Pregnant Female Phd Students Face Significant Challenges
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Physics World NEWS AND ANALYSIS Pregnant female PhD students face significant challenges To cite this article: Michael Allen 2020 Phys. World 33 (5) 15 View the article online for updates and enhancements. This content was downloaded from IP address 132.76.61.52 on 10/11/2020 at 08:31 physicsworld.com News & Analysis Critical research hit by COVID-19 Major labs have shut their doors in response to the worldwide lockdown, but a few remain open and in some cases are carrying out critical work related to the COVID-19 pandemic, as Peter Gwynne and Michael Banks report Physicists continue to be affected of production of the Space Launch by the global lockdown arising from ITER System and Orion Hardware” – key COVID-19 – the disease caused by components of the agency’s plan to the SARS-CoV-2 virus that is sweep- land astronauts on the Moon in 2024. ing the planet. Government labora- Analysts had already questioned tories around the world have either the viability of that schedule under shut down or required employees to normal conditions, but it now seems work from home while closing to visi- even more doubtful. tors. The schedules of forthcoming A more immediate mission – space missions have been put at risk. Mars 2020 – remains on schedule, Administrators of major telescopes however. The $2.5bn project, which have restricted or postponed critical includes the newly named Perse- observations. Postgrads and post- verance rover, has a 20-day launch docs, meanwhile, have seen their window that starts on 17 July. Fail- career paths put on hold as universi- ure to meet that window would delay ties shut their doors. the flight by two years. The mission In the US, national laboratories Keep calm and sey the Princeton Plasma Physics has “the very highest priority”, Lori overseen by the Department of carry on Laboratory shut down on 13 March, Glazer, head of NASA’s planetary Energy (DOE) have suffered sig- Despite the impact requiring all its employees to work science division, told a virtual meet- nificant disruption. That occurred of COVID-19 on at home. A week later, Brookhaven ing. “We’re going to ensure that we initially as a result of geography, with physics around the National Laboratory responded to meet that launch window in July.” the virus having made its first deadly world, construction New York governor Andrew Cuo- The project’s engineers are doing impact in the state of Washington. at the ITER mo’s order that employees in “non- “heroes’ work” in maintaining that Most staff at the DOE’s Pacific experimental fusion essential” jobs should stay at home. schedule, added NASA’s science Northwest National Laboratory in reactor in France is A subsequent order by Illinois gov- head Thomas Zurbuchen. Richland, for example, have been still ongoing, albeit ernor J B Pritzker also forced the The schedule of another pres- working at home since early March. with limited Argonne and Fermilab facilities to tige project, the James Webb Space California’s Bay Area also emerged personnel. restrict their operations. The Oak Tele scope (JWST), is less certain. as an early hotspot. Ridge National Laboratory in Ten- California’s state-wide lockdown A directive from California gover- nessee and the Idaho National Labo- has affected Northrop Grumman nor Gavin Newsome, which prohib- ratory closed to visitors, researchers Aerospace Systems in Redondo ited inessential travel and meetings, and the general public too. Beach, which had been carrying out led to the effective shutdown of shaking tests on the $8.8bn obser- the SLAC, Berkeley and Lawrence ‘Heroes’ work’ vatory. A successor of the Hubble Livermore national laboratories, NASA has been similarly affected, Space Tele scope, JWST has already as well as of the local branch of with greater impact on specific mis- suffered numerous delays and is Sandia National Laboratory, with sions. On 19 March NASA admin- unlikely to meet its current launch most of their employees now work- istrator Jim Bridenstine announced date of March 2021. ing remotely at home. There have plans to put all the agency’s cen- Several observatories belonging to been exceptions, however. As Phys- tres under “stage 3 status”, which the Event Horizon Telescope have ics World went to press, the Berke- requires all but “mission essential” also closed down owing to the coro- ley Lab was in a “safe and stable staff to work remotely. “We are going navirus, with the organization hav- standby” status, with some critical to take care of our people,” Briden- ing cancelled its observing campaign work occurring on-site. The lab’s stine said. “That’s our first priority.” planned to take place in March and Advanced Light Source operating An immediate result of NASA’s April. “We will have to wait for a limited number of beamlines for announcement was the