This year, our very own Marie Curie is organizing the annual interuniversity physics competition for physics students, hosted in Nijmegen! It will take place on Saturday, November 8th. Teams of four students will have to work together to win a ticket to the international physics competition (PLANCKS), which will be held in Eindhoven this year!

In addition to the competition itself, there will be a speaker and possibly dinner and drinks. You can register via the https://marie-curie.nl/list/411/. If you haven’t found a team of four yet, send us an email at pion@marie-curie.nl. Be quick, because registration closes on November 2nd! More information about location and times will follow.

With chess-like regards,
PION 2025

The current situation at the university has led us to do an exhaustive check of our system and we can conclude that our systems have not been compromised. Additionally, our systems are almost completely seperate from the university. By combining these two facts can we thus conclude that our systems and any data we might posses are still secure. If you have used the same password for your TU/e account and your VdWaals account then you could take a precationary measure by changing your VdWaals password.

If you now think “That is precisely what a hacked site would say!”, then firstly, congratulations on not trusting something blindly on the internet. Secondly, you can check with either a WebCie member or the board for confirmation of this message.

Dearest travellers of Van der Waals,

The Study Tour Abroad (STA) registrations have officially been opened as of December 5th, 2024. This year, Van der Waals will travel to far Japan, in a trip that is bound to be unforgettable! You have until December 19th, 23:55 to register, so make sure to be quick! Note that only members of SVTN “J.D. van er Waals” can register.

You can register for the STA by:

1. Filling in the registration form and sending your signed form to flinn@vdwaals.nl. The registrations form can be found here.
2. Making a deposit of €300 to NL86INGB0008035504. The maximum capacity for participants is 24, and if more than 24 people register, a lottery will take place on December 20th. Members that are lotted out in the lottery process will then have this amount transferred back to them.
3. Sending a copy of your passport along with your signed registration form to flinn@vdwaals.nl. If you do not yet have a passport, make sure to apply for a passport as soon as you are certain of your participation (you will be notified immediately after the lottery on December 20th).

Missed the info lunch but want to have more information about our trip to Japan? Be sure to check out the presentation here.

The administrative regulations STA 2025 Japan that are in accordance with the registration form can be found here.

Project Interuniversitaire Olympiade Natuurkunde

On November 16th, PION, the annual physics student olympiad, returns! This year’s competition will be held in Enschede, open to all physics students across the Netherlands. Compete for a chance to represent the Netherlands at PLANCKS 2025 (Physics League Across Numerous Countries for Kick-ass Students), the European physics olympiad hosted next year in Barcelona. For more information on the competition you can check out the website: https://pion.arago.utwente.nl/.

Sign up with a team of up to four students here: https://mijn.arago.utwente.nl/i/1003. If you need help finding teammates, just send us an email at pion2024@arago.utwente.nl, and we’ll connect you with others. The deadline for subscribing is the 9th of November at 17:00 pm.

Don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity to test your skills, meet fellow physics enthusiasts, and maybe even earn a ticket to Barcelona!

Have you experienced something unpleasant? Is there something bothering you? Or are you not feeling like your best self? Then let’s talk about it! There are 24 trained students who serve as your confidential peer supporter (used to be Confidential Contact Person). Whether big or small, they are there to listen and help redirect you to the available support. Within Van der Waals, Nuriye van Lamoen and Casper Pieck are trained as Confidential Peer Supporters. You can find more information including how to contact them on the CPS page on the website.