PORTUGAL NO "INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF LIGHT AND LIGHT-BASED TECHNOLOGIES"

IYL 2015 art installation in Oporto. CREDIT: Fhara021.3.

Já saiu o Relatório Internacional do Ano Internacional da Luz (descarregar aqui o pdf, um grosso volume ricamente ilustrado). Portugal é um 12 países que mereceram a distinção de 2 páginas e não apenas 1 no referido relatório. Eis a lista de países com mais espaço (por ordem alfabética, em português):

África do Sul
Alemanha
Brasil
China
EUA
França
Índia
Itália
México
Portugal
Turquia
Reino Unido

Eis o texto em inglês que resume as actividades em Portugal:

Primary National Organizer: Portuguese Physical Society
Other National Partners: Ciência Viva - National Agency for Scientific Culture, UNESCO National Commission, Portuguese Chemical Society, National Biologist Association and the Portuguese Optics Society
Sponsors: Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, Ciência Viva Agency, and Gulbenkian Foundation
Estimated number of IYL 2015 activities organized: More than 1,000 events
Number of people reached by IYL 2015 Activities: More than 1,000,000 people

General overview of IYL 2015 Activities in Portugal

The Portuguese International Year of Light (IYL 2015) Opening Ceremony took place on 16 March 2015 at the Passos Manuel School, in Lisbon, with a lecture and a light show. The IYL 2015 was celebrated all over the country with a variety of scientific, educational, technological, and artistic initiatives.

The focus was on schools, recognizing the relevance of education for a sustainable future. The program Bringing Light to Schools promoted researcher’s visits to schools for talking about and experimenting with light. It included teacher training in photonics using kits. Several exhibitions took place in Lisbon, Coimbra, Oporto, Aveiro (on holography organized by the national commission), etc. To celebrate not only the IYL 2015 but also the 725th anniversary of the Coimbra University, a video mapping projection was seen by more than 30,000 spectators. There were many light events like the Lumina Festival, in Cascais, light installations (a notable one in Oporto) and astronomy sessions (e.g., in the Alqueva Dark Sky reserve).

Several conferences took place during the IYL 2015, the most important of which was Let There Be Light: Dialogues Around Light, held on 15 December 2015 at the Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, and the lecture given by NASA scientist and Nobel laureate John Mather in Oporto.

Three new theater plays and a movie were created. Several books were published: A Biography of Light (J. Tito Mendonça); QED (2. ed, R. Feynman); Cosmicomix (A. Babi and R. Piccioni); History of Physics in Portugal in the 20th Century (T. Peña and G. Figueira); Dark Sky - Alqueva (M. Claro); Porto Cartoon World Festival - The Light; Light in books (A. Campos); and Let there be light (3rd ed., J. Calado).

The IYL 2015 was covered by the media, with the help of the national news agency and national and local press. The reference newspaper Público published a special  issue on the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity and published a series of articles (Light as way and limit). Public TV broadcast the IYL 2015 spot and interviews appeared in national public TV and radio.
There were photo competitions, one organized by the national commission. The Post Office issued stamps on the IYL 2015 and the International Year of Soils.

The IYL 2015 was closed on 21 June 2016 with a lecture by Sir Michael Berry and a concert at Casa da Música, Oporto.

IYL 2015 Art Show at Ciência Viva in Lisbon. CREDIT: Ciência Viva.