Presentation of the European Summer Campus
The European Summer Campus of the Université de Strasbourg (UdS) is a prestigious and highly sponsored one-week meeting of students from all over Europe. They attend lectures on some of the most recent research topics in physics presented by internationally known scientists. The Summer Campus 2013 is at the same time a French-German Summer School funded by the université franco-allemande (ufa) underlining the close collaboration between the Universities and Research Institutions in the region of Alsace. An important part of the programme consists in exploring the cultural and political heritage of the region of Alsace and Strasbourg, where the European Parliament and the Council of Europe are located.
In 2000 European Summer Universities were created by the French Minister of Education to develop the pan-European University space for undergraduate students and university staff. Mobility, not only of scientists but also of students, plays an increasingly important role in research, industry and the academic domain. Since 2009 this programme is called "European Summer Campus" (Campus Européen d'Eté).
We had extremely encouraging experiences during the last eight years (2002-2012) with Summer Universities focussed on many topics.
The European Summer Campus 2013 is organised by the Physics Department of the University supported by several research institutes (IPCMS, ICS, ISIS and IPHC) in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institut for Solar Energy systems (ISE) in Freiburg.
The goal of the school is to present to the participating students a very general view of the role of energy, not only in the context of energy resources, production and the related environmental problems but also in a different domains of physics, from high energy particle and astrophysics and cosmology to energetics at the scale of nanometres and biological systems.
Application
The participants of the Summer Campus are expected to have at least 3 successfully completed years of physics universities studies or have just started with their PhD thesis. A limited number of students beyond the first year of their thesis will be admitted. Students are expected to follow actively all lectures and to seek frequent discussions with the lecturers. Sufficient knowledge in English to follow the lectures and to communicate with the lecturers and other students is mandatory.
Students, interested in participating at the European Summer Campus are asked to complete the on-line application form, before June 16th. A letter of recommendation by a senior faculty member is required which should follow the structure of the template provided on our web page and be mailed directly to the Conference Secretary.
Students who do require an entrance visa to France (see below) should apply before May 15th in order to respect the delays of the visa procedure.
Due to the limited number of places available, applications will be selected on the basis of the letters of recommendation and also by the attempt to reach a balanced distribution of universities and countries. Early applications will be favoured and some students might be admitted already before the closing date.
Admitted candidates will be notified during June, but not later than 30th of June.
Place and Time
The European Summer Campus will take place at the Physics and Engineering Department of the University of Strasbourg very close to the city-centre. Monday, August 26th is reserved for arrival and registration.
The official language of the Summer Campus sessions will be English. Participants are expected to be able to communicate fluently in this language.
Housing
Accommodations for participant students will be provided free of charge. Students will be housed in single or double rooms in the University residence of Strasbourg, close to the faculty.
Transportation
Within the tight limitations of our budget we can help individual students with their travel expenses. We hope to be able to contribute in the order of 20-50 % of the cost of a second-class return trip by train or coach or an economy flight if necessary. Certain upper limits are however in place for each country. Please ask also you University to contribute.
VISA
No entrance-visa is required to enter France for citizens of most European countries. Please verify yourself sufficiently in advance, if a visa is necessary for you and inform yourself about the duration necessary to obtain one. Do apply before May 15th and inform the organisers early enough, if there might be a time problem to obtain a visa.
All participants will receive an official invitation letter by the organizers.
How to get to Strasbourg
Useful information about Strasbourg and on how to get there can be found at
http://www.strasbourg.eu/en/index.htm
http://www.strasbourg.fr/Strasbourgfr/FR
http://www.strasbourg.com/