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In the spring of 2002, the world's most productive young scientist was a 31-year-old physicist at Bell Labs in New Jersey in the US. With eight papers published in Nature and Science in 2001 alone, Jan Hendrik Schon was emerging with breathtaking speed as a star researcher in physics, materials science and nanotechnology. His research was based on an unrivalled ability to transform the properties of materials by the application of an electric field. He built high-performance transistors made not from silicon but from carbonbased materials. He coaxed materials into superconductors, which have an almost magical ability to conduct electricity without resistance. He described the world's first organic electrical laser, and the first ever light-emitting transistor. He even claimed to have built the world's smallest transistor by wiring up a single molecule. It was a dazzling nanotechnology triumph.

The 30th International Conference on Photonic, Electronic and Atomic Collisions (XXX ICPEAC) was held at the Cairns Convention Centre, Queensland, Australia on 26 July - 1 August, 2017, organized by the Australian National University (ANU, Canberra), Curtin University (Perth, Western Australia) and Griffith University (Queensland). Held biannually, ICPEAC is one of the largest conferences on the atomic and molecular physics calendar, and covers the recent progress in photonic, electronic, and atomic collisions with matter. With a history dating back to 1958, the ICPEAC has its second coming to the Sunshine State of Queensland, the first of which being the 1991 Australian ICPEAC in Brisbane. With the selection of Cairns as the venue for the ICPEAC XXX the local organizers began their preparations six years ahead in anticipation of the event.The conference brought together 500 participants from 50 countries and attracted 680 contributed papers for presentation in poster sessions. Among the latter, 311 are presented in issues 2-12 of this volume of the Journal of Physics Conference Series. In addition, five plenary lectures by Linda Young, Clifford Surko, Henrik Cederquist, Tilman Pfau and Reinhard Kienberger have been presented along with 62 progress reports and 26 special reports. The latter "hot topics" were selected by the ICPEAC Program Committee from the contributed papers. Detailed write-ups of most of the invited lectures and reports are presented in issue 1 of this volume, constituting a comprehensive and tangible record of the meeting.Preceeding the conference, three distinguished scientists: Barry Schneider (NIST, USA), Chris Greene (Purdue University, USA) and Thomas Pfeifer (Max-Plank Institute, Germany) presented their tutorial lectures specifically designed for students and early career researchers.During the conference, the 2017 IUPAP Young Scientist Prize was awarded to Johannes Feist (Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain). The Sheldon Datz Prize for an Outstanding Young Scientist Attending ICPEAC was awarded to Dermot Green (Queen's University Belfast, UK).The Local Organizing Committee would like to express its gratitude to Tourism and Events Queensland (TEQ), the International Union for Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP), all the conference sponsors for their financial support. With particular emphasis we thank the group of volunteers from the ANU and Curtin University for their efforts in orchestrating the event.Finally, the Local Organizing Committee would like to thank all the ICPEAC participants for their support and contributions to the conference.The Editors,Alexander Bray, Sean Hodgman, Joshua Machacek, Anatoli Kheifets(Australian National University, Canberra, Australia)

The 27th IUPAP Conference on Computational Physics, CCP2015, was held in the heritage city Guwahati, in the eastern part of India, next to the mighty river Brahmaputra, during December 2-5, 2015. The Conference on Computational Physics is organized annually under the auspices of Commission 20 (C20) of the IUPAP (International Union of Pure and Applied Physics). This is the first time it has been held in India. Almost 300 participants from 25 countries convened at the auditorium and lecture halls at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati for four days. Thirteen plenary speakers, fifty six invited speakers, three presnters from the computer industries and two hundred and eight contributory participants coverd a broad range of topics in computational physics and related areas. Thirty eight women participated in CCP2015 and seven of them presented invited talks. This volume of Journal of Physics: Conference Series contains the proceedings of the scientific contributions presented at the Conference. The main purpose of the meeting was to discuss the progress, opportunities and challenges of common interest to physicists engaged in computational research. Computational physics has taken giant leaps during the lat few years, not only because of the enormous increases in computer power but especially because of the development of new methods and algorithms. Computational physics now represents a third leg of research alongside analytical theory and experiments. A meeting such as CCP, must have sufficient depth in different areas and at the same time should be broad and accessible. The topics covered in this conference were: Materials/Condensed Matter Theory and Nanoscience, Strongly Correlated Systems and Quantum Phase Transitions, Quantum Chemistry and Atomic Physics, Quantum Chromodynamics, Astrophysics, Plasma Physics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics, Complex Systems: Chaos and Statistical Physics, Macroscopic Transport and Mesoscopic Methods, Biological Physics and Soft Materials, Supercomputing and Computational Physics Teaching, Computational Physics and Sustainable Energy. As organizers and editors of these Proceedings, we are very pleased with the number and the quality of the papers provided by the participants. The papers cover a good cross-section of what was presented at the meeting. We are sure that these will represent the state of the computational physics today. The remainder of this Preface contains lists detailing the organizational structure of CCP2015, endorsers and sponsors of the meeting, plenary and invited talks, and a presentation of the 2015 IUPAP C20 Young Scientist Prize. Finally, we would like to express our sincere thanks to our sponsors and endorsers: C20 Commission of International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP); Division of Computational Physics, American Physical Society (APS); European Physicsl Society (EPS); Association of Asia Pacific Physical Societies (AAAPS), Intel Software; Nvidia; Fujitsu; Netweb Technologies; The Institute of Mathematical Sciences Chennai, and finally Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati. We are grateful to the organizing committee, the International Advisory Board, the local organizing committee and participants who helped in making CCP2015 a success.