temporary March 2021 to try again,” the organi- three days a week for users develop- closures of the Michoud Assembly zation said in a statement. Elsewhere ing therapeutics to help combat the Facility in New Orleans and the in the world of astronomy, the Ata- SARS-CoV-2 virus. nearby Stennis Space Center in Mis- cama Large Millimetre/submilli- Other DOE labs have also sissippi when the number of COVID- metre Array in Chile has suspended restricted visitors, operated largely 19 cases rose in the area. A result operations, as has the Association of off-site or closed down as the virus of the closures, Bridenstine noted, Universities for Research in Astron- created fresh hotspots. In New Jer- would be “temporary suspension omy, which has stopped observations Physics World May 2020 9 News & Analysis physicsworld.com at several of the telescopes it over- Space Agency’s European Space sees and halted construction of the A few major projects are still Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Vera C Rubin Observatory in Chile. continuing to some degree – albeit Germany, tested instruments on Meanwhile, the Laser Interfer- the agency’s Bepicolombo mission ometer and Gravitational-wave with limited personnel to Mercury as it completed a fly-by Observatory sites in Hanford, of Earth on 10 April – albeit with Washington and Livingston, Loui- limited personnel. The ITER fusion siana, suspended observations on US institutions. It grants $100m to experiment being built in Cadarache 27 March as did the Virgo detec- DOE labs, $75m for National Sci- has cancelled all on-site visitors and tor in Italy. However, operations at ence Foundation grants, $66m for onsite meetings, but is continuing the Kamioka Gravitational Wave programmes of the National Insti- with “critical responsibilities and Detector in northern Japan are tute of Standards and Technology functions”. Indeed, the project is still ongoing. as well as a fund worth $14bn for still managing to undertake some universities. Observers suggest that construction tasks and has taken Moving online those amounts, while welcome, are delivery of magnet components that The need for social distancing has too small. But the likelihood that have arrived from member states. It impacted events organized by sci- Congress will pass another rescue does look likely, however, that the entific societies too. The American package gives the US scientific com- SARS-CoV-2 virus will put back the Physical Society, which called off munity some hope of extra support. start of operations that are currently its March meeting at short notice planned for 2025. (see April pp10–11), also cancelled European impact The European Spallation Source, its April meeting, although some COVID-19 has also forced most currently under construction in sessions were held online. The labs in Europe to close their doors. Lund, Sweden, has also put in place American Astronomical Society has The CERN particle-physics lab measures for staff to work remotely converted its early June meeting to a near Geneva has reduced all activi- as well as cancelling visits to the site. fully virtual event. ties on-site to those that are essential Yet work is still continuing, with Academic institutions face their for the safety and security of the lab. workers having recently installed the own coronavirus issues. Many CERN had been moving to the latter water tanks that are used for the pro- research universities have moved to parts of a long shutdown in prepara- ton target. Other, existing neutron virtual operation. Those decisions tion for a major upgrade to the lab’s and X-ray synchrotrons facilities in have put particular pressure on Large Hadron Collider. That work Europe have closed though, includ- postgraduate students who need to has now been reduced, with offi- ing the Institut Laue–Langevin and be on-site to perform their research. cials at CERN working out how the the European Synchrotron Radia- Some institutions, such as Brown impact will affect the timeline of the tion Facility, both in Grenoble, University and the University of Ala- upgrade project, which was due to France, as well as the ISIS neutron bama at Birmingham, have frozen be complete in the mid-2020s. The source in Oxfordshire, UK. hiring. In late March, a group of four CERN Council also announced in Some facilities remain open for organizations representing US uni- late March that it had postponed scientists to carry out research on the versities and medical colleges called the release of the European strategy SARS-CoV-2 virus. These include on Congress to increase spending on update that was due to be released the Paul Scherrer Institute in Swit- research by government agencies. this month. zerland, the UK’s Diamond Light The $2 trillion rescue package that However, a few major projects Source and the MAX IV synchro- President Donald Trump signed on are still continuing to some degree.