The (late) web site Spectrosciences.com was based on an original idea: the work performed by students (Master research projects, etc.) are evaluated, and eventualy stored in shelves and forgotten. Yet the students learn a lot during these projects, which is reflected in their manuscripts; sometimes the project is even an original work performed in close collaboration with researchers. Why not freely share these documents on the Internet? Spectrosciences allows this. Each submitted text is checked by referees competent in the field, in order to ensure a good level of published ressources.
I have known the web site since its beginnings in 2005, and have been regularly contributing since 2006. This activity allowed me to follow and share news in every fields of physics I am interested in, as I wrote news in materials physics as well as astrophysics. I also wrote articles that belong more precisely to my field, hoping they would provide good references and be complementary to courses attended by students.
Unfortunately Spectrosciences.com was closed in 2011.
The AESM groups Master and PhD students in the Phymat laboratory in Poitiers. I was elected President of the association for the year 2007-2008. Among the activities performed in this mandate, I especially contributed to the design and webmastering of the association's web site, the writing of an informative journal for students, the greeting of new PhD students...
Every two years, the Université de Poitiers erects a tent on the place du Maréchal Leclerc in Poitiers town center, for celebrating the Festival of sciences. It was the case in october 2007, where for three days laboratories could dispose of an exhibition stand to expose their activities to the public. In the Phymat stand, physics was represented in a large manner: superconductivity, giant magnetoresistance (Nobel prize 2007), thermodynamics (Stirling engine), atomic structure of matter, nanophysics... I presented these different experiments before the public.
Lead by teachers-researchers and performed by PhD students from several fields of science, the project Action PLUS (Promotion de la Liaison Université-Second degré) aims at strengthening the links between high schools and the University, through several actions: inform the high school students about science, let them discover research, meet them in schools to perform a presentation, or invite them in laboratories, and discuss with them.
In the frame of ActionPLUS, I received a class of scientific high school students at the Phymat laboratory in February 2007, and performed a guided tour of the laboratory, experiments, and simulations. At the end of 2007, I also performed a presentation of my research activities in a high school, along with other PhD students.
During the Festival of sciences in 2006, the animators of the Espace Mendès-France in Poitiers helped me to design an exposition explaining the properties of light. During three days, I presented this exposition to elementary and middle school students. Their amazed impressions towards the proposed experiments gave me the sensation they were interested in my presentations and that they learned something.
Copyright © Pierre Hirel 2009-2024