The Second International Conference and Young Scientist School ''Magnetic resonance imaging in biomedical research'' was held on the campus of the National Research Tomsk State University (Tomsk, Russia) on September 7-9, 2015. The conference was focused on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) applications for biomedical research. The main goal was to bring together basic scientists, clinical researchers and developers of new MRI techniques to bridge the gap between clinical/research needs and advanced technological solutions. The conference fostered research and development in basic and clinical MR science and its application to health care. It also had an educational purpose to promote understanding of cutting-edge MR developments. The conference provided an opportunity for researchers and clinicians to present their recent theoretical developments, practical applications, and to discuss unsolved problems. The program of the conference was divided into three main topics. First day of the conference was devoted to educational lectures on the fundamentals of MRI physics and image acquisition/reconstruction techniques, including recent developments in quantitative MRI. The second day was focused on developments and applications of new contrast agents. Multinuclear and spectroscopic acquisitions as well as functional MRI were presented during the third day of the conference. We would like to highlight the main developments presented at the conference and introduce the prominent speakers. The keynote speaker of the conference Dr. Vasily Yarnykh (University of Washington, Seattle, USA) presented a recently developed MRI method, macromolecular proton fraction (MPF) mapping, as a unique tool for modifying image contrast and a unique tool for quantification of the myelin content in neural tissues. Professor Yury Pirogov (Lomonosov Moscow State University) described development of new fluorocarbon compounds and applications for biomedicine. Drs. Julia Velikina and Alexey Samsonov (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA) demonstrated new image reconstruction methods for accelerated quantitative parameter mapping and magnetic resonance angiography. Finally, we would like to thank the scientific committee, the local organizing committee and the National Research Tomsk State University for giving an opportunity to share scientific ideas and new developments at the conference and the Russian Science Foundation (project № 14-45-00040) for financial support.

This volume of the IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering contains papers from the 14th Workshop of the European Microbeam Analysis Society (EMAS) on Modern Developments and Applications in Microbeam Analysis which took place from the 3rd to the 7th of May 2015 in the Grand Hotel Bernardin, Portorož, Slovenia. The primary aim of this series of workshops is to assess the state-of-the-art and reliability of microbeam analysis techniques. The workshops also provide a forum where students and young scientists starting out on a career in microbeam analysis can meet and discuss with the established experts. The workshops have a unique format comprising invited plenary lectures by internationally recognized experts, poster presentations by the participants and round table discussions on the key topics led by specialists in the field.This workshop was organized in collaboration with the Jožef Stefan Institute and SDM – Slovene Society for Microscopy. The technical programme included the following topics: electron probe microanalysis, STEM and EELS, materials applications, cathodoluminescence and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), and their applications. As at previous workshops there was also a special oral session for young scientists. The best presentation by a young scientist was awarded with an invitation to attend the 2016 Microscopy and Microanalysis meeting at Columbus, Ohio. The prize went to Shirin Kaboli, of the Department of Metals and Materials Engineering of McGill University (Montreal, Canada), for her talk entitled "Electron channelling contrast reconstruction with electron backscattered diffraction". The continuing relevance of the EMAS workshops and the high regard in which they are held internationally can be seen from the fact that 71 posters from 16 countries were on display at the meeting and that the participants came from as far away as Japan, Canada, USA, and Australia. A selection of participants with posters was invited to give a short oral presentation of their work in three dedicated sessions. The prize for the best poster was an invitation to participate in the 24th Australian Conference on Microscopy and Microanalysis (ACMM 24) in Melbourne, Australia. The prize was awarded to Aurelien Moy of the University of Montpellier (France) for his poster entitled: "Standardless quantification of heavy metals by electron probe microanalysis". This proceedings volume contains the full texts of 9 of the invited plenary lectures and of 12 papers on related topics originating from the posters presented at the workshop. All the papers have been subjected to peer review by a least two referees.

The 15th International Conference Strangeness in Quark Matter (SQM) took place at the Veksler and Baldin Laboratory of High Energy Physics (VBLHEP) of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna in the period July 6 -11, with a record participation of 244 people from 31 countries! The previous meeting of the series in Birmingham 2013 had collected 158 physicists from 25 countries [J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 509, 011001 (2014)]. At SQM-2015, there was also a record participation of young scientist; every 4th conference attendee did not yet hold a PhD degree! There was a special program of 4 general lectures, a devoted session of parallel talks for Young Talents and the Helmholtz International Summer School (HISS) with 16 lecturers on the topics regarding Dense Matter (29.06.-11.07.) as a satellite event at the Bogoliubov Laboratory of Theoretical Physics (BLTP) and at VBLHEP. Another satellite event was the Round TableWorkshop on Physics at NICA, jointly organized by JINR and the Republic of South Africa on July 5, 2015. The selection of Dubna as the place for SQM-2015 conference by the International Advisory Committee (IAC) demonstrates the broad interest of the community in the progress of the Russian Megascience Project on the Nuclotron-based Ion Collider Facility (NICA) hosted at JINR Dubna. In a few years from now the experiments planned at NICA will produce data that provide new information of unprecedented accuracy which will help to answer some of the key questions which are topical at this conference. The SQM-2015 conference had an ambitious scientific program with 38 plenary talks, 97 parallel talks in 7 topical directions and 39 posters reporting the state of the research and the future directions in the fields of strangeness, heavy avors and bulk physics, suggested by the IAC to be the subtitle of the conference from 2016 onwards. Most of the contributions are represented in these Proceedings which we recommend to the community! We gratefully acknowledge support from the JINR Dubna, the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the Bundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung via the Heisenberg-Landau program, the Ministerstwo Nauki i Szkolnistwa Wyzszego via the Bogoliubov-Infeld program, the LOEWE program via HIC for FAIR, the Helmholtz Association with their centres DESY, FZ Julich, GSI Darmstadt, HZ Dresden-Rossendorf, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the Helmholtz Institutes in Mainz and Jena via the HISS programme. We thank the IAC for their help and advice in planning the conference, and we are grateful to the members of the Local Organisation Committee for their help in during the conference as well as to Niels-Uwe Bastian, Alexandra Friesen, Mark Alexander Kaltenborn and Irina Pirozhenko for their assistance in preparing these Proceedings.

