EPS Historic Sites

Sites that are significant to physics and its history can be considered for the Historic Site distinction from the EPS. The EPS will work with the nominators to obtain local authorisations for placing a plaque and in organising the commemorative ceremony.

Nominations

Nominations are open throughout the year. Submission will be processed by the EPS Historic Sites Selection Committee three times a year.

Sites that will be considered are places (laboratories, buildings, institutions, universities, towns, etc.) associated with an event, discovery, research, or body of work, by one or more individuals, that made important contributions to physics. This includes places where instruments and/or apparatus were designed, making significant contributions to physics and research.

Please note that normally only one Historic Site per organisation will be considered.

Make a nomination

To make a nomination for an EPS Historic Site, please follow the instructions and fill in the online form below.

Ceremony

If your nomination gets approved a commemorative plaque needs to be produced. Some elements of the design are mandatory (EPS logo & EPS Map of Europe) and the final text on the plaque also needs the approval of the EPS HS Committee. The material and format of the plaque can be unique for each individual case to fit the intended location. The cost of the plaque is carried by the local organiser.

The local party and the EPS will agree upon the date for the commemoration of the proposal (the unveiling of the plaque). A delegation of high-level EPS representatives will attend the ceremony.

The committee would like to receive the following information as soon as possible after your nomination has been approved.

Have your nomination received all local approvals?
Are you in contact with your national physical society about the nomination?
Which institutions etc. will be involved in the ceremony?
Will there be an event, like a conference, in connection with the ceremony?
What financial support is secured and from where?
What media coverage is expected?

The EPS also expects the local organiser to submit articles about the event for the EPS publications e-EPS and EPN.

Please note that if the site has not been inaugurated with a ceremony within three (3) years, the nomination has to be redone.

Nomination

Please fill in the online form to nominate an EPS Historic Site.

EPS Historic Sites online form

EPS Historic Sites inaugurated since 2012

Austria

The Institute for Radium Research, Vienna (2015)
Atominstitut, TU, Vienna (2019)
Victor Franz Hess Messtation, Haflekar/Innsbruck (2022)
Institute of Physics, University of Graz (2024)

Belgium

The Hotel Metropole, Brussels (2015)
Holy Spirit College, Leuven (2019)
Cyclotron Hall, Louvain-La-Neuve (2021)

Bulgaria

The Study of Georgi Nadjakov, Sofia (2014)

Croatia

Meteorological Observatory, Zagreb (2022)

Czech Republic

The Ernst Mach Physics Institute, Prague (2016)

Denmark

The Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen (2013)

Finland

Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory, Sodankylä (2022)

France

Laboratory “Les Cosmiques”, Col du Midi, Chamonix (2012)
The LAL-LURE Accelerator Complex, Orsay, Paris (2013)
The Curie Laboratory of the “Institut du Radium”, Paris (2017)
Les Houches School of Physics, Les Houches (2020)
Ampère House, Lyon (Poleymieux) (2021)
Institut d’Études Scientifiques de Cargèse (2022)
Institut de Physique Nucléaire Orsay (2023)

Germany

PTB, Formerly PTR, The National Metrology Institute, Berlin (2013)
The Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich (2015)
The Former Physical Institute of the University of Würzburg, Würzburg (2016)
Laboratories of Kirchoff and Bunsen, Heidelberg (2018)
The Former Physics Institute, Frankfurt am Main (2019)
Institute for High Voltage Engineering, RWTH, Aachen (2019)
City of Jena (2021)
Magnus-Haus, Berlin (2021)
City of Göttingen (2025)

Hungary

The Neutrino Experiment at MTA Atomki, Debrecen (2013)
The Fasor Lutheran Secondary School, Budapest (2015)
Old Physics Building of the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest (2018)

Ireland

Dunsink Observatory, Dublin (2018)
Birr Castle, Demesne (2019)

Israel

Racah Institute of Physics, Jerusalem (2023)

Italy

The Goldfish Fountain of the Physics Institute of Panisperna Street – Centro Fermi, Rome (2012)
The Hill of Arcetri, Florence (2013)
The Villa Griffone in Pontecchio Marconi, Bologna (2013)
The AdA Storage Ring at the INFN Frascati National Laboratory, Frascati, Rome (2013)
The Mount Vesuvius Observatory, Hercolaneum, Naples (2015)
The “Piersanti Mattarella Tower of Thought” of the Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture, Erice (2016)
Institute of Physics of Archirafi Street, Palermo (2019)
The Academy of Sciences of the Bologna Institute (2019)
The Aldo Pontremoli Institute of Complementary Physics, Milan (2022)
The Accademia Galileiana, Padua (2025)
The Villa Mondragone (2025)

Lithuania

Theodor von Grotthuss Laboratory, Gedučiai/ Žeimelis (2022)

Netherlands

The Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory and Lorentz Institute, Leiden (2015)
The Philips NatLab, Eindhoven (2017)
Sonnenborgh Observatory (2021)
Zeeman Laboratory, Amsterdam (2022)

Norway

Haldde Observatory, Alta (2018)

Poland

Hoza 69, Warsaw (2013)
The Cathedral, Kamien Pomorski (2013)

Portugal

The Cabinet of Physics of the University of Coimbra, Coimbra (2016)

Romania

Magurele Physics Campus, Magurele (2017)
Faculty of Physics, (UAIC), Iași (2023)

Russia

The Study of Bruno Pontecorvo – JINR, Dubna (2013)
Institute of Spectroscopy, ISAN, Troitsk (2018)
Mendeleev’s Museum-Archive, St. Petersburg (2019)

Serbia

Mansion of Misa Anastasijevic, Belgrade (2023)

Spain

The Fabra Observatory, Barcelona (2014)
The Students Residence (Residencia de Estudiantes), Madrid (2015)
Laboratorium Bergara, Basque Country (2018)

Sweden

The Observatory of Tycho Brahe, Hven Island, Landskrona (2013)
The Uddmanska House, Kungälv (2016)
A.J. Ångström Physics Institute, Uppsala (2021)
Old Department of Physics, Lund (2022)

Switzerland

The Synchro-Cyclotron, SC – CERN, Geneva (2014)
The Einstein House, Bern, as Joint APS-EPS Historic Site (2015)
“Les Bastions” of the University of Geneva, Geneva (2017)
IBM Research Laboratory, Rüschlikon, Zürich (2017)
Jungfraujoch Research Station (2019)
Stachelschützenhaus, Basel (2023)

United Kingdom

The European Birthplace of the Atomic Timekeeping – NPL, Teddington (2014)
The Blackett Laboratory, London (2014)
H.H. Wills Physics Laboratory (Royal Fort) of the University of Bristol, Bristol (2017)
The Physics Department at the University of Dundee (2019)

USA

The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, as Joint APS-EPS Historic Site (2016)