Teresa Peña, a professor at Instituto Superior Técnico, is the new Portuguese representative in the Nuclear Physics European Collaboration Committee (NuPECC), an Expert Committee of the European Science Foundation made up of nuclear physics experts from various European countries. Appointed by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), she succeeds the Técnico researcher Eduardo Alves. “I accepted this appointment, taking into account NuPECC’s unique role in encouraging the training and development of knowledge in nuclear physics, as well as its dissemination”, explains Teresa Peña, also a researcher at the Laboratory of Instrumentation and Experimental Particle Physics (LIP). Among the most important tasks of this position are “strategic recommendations for national research funding agencies” and spreading an important message: “the applications of nuclear physics are present in various sectors” such as health, agriculture, art history and environmental sustainability.

What are your comments on this appointment?

Teresa Peña (TP): Peer-recognition is always good. Being able to participate in international teams that are very diverse and motivated to collaborate on a large scale and focused on achieving goals is even better. Being a national representative at NuPECC gives me access to diverse perspectives and discussions about different ideas. It enriches my life as a scientist.
My presence in NuPECC is, in a way, a return: at an early stage in my professional life, it was at NuPECC’s invitation that I participated as co-author in the book published by Johns Hopkins, “Nucleus: A Trip into the Heart of Matter”. The other authors were Ray Mackintosh, and Jim Al-Khalili (a well-known BBC science presenter, and author of excellent podcasts), both from the UK, from the Open University and the University of Surrey, respectively, and Björn Jonson, at the time from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.
This book has had a wide international impact: it has been translated into six languages. In addition to Portuguese and Swedish, it has been translated into Hungarian, French, Czech and Korean, which I never anticipated when we wrote it!

What objectives or “vision for the future” do you bring to this position?

TP: This position has several dimensions. One is to set priorities, together with colleagues from other countries, and strategic recommendations for national research funding agencies, in Portugal’s case the FCT. Another is to support and promote the networking of European experimental structures and laboratories. The third dimension is to invest in training and dissemination of nuclear physics with the rest of Europe, and to enable new generations to contribute to more innovation.
Finally, the fourth dimension is to contribute to the discussion on the future of nuclear physics in Europe, not only from the point of view of methodologies and theoretical frameworks but also from instrumentation and computing methodologies, such as new machine learning algorithms and big data processing in the age of Artificial Intelligence.

Have other Técnico professors held this position in the past?

TP: Yes, the previous representative was also from Técnico – Eduardo Alves, a researcher at Técnico (DECN, Department of Nuclear Sciences and Engineering). Técnico and its affiliated Research Units promote theoretical and experimental activity on nuclear physics and its applications, of great impact and international dimension.

How important is Portuguese involvement in NuPECC?

TP: Discoveries in nuclear physics have led to applications in many fields. Starting with health and environmental sustainability. The idea that nuclear technologies make it possible to strengthen sustainability is strange to the general public, but it’s a reality and we have to make it public and use it for competitive advantage. For example, in agriculture, these technologies enable the valorisation of agro-industrial waste, the disinfestation of food products without environmental chemical pollution, and the assessment of oceanic plastic pollution; they also provide essential tools for research in art history and heritage preservation.
Space and cosmic radiation are other sectors where nuclear technologies are important, and studying their biological effects is essential.
The Center for Nuclear Sciences and Technologies (C2TN) and the Department of Nuclear Sciences and Engineering (DECN) at Técnico are equipped to carry out these applications, which are very important for the country’s sustainable development.
Técnico – Loures campus has the only national nuclear physics infrastructure.
Portuguese involvement in NuPECC facilitates access to other international infrastructures, more equipment and networks connecting experimental and theoretical researchers, further consolidating and enhancing Portugal’s contribution to the development of the field.

How does Técnico interact or may interact with this initiative? What impact will it have on students, professors and researchers?

TP: NuPECC organises meetings in the various participating countries, with sessions open to researchers, including younger ones, giving them visibility.
NuPECC periodically draws up, with the participation of the entire community, strategic documents called “Long Range Plans” (a practice also common in the United States) that include the expected developments in the medium term, and present recommendations for scientific institutions, research funding and policymakers.
This planning of scientific activities with the rest of Europe is very important. Creating synergies catalyses development, for which collaboration between international teams is fundamental. The “Long Range Plans” allow researchers to manage their work internationally, and use large European equipment and infrastructures.
NuPECC, as a network of knowledge and institutions, brings new opportunities for international mobility and exchange programmes with short stays for early career researchers – which means greater scientific training and impact.
For students and professors, on the other hand, fundamental nuclear physics is a fascinating domain for stimulating imagination, motivating students and setting challenges. There are fundamental questions that can lead to applications that have not yet been imagined.
For example, the atomic nucleus is not only the basis for applications such as nuclear magnetic resonance (which is a useful diagnostic tool!). It’s matter in extreme conditions of size and density.
There are fascinating questions with no answers: What are the limits of atomic nuclei? What are the different forms of nuclei? What role does nuclear interaction play in the formation and properties of extreme compact systems such as neutron stars? How can we understand the synthesis of heavy elements and the chemical evolution of the visible universe?