The 26th IUPAP Conference on Computational Physics, CCP2014, was held in Boston, Massachusetts, during August 11-14, 2014. Almost 400 participants from 38 countries convened at the George Sherman Union at Boston University for four days of plenary and parallel sessions spanning a broad range of topics in computational physics and related areas. The first meeting in the series that developed into the annual Conference on Computational Physics (CCP) was held in 1989, also on the campus of Boston University and chaired by our colleague Claudio Rebbi. The express purpose of that meeting was to discuss the progress, opportunities and challenges of common interest to physicists engaged in computational research. The conference having returned to the site of its inception, it is interesting to recect on the development of the field during the intervening years. Though 25 years is a short time for mankind, computational physics has taken giant leaps during these years, not only because of the enormous increases in computer power but especially because of the development of new methods and algorithms, and the growing awareness of the opportunities the new technologies and methods can offer. Computational physics now represents a ''third leg'' of research alongside analytical theory and experiments in almost all subfields of physics, and because of this there is also increasing specialization within the community of computational physicists. It is therefore a challenge to organize a meeting such as CCP, which must have suffcient depth in different areas to hold the interest of experts while at the same time being broad and accessible. Still, at a time when computational research continues to gain in importance, the CCP series is critical in the way it fosters cross-fertilization among fields, with many participants specifically attending in order to get exposure to new methods in fields outside their own. As organizers and editors of these Proceedings, we are very pleased with the high quality of the papers provided by the participants. These articles represent a good cross-section of what was presented at the meeting, and it is our hope that they will not only be useful individually for their specific scientific content but will also represent a historical snapshot of the state of computational physics that they represent collectively. The remainder of this Preface contains lists detailing the organizational structure of CCP2014, endorsers and sponsors of the meeting, plenary and invited talks, and a presentation of the 2014 IUPAP C20 Young Scientist Prize. We would like to take the opportunity to again thank all those who contributed to the success of CCP214, as organizers, sponsors, presenters, exhibitors, and participants. Anders Sandvik, David Campbell, David Coker, Ying Tang

The 29th International Conference on Photonic, Electronic and Atomic Collisions (XXIX ICPEAC) was held at the Palacio de Congresos ''El Greco'', Toledo, Spain, on 22-28 July, 2015, and was organized by the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (UAM) and the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC). ICPEAC is held biannually and is one of the most important international conferences on atomic and molecular physics. The topic of the conference covers the recent progresses in photonic, electronic, and atomic collisions with matter. With a history back to 1958, ICPEAC came to Spain in 2015 for the very first time. UAM and CSIC had been preparing the conference for six years, ever since the ICPEAC International General Committee made the decision to hold the XXIX ICPEAC in Toledo. The conference gathered 670 participants from 52 countries and attracted 854 contributed papers for presentation in poster sessions. Among the latter, 689 are presented in issues 2-12 of this volume of the Journal of Physics Conference Series. In addition, five plenary lectures, including the opening one by the Nobel laureate Prof. Ahmed H. Zewail and the lectures by Prof. Maciej Lewenstein, Prof. Paul Scheier, Prof. Philip H. Bucksbaum, and Prof. Stephen J. Buckman, 62 progress reports and 26 special reports were presented following the decision of the ICPEAC International General Committee. Detailed write-ups of most of the latter are presented in issue 1 of this volume, constituting a comprehensive tangible record of the meeting. On the occasion of the International Year of Light (IYL2015) and with the support of the Fundacion Espanola para la Ciencia y la Tecnologia (FECYT), the program was completed with two public lectures delivered by the Nobel laureate Prof. Serge Haroche and the Principe de Asturias laureate Prof. Pedro M. Echenique on, respectively, ''Fifty years of laser revolutions in physics'rquot; and ''The sublime usefulness of useless science''. Also a popularization initiative was held in parallel to the conference, consisting of a poster exhibition for the general public and an International Science Camp for children. Furthermore, before the conference, four distinguished scientists: Prof. Thomas F. Gallager, Prof. Jan Michael Rost, Prof. Joseph H. Macek, and Prof. Reinhard Dorner presented tutorial lectures. During the conference, the 2015 IUPAP Young Scientist Prize was awarded to Dr. Gretchen K. Campbell from the University of Maryland. The Sheldon Datz Prize for an Outstanding Young Scientist Attending ICPEAC was awarded to Dr. Jayanta K. Saha from the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science. The Local Organizing Committee would like to express its gratitude to the Fundacion Espanola para la Ciencia y la Tecnologia (FECYT), the International Union for Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP), all the conference sponsors for financial support, and, with particular emphasis, to the group of volunteers from UAM and CSIC for their hard and excellent work. Finally, the Local Organizing Committee would like to thank all participants and authors of the proceedings for their support and contributions to the conference.

