen, 28 prizes in 1983-2013)
as well as a National prize (30 prizes in 1984-2013).
In addition there has been a European prize
(13 prizes in 1999-2013).
Apart from the individual prizes, the Latsis Foundation also supports
colloquia, symposia, and conferences
(at Geneva university, 31 events in 1991-2014;
at EPFL, 23 symposia in 1988-2014;
at ETHZ, 29 symposia in 1986-2014;
as well as a Latsis Bavois Forum, with 8 events in 1994-2001).
With the help of the Latsis Foundation's support,
we were able to do many things
that would otherwise not have been possible, such as offering support
for local costs for a number of graduate students; keeping the
conference fee at an affordable level; inviting a very distinguished
speaker for a public lecture; and inviting a relatively large number of
renowned overseas speakers for the regular program.
Consequently, it appears that
this year's symposium at EPFL was rather successful.
As evidence for this, we list below some feedback
from the participants.
This has been an exceptionally well-organized and enjoyable
conference. The setting and facilities are outstanding, and everything
has worked like charm. The only unfortunate thing about the workshop
is its timing: on the third week of July I would love to be able to be
on vacation.
AV
I would like to express my overall satisfaction with the conference in Lausanne. This has been a very nice and well organised conference with good talks and interesting excursions. I am happy with the introduction of parallel sessions this meeting. Although there were sometimes multiple talks I was interested in taking place at the same time, in general I was happy to have the ability to choose the talks which are most relevant.
JM
In my opinion the conference was a great success, with many interesting
talks covering a wide range topics. Besides catching up with recent
developments and overseas friends, I would like to single out the
excursion to CERN as a highlight. The possibility to go down in the ATLAS
experiment (and others as well) was highly appreciated by all. Finally,
the boat trip with an excellent dinner has certainly set a very high
standard for future meetings.
GA
Strong and Electroweak matter conferences have an important position in
particle physics: it is the common venue for scientists studying high temperature
or high density particle physics systems, uniting physicists working at QCD, weak interactions and cosmology, and using a wide variety of research tools.
The conference in Lausanne has been very successful.
It has attracted a large number of scientists working in relevant fields.
It has been run without a single hitch, in facilities very well suited for
scientific interaction.
KR
An exciting conference in a fantastic setting, plus smooth organization!
Breaking the tradition however, this year's meeting had the novelty of
parallel sessions - a feature that might be critically reconsidered
for future meetings.
YS
This conference has been a very well organized event, successfully bringing together researchers from diverse fields. This made it possible to not only benefit from excellent overview presentations on recent scientific progress, but also to engage in fruitful discussions directly relevant to my research interests. Besides the obvious positive professional aspects, the beautiful location and a superb social event all contributed to a well rounded experience to be remembered.
AR
This conference is one of the best I ever attended and the
organisation is great.
SS
Great conference! Wonderful dinner. Interesting excursions.
FP
Thank you very much for a most excellent
conference, in all respects. The talks were
diverse and interesting, encouraging one
to think about different puzzles, and
about old ones from a different perspective.
I learned many things, and hope in the next
days to read many papers related to the
conference (perhaps some collaborations
will follow).
And the organisation was also excellent; having
lunch together is conducive to discussions,
the poster session was lively, and I will
remember for a long time the
fine conference dinner on a paddle-boat,
complete with views of the lake, and
of the pistons which drove the paddles.
SD
Excellent meeting. Good mix of topics. Interesting talks.
It is my impression that the parallel session worked well, and that people distributed themselves roughly evenly. The number fits the two smaller rooms, but the large auditorium seemed a bit empty. That's how it had to be.
The best of all, however, was the boat trip and dinner. Brilliant.
AT
This has been a very good conference. There were many talks on
the physics of quark-gluon plasma and heavy ion collisions, topics
with which I am well familiar, that provided insights that were interesting
and new. In addition, from the electroweak part of the program, I found talks
that gave me a good overview of the current status of research programs with
which I have not kept current -- for example the talks on leptogenesis and
on gravitational waves from the electroweak phase transition. The location
and local organization were both excellent. Congratulations on a job
well done indeed.
KR
Thank you for organizing such a nice symposium. Everything was very good, almost all the talks started and ended on time, the schedule was followed very strictly; excursions were nice, especially the boat tour in Lake Geneva.
CD
Nice scientific program with modern topics. Good mix of senior and promising young scientists. Beautiful city.
Allocation of time per talk was good but could have been more "democratic" by cutting a few minutes from the plenary talks and distributing it to the rest.
DT
I like the
variety of topics that are addressed and also that quite a lot of
young people (I mean even PhD students) have the possibility to give
plenary talks. The conference is organized well.
KK
The conference was wonderful. I love the breadth of talks at the
conference. I found it very effective at bringing me up to date on
topics related to but different than what I work on day to day (as
well as a number of very informative talks on the subjects I do work
on day to day). I am also very happy about the size of the conference
-- large enough for a good diversity and many people to talk to and
interact with, yet small enough to be intimate and provide repeated
interactions with experts in the field. You have done a great job in
hosting this symposium. And Lausanne was a very nice venue.
PA
This is a great conference which concentrates on a few very interesting theoretical aspects of elementary interactions.
The organization is perfect. Beside nice talks and posters in the conference, one can also have a lot of communication with other participates, which is quite helpful to make progress in the further studies and collaborations.
We really enjoy the nice talks, nice view and nice food here.
YZ
I've just started my PhD and SEWM14 has been my first workshop abroad. All the participants and the organizers have been very kind and helpful with me, and the coffee breaks have been nice occasions for discussing, asking and giving explanations, and also for becoming familiar with the others.
In particular I have found very good the idea of planning the poster
session at the end of the afternoon, on Thursday. Since there were no
more talks after the poster session, we had almost three hours for
discussing and for interacting. In my opinion conferences are an
invaluable opportunity for young people for estabilishing links in
prospect of possible future collaborations.
LB
I enjoyed the meeting, and wish I could have stayed through the end of
the week.
This year's SEWM had more talks which I found especially interesting
than was
the case with some of the previous meetings. Well done!
LY