The Symposium on Nuclear Physics is an international meeting organized every year since 1978 by the Division of Nuclear Physics of the Mexican Physical Society. The 37th edition was held at the Hotel Hacienda Cocoyoc in the state of Morelos, Mexico, from 6-9 January, 2014. The symposium is intended to be a relatively small meeting designed to bring together some of the leading nuclear scientists in different areas of nuclear physics (nuclear astrophysics, nuclear structure, neutrino physics, hadron physics and nuclear reactions among others). Both theorists and experimentalists, students, postdocs and senior scientists gathered in a relaxed and informal environment providing them with a unique opportunity to exchange ideas. The symposium was organized in plenary sessions with invited talks and a poster session. In this edition the program consisted of 26 invited talks and 19 posters, whose subjects reflected the active areas and interests of the mexican nuclear physics community. The organization encouraged the participation of young scientist as speakers in the plenary sessions. Seven of the 26 invited talks were given by postdoctoral and doctoral students working in different institutions from Mexico, USA and Europe. The proceedings collect a total of 16 manuscripts from the invited speakers.

The 28th International Conference on Photonic, Electronic and Atomic Collisions (XXVIII ICPEAC) was held by the Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IMP) on 24–30 July, 2013 in Lanzhou, China. The 444 conference participants came from 37 countries and/or regions. Five plenary lectures, more than 80 progress reports and special reports had been arranged according to the decision of the ICPEAC International General Committee. Meanwhile, more than 650 abstracts were selected as poster presentations. Before the conference, three highly distinguished scientists, Professor Joachim Burgdoorfer, Professor Hossein Sadeghpour and Professor Yasunori Yamazaki, presented tutorial lectures with the support of the IMP Branch of Youth Innovation Promotion Association, CAS (IMP-YIPA). During the conference, Professor Jianwei Pan from University of Sciences and Technology in China presented an enlightening public lecture on quantum communication. Furthermore, 2013 IUPAP Young Scientist Prize was awarded to Dr T Jahnke from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Germany. The Sheldon Datz Prize for an Outstanding Young Scientist Attending ICPEAC was awarded to Dr Diogo Almeida from University of Fribourg of Switzerland. As a biannual academic conference, ICPEAC is one of the most important international conferences on atomic and molecular physics. The topic of the conference covers the recent progresses in photonic, electronic, atomic, ionic, molecular, cluster collisions with matter. With a history back to 1958, ICPEAC came to China for the very first time. IMP has been preparing the conference six years before, ever since the ICPEAC International General Committee made the decision to hold the XXVIII ICPEAC in Lanzhou. This proceedings includes the papers of the two plenary lectures, 40 progress reports, 17 special reports and 337 posters, which were reviewed and revised according to the comments of the referees. The Local Organizing Committee would like to express its great appreciation to National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP), IMP, and IMP-YIPA for financial support, to Fangfang Ruan, Qiang Liang, Dacheng Zhang, Shukai Tian, Yuyu Wang, Wenping Zhu, Wei Liang, Mingwu Zhang, Haibo Yuan, Shan Sha, Jieru Ren, Jie Yang and Zhenhai Chen for their contributions to the organization, and to the volunteer group from Lanzhou University, the High School Attached Northwest Normal University and IMP for their excellent volunteer work. The Local Organizing Committee would like to thank all of the participants and the authors of the proceedings for their supports and contributions to the conference. Guoqing Xiao Director of Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

This volume of the IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering contains papers from the 13th Workshop of the European Microbeam Analysis Society (EMAS) on Modern Developments and Applications in Microbeam Analysis which took place from the 12th to the 16th of May 2013 in the Centro de Congressos do Alfândega, Porto, Portugal. The primary aim of this series of workshops is to assess the state-of-the-art and reliability of microbeam analysis techniques. The workshops also provide a forum where students and young scientists starting out on a career in microbeam analysis can meet and discuss with the established experts. The workshops have a very specific format comprising invited plenary lectures by internationally recognized experts, poster presentations by the participants and round table discussions on the key topics led by specialists in the field. This workshop was organized in collaboration with LNEG - Laboratorio Nacional de Energia e Geologia and SPMICROS - Sociedade Portuguesa de Microscopia. The technical programme included the following topics: electron probe microanalysis, future technologies, electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), particle analysis, and applications. As at previous workshops there was also a special oral session for young scientists. The best presentation by a young scientist was awarded with an invitation to attend the 2014 Microscopy and Microanalysis meeting at Hartford, Connecticut. The prize went to Shirin Kaboli, of the Department of Metals and Materials Engineering of McGill University (Montreal, Canada), for her talk entitled ''Plastic deformation studies with electron channelling contrast imaging and electron backscattered diffraction''. The continuing relevance of the EMAS workshops and the high regard in which they are held internationally can be seen from the fact that 74 posters from 21 countries were on display at the meeting and that the participants came from as far away as Japan, Canada and the USA. A selection of participants with posters was invited to give a short oral presentation of their work in three dedicated sessions. The prize for the best poster was an invitation to participate in the 22nd Australian Conference on Microscopy and Microanalysis (ACMM 23) at Adelaide, South Australia. The prize was awarded to Pierre Burdet of the EM Group of the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy of the University of Cambridge (UK), for the poster entitled: ''3D EDS microanalysis by FIB-SEM: advantages of a low take-off angle''. This proceedings volume contains the full texts of 8 of the invited plenary lectures and of 13 papers on related topics originating from the posters presented at the workshop. All the papers have been subjected to peer review by a least two referees. January 2014 Acknowledgements On behalf of the European Microbeam Analysis Society I would like to thank all the invited speakers, session chairs and members of the discussion panels for making the meeting such a great success. Special thanks go to Fernanda Guimaraes and Luc Van't dack who directed the organisation of the workshop giving freely of their time and talents. As was the case for previous workshops, the EMAS board in corpore was responsible for the scientific programme. The Workshop also included a commercial exhibition where many leading instrument suppliers were represented. Several companies that exhibited provided financial support, either by sponsoring an event or by advertising. Below, in alphabetical order, is a list of exhibiting companies and sponsors of the workshop. - Ametek GmbH, Edax Business Unit- IZASA Group Werfen - Bruker Nano GmbH- Jeol (Europe) SAS - Cameca SA- Porto Gran Cruz - Câmara Municipal do Porto- Oxford Instruments NanoAnalysis Ltd. - European Institute for Transuranium Elements (Germany)- Probe Software, Inc. - FEI Company- Tescan, a.s. Michael B Matthews EMAS President

In 1997, A S Borovik-Romanov, the Academician of RAS, and A V Aganov, the head of the Physics Department of Kazan State University, suggested that the 'School of Magnetic Resonance', well known in the Soviet Union, should recommence and be regularly held in Kazan. This school was created in 1968 by G V Scrotskii, the prominent scientist in the field of magnetic resonance and the editor of many famous books on magnetic resonance (authored by A Abragam, B. Bleaney, C. Slichter, and many others) translated and edited in the Soviet Union. In 1991 the last, the 12th School, was held under the supervision of G V Scrotskii. Since 1997, more than 600 young scientists, 'schoolboys', have taken part in the School meetings, made their oral reports and participated in heated discussions. Every year a competition among the young scientist takes place and the Program Committee members name the best reports, the authors of which are invited to prepare full-scale scientific papers. The XVI International Youth Scientific School 'Actual problems of the magnetic resonance and its application' in its themes is slightly different from previous ones. A new section has been opened this year: Coherent Optics and Optical Spectroscopy. Many young people have submitted interesting reports on optical research, many of the reports are devoted to the implementation of nanotechnology in optical studies. The XVI International Youth Scientific School has been supported by the Program of development of Kazan Federal University. It is a pleasure to thank the sponsors (BRUKER Ltd, Moscow, the Russian Academy of Science, the Dynasty foundation of Dmitrii Zimin, Russia, Russian Foundation for Basic Research) and all the participants and contributors for making the International School meeting possible and interesting. A V Dooglav, M Kh Salakhov and M S Tagirov The Editors

The 3rd International Conference on the Physics of Optical Materials and Devices (ICOM2012) was held in Belgrade (Serbia) from 2 to 6 September 2012 (figure 1). The conference was organized by the Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences, University of Belgrade (Serbia) and the Laboratoire de Chimie de la Matiere Condensee de Paris (France), and supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia and Optical Society of America. ICOM2012 was a follow-up to the two previous, successful ICOM conferences held in Herceg Novi in 2006 and 2009. The conference aimed at providing a forum for scientists in optical materials to debate on: • Luminescent materials and nanomaterials• Hybrid optical materials (organic/inorganic)• Characterization techniques of optical materials• Luminescence mechanisms and energy transfers• Theory and modeling of optical processes• Ultrafast-laser processing of materials• Optical sensors• Medical imaging• Advanced optical materials in photovoltaics and biophotonics• Photothermal and photoacoustic spectroscopy and phenomena The conference stressed the value of a fundamental scientific understanding of optical materials. A particular accent was put on wide band-gap materials in crystalline, glass and nanocrystalline forms. The applications mainly involved lasers, scintillators and phosphors. Rare earth and transition metal ions introduced as dopants in various hosts were considered, and their impact on the optical properties were detailed in several presentations. This volume contains selected contributions of speakers and participants of the ICOM2012 conference. The conference provided a unique opportunity for about 200 scientists from 32 countries to discuss recent progress in the field of optical materials. During the three and half days, 21 invited talks and 52 contributed lectures were given, with a special event in memory of our dear colleague Professor Dr Tsoltan Basiev (Russia). In addition, 183 posters were presented and the two Young Scientist Awards were announced at the closing ceremony. Acknowledgments We thank all the authors for their valuable research contribution presented in this volume. We express our acknowledgements to all reviewers with a special thanks to Dr G Watt, then Publisher of the journal, for accepting the publication of these papers in a special issue of Physica Scripta . We wish to express our gratitude to the members of the ICOM scientific advisory committee and organizing committee for their excellent work and commitment for the success of ICOM2012.

This volume of Journal of Physics: Conference Series contains the general invited lectures, topical invited lectures and progress reports presented at the 26th Summer School and International Symposium on the Physics of Ionized Gases – SPIG 2012. The conference was held in Zrenjanin, Serbia, from 27–31 August. The SPIG conference has a 52 year long tradition. The structure of the papers in this volume cover the following sections: atomic collision processes, particle and laser beam interactions with solids, low temperature plasmas and general plasmas. As these four topics often overlap and merge in numerous fundamental studies and, more importantly applications, SPIG in general serves as a venue for exchanging ideas in the related fields. We hope that this volume will be an important source of information about progress in plasma physics and will be useful, first of all, for students, but also for plasma physics scientists. The Editors would like to thank the invited speakers for their participation at SPIG 2012 and for their efforts writing contributions for this volume. We also express our gratitude to the members of Scientific and Organizing committees for their efforts in organizing this SPIG. Especially we would like to thank the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Republic of Serbia, Provincial Secretariat for Science and Techonological Development, Province of Vojvodina, Institute Francais de Serbie and Biser Zrenjanin for financial support as well as the European Physical Society (EPS) for supporting the award for the best poster of a young scientist and American Elements, USA. Milorad Kuraica Zoran Mijatovic October 2012 Editors

The XXVII International Conference on Photonic, Electronic and Atomic Collisions was held at Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, 27 July – 2 August 2011. Members of the Local Organising Committee were drawn from the School of Mathematics and Physics of Queen's University Belfast, the School of Physical Sciences at Dublin City University, the School of Physics at University College Dublin and the Department of Experimental Physics at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. The Conference was attended by 566 participants with contributions from 54 countries. The meeting attracted 786 contributed papers for presentation in the poster sessions. The conference included 20 Special Reports selected from the contributed papers, and these are included in part 1 of this volume. During the meeting a total of 65 Progress Reports were also presented, and the authors invited to submit written versions of their talks (see Part 1). Of the total number of contributed papers, 663 are included as refereed abstracts in parts 2 to 15 of this volume of Journal of Physics: Conference Series. Part 1 of this volume includes detailed write-ups of the majority of plenary lectures, progress reports and special reports, constituting a comprehensive tangible record of the meeting, and is additionally published in hard-copy as the Conference Proceedings. There were 5 plenary lectures given by Margaret Murnane on Ultrafast processes in atomic dynamics; Chris Greene on Few-body highly-correlated dynamics; Michael Allan on Electron-molecule collisions; Yasunori Yamazaki on Antiproton and positron collisions and Thomas Stohlker on Relativistic ion collisions. Ian Spielman, winner of the IUPAP Young Scientist Prize for 2011, gave a special lecture entitled Modifying interatomic interactions using Raman coupling: a tale of slowly colliding Bose-Einstein condensates. In addition an evening public lecture by Mike Baillie on How precise tree-ring dating raises issues concerning the frequency of extraterrestrial impacts drew an attentive and appreciative audience. The editors are indebted to Tara Spencer for her exceptional organisation skills and support in compiling this volume. Thanks are also due to Ian Stewart for his assistance with gathering and indexing the documents. We would also like to express our sincere appreciation to the ICPEAC sponsors for their financial support. I D Williams Queen's University Belfast H W van der Hart Queen's University Belfast J F McCann Queen's University Belfast D S F Crothers Queen's University Belfast EDITORS

Helmut Alexander was one of the four initiators of the "International Symposium on Dislocations in Tetrahedrally Coordinated Semiconductors" (Hunfeld 1978). This conference was the beginning of a conference series which got its new name EDS (Extended Defects in Semiconductors) first in 1980. He who gave his name to the "Helmut Alexander Award" of the EDS conference died on the third of December, 2009. The international advisory committee of EDS honoured his scientific work in 2002 recognizing him by instituting an award for the best poster presentation for a young scientist at the running conference session. The authors try to review his life with some of his scientific highlights.

The International Conference on Magnetism 2009 (ICM 2009) was held in Karlsruhe, Germany, from 26–31 July 2009. Previous conferences in this series were organized in Edingburgh, United Kingdom (1991), Warsaw, Poland (1994), Cairns, Australia (1997), Recife, Brazil (2000), Rome, Italy (2003) and Kyoto, Japan (2006). As with previous ICM conferences, the annual Conference on Strongly Correlated Electron Systems (SCES) was integrated into ICM 2009. Participants of ICM 2009 in front of the Stadthalle Karlsruhe. Topics of ICM 2009 were: Strongly Correlated Electron Systems; Quantum and Classical Spin Systems; Magnetic Structures and Interactions; Magnetization Dynamics and Micromagnetics; Spin-Dependent Transport; Spin Electronics; Magnetic Thin Films, Particles, and Nanostructures; Soft and Hard Magnetic Materials and their Applications; Novel Materials and Device Applications; Magnetic Recording and Memories; Measuring Techniques and Instrumentation, as well as Interdisciplinary Topics. We are grateful to the International Advisory Committee for their help in putting up an attractive program encompassing practically all aspects of magnetism, both experimentally and theoretically. The program committee comprised A Loidl, Germany (Chair), M A Continentino, Brazil, D E Dahlberg, USA, D Givord, France, G Guntherodt, Germany, H Mikeska, Germany, D Kaczorowski, Poland, Ching-Ray Chang, South Korea, I Mertig, Germany, D Vollhardt, Germany and E F Wassermann, Germany was also head of the National Organizing Committee. His help is gratefully acknowledged. Left: Poster session in the Stadthalle Karlsruhe. Upper right: H v Lohneysen (Conference Chairman), Nobel Laureates A Fert and P. Grunberg, E Umbach (Chairman of the Executive Board of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe) (left to right). Lower right: Nobel Laureate P W Anderson. The scientific program started on Monday 27 July 2009 with opening addresses by the Conference Chairman, the deputy Mayor of Karlsruhe, Ms M Mergen, and the Chairman of the Executive Board of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, E Umbach. ICM 2009 was attended by the Nobel Laureates P W Anderson, A Fert and P Grunberg who gave plenary talks. A special highlight was the presentation of the Magnetism Award and Neel Medal to S S P Parkin who presented his newest results in a plenary talk as well. The IUPAP Young Scientist Award on Magnetism was given to S O Valenzuela, E Saitoh and T Kimura. The sessions were held in the Stadthalle Karlsuhe operated by the Karlsruher Messe- und Kongress-GmbH (KMK). We are grateful to Ms M Makelburg (KMK) for a perfect organization at the conference site. The conference was attended by 1552 participants from 48 countries, with about 50 percent from overseas (see figure). The program entailed six plenary talks (40 minutes each), with 16 half-plenary and 41 invited talks (30 minutes) and 298 contributed talks (15 minutes). Extended lunch breaks and evenings were devoted to the poster sessions, with a total of 1632 posters presented. All submitted papers were reviewed in order to meet the standards of Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter and Journal of Physics: Conference Series. The referees made every effort possible to ensure that the manuscripts submitted for publication in the proceedings reach a high standard. The tremendous work in organizing the paper classification and refereeing procedures was carried out by the Publication Committee which was headed by J Wosnitza, and comprised, in addition, Th Pruschke, M Richter and L Schultz. We also thank G Douglas, IOP Publishing, for his efficient support with the preparation of these proceedings. We gratefully acknowledge the help of L Behrens, E Maass and B Schelske in preparing the conference. The conference would not have been possible without G Goll (conference secretary) and C Surgers (finance). I thank them for their great help. Thanks go to the many students in blue T-shirts who helped to run the conference. We are grateful for financial support to Universitat Karlsruhe (TH) and Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (both institutions merged to form the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) as of 1 October 2009), International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP), the City of Karlsruhe, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German National Science Foundation) and the European Commission through COST MPNS Action P16. Hilbert v Lohneysen Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Email address: hilbert.loehneysen@kit.edu Conference Organization Chairperson Hilbert v Lohneysen, Karlsruhe Members of IUPAP Commission 9 Magnetism C Chang, TaipeiD Kaczorowski, Wroclaw khrouhou, SfaxP H Kes, Leiden M A Continentino, NiteroiS Maekawa, Sendai D E Dahlberg, MinnesotaI Mertig, Halle D Fiorani, RomaD McMorow, London M R Freeman, EdmontonS Rezende, Recife D Givord, GrenobleS Sanvito, Dublin A Granovsky, MoscowJ Xiaofeng, Shanghai International Advisory Board G Aeppli, UKM Gingras, Canada I Affleck, CanadaJ C Gomez Sal, Spain J Akimitsu, JapanP A Grunberg, Germany D Awschalom, USAB Heinrich, Canada S D Bader, USAT J Hicks, Australia E Baggio-Saitovitch, BrazilM R Ibarra, Spain M N Baibich, BrazilY H Jeong, Korea G Baskaran, IndiaB Keimer, Germany E Bauer, AustriaG Kotliar, USA R J Birgeneau, USAR B Laughlin, USA P Bruno, GermanyP A Lee, USA J Chapman, UKG G Lonzarich, UK Y Endoh, JapanA MacDonald, USA A Fert, FranceM B Maple, USA J Fink, GermanyA J Millis, USA Z Fisk, USAL W Molenkamp, Germany J Flouquet, FranceJ A Mydosh, Germany A J Freeman, USAY Maeno, Japan H Fukuyama, JapanK Miyake, Japan P Fulde, GermanyP Nordblad, Sweden H Ohno, JapanF Steglich, Germany H R Ott, SwitzerlandT Takabatake, Japan Y Onuki, JapanJ L Tholence, France S S P Parkin, USAY Tokura, Japan A P Ramirez, USAK Ueda, Japan T M Rice, SwitzerlandD Vollhardt, Germany Z X Shen, USAE F Wassermann, Germany S -C Shin, KoreaM K Wu, Taiwan T Shinjo, JapanD Y Xing, China J C Slonczewski, USAY D Yao, Taiwan H Szymczak, PolandF C Zhang, Hong Kong National Organizing Committee E F Wassermann (Chair), DuisburgB Keimer, Stuttgart G Bayreuther, RegensburgJ Litterst, Braunschweig T Bruckel, JulichI Mertig, Halle B Buchner, DresdenG Reiss, Bielefeld R Claessen, WurzburgK Samwer, Gottingen M Farle, DuisburgL Schultz, Dresden M Fahnle, StuttgartF Steglich, Dresden G Guntherodt, AachenD Vollhardt, Augsburg P Grunberg, JulichJ Wecker, Erlangen W Hanke, WurzburgD Weiss, Regensburg B Hillebrands, KaiserslauternR Wiesendanger, Hamburg R Hilzinger, HanauJ Wosnitza, Dresden A Loidl, AugsburgP Wole, Karlsruhe A Kasten, RheinstettenH Zabel, Bochum Program Committee A Loidl, Germany (Chair)D Kaczorowski, Poland Ching-Ray Chang, TaiwanI Mertig, Germany M A Continentino, BrazilH Mikeska, Germany D E Dahlberg, USAD Vollhardt, Germany D Givord, FranceE F Wassermann, Germany G Guntherodt, Germany

This issue forms part I of the Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Low Temperature Physics (LT25) (Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 67–13 August 2008). The majority of the special invited lectures, such as the London prize lectures, the international union of pure and applied physics (IUPAP) young scientist award lectures, the plenary, half-plenary and public lectures, and the historical lectures presented at the LT25 conference, are included. The papers relating to the oral and poster presentations will appear in part II of the proceedings in a dedicated open access issue of Journal of Physics: Conference Series (2009 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 150). In addition to the organizer's report and a summary of the new developments in low temperature physics, which can also be found in this issue, part II provides useful information about LT25, such as an overview of committees, sponsors, exhibitors, and some conference statistics. To ensure the high publication standard mandated by Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter and Journal of Physics: Conference Series every paper was reviewed by at least one referee before it was accepted for publication. The editors are indebted to many colleagues for invaluable assistance in the preparation and review of 900 papers appearing in both parts I and II of these proceedings. In particular, we would like to thank Carlo Beenakker, Jeroen van den Brink, Hans Brom, Jos de Jongh, Horst Rogalla, Fons de Waele, and Jan Zaanen.

This Issue of Journal of Physics: Conference Series forms Part II of the Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Low Temperature Physics (LT25) held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 6–13 August 2008. Part II contains the papers of short oral and poster presentations. In addition, it provides general information about the LT25 conference, such as a Report from the Organizers, an Activity Report to the IUPAP of the C5 Chairs, an overview of Committees, Sponsors and Exhibitors, and some Conference Statistics. Part I of the Proceedings of LT25 is a special issue of Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter. It contains the majority of the special invited lectures, such as the London Prize Lectures, the IUPAP Young Scientist Award Lectures, the Plenary and Half Plenary and Public Lectures, and the Historical Lectures presented at the conference excursion to Leiden. The JPCM LT25 special issue is available for free for a period of one year from publication (Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter). To ensure the high publication standard mandated by Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter and Journal of Physics: Conference Series, every paper was reviewed by at least one referee before it was accepted for publication. The Editors are indebted to many colleagues for invaluable assistance in the preparation and with the reviewing of the 900 papers appearing in Parts I and II of these Proceedings. In particular, we like to thank Carlo Beenakker, Jeroen van den Brink, Hans Brom, Jos de Jongh, Horst Rogalla, and Fons de Waele. Guest Editors Peter Kes and Reijer Jochemsen Leiden University, The Netherlands

In May 1993 the first in a series of Euroconferences organized within the Human Capital and Mobility programme of the Commission of the European Communities (CEC) was arranged at Studsvik, Sweden, by the Studsvik Neutron Research Laboratory (NFL). According to the CEC objectives, a Euroconference should be a meeting at the cutting edge of scientific or technical knowledge and it should give young and promising European researchers, through their active participation in such a meeting, the possibility to benefit from contacts with high level scientists. In order to achieve this goal the international organizing committee, consisting of Prof. U. Dahlborg (chairman, NFL and Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm), Prof. R. Scherm (Braunschweig and Grenoble), Dr. H. Gamari-Seale (Athens), Prof. M. Fontana (Parma), Prof. M. M. R. R. Costa (Coimbra), Dr. F. J. Bermejo (Madrid), and Dr. M. Dahlborg (secretary, Stockholm and Nancy), decided that the first Euroconference at Studsvik should not be too large but that the intimate character of the meeting was more important. Thus, the maximum number of participants was set at about 70. Out of these, the participation of 22 young researchers, the majority of them were coming from less-favored regions in Europe, was completely financed by the CEC but the conference was also co-sponsored by the Swedish Natural Research Council. It was considered by the committee to be a very important task of the Euroconference to show the young scientists, some of whom did not have any experience in the use of the neutron scattering technique, what they may achieve by adding the technique to their research arsenal. The subject for this first Euroconference was chosen to be Neutrons in Surface Science and at Interfaces. The five day meeting was divided in two parts. The first two days were of school-type intended to give the young participants a firm background in the theory and the experimental technique, as well as to demonstrate the applicability of the neutron scattering technique to different scientific research problems. To this end the invited scientists, Prof. S . Dietrich (Wuppertal), Prof. P. Mangin (Nancy), Dr. R. Richardson (Bristol), Dr. R. K. Thomas (Oxford) and Prof. J. W. White (Canberra) gave reviews of different fields of surface science while Dr. J. Penfold (Rutherford) was covering the experimental techniques used in neutron reflectometry. During the remaining three days a regular international conference with invited and contributed lectures by senior and young scientists was arranged. Invited lecturers to the conference were Dr. J. J. Benattar (Saclay), Dr. J. M. Gay (Marseille), Prof. F. Mezei (Berlin) and Prof. D. Richter (Julich). Professor Clifford G. Shull, who the day before the Euroconference started received the well renowned Aminoff prize from the Royal Academy of Sciences in Stockholm for his outstanding contribution to the development of neutron diffraction, was specially invited to visit Studsvik during the conference where he also gave his much appreciated academy lecture. Two satellite meetings were arranged in connection with the Euroconference, one, a course organized within the Graduate School Programme in Materials Science at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, by Prof. U. Dahlborg, on Thermal Neutrons in Applied Sciences and Material Technology and the other the annual Neutron Scattering Days at NFL, this year devoted to The Use of Neutrons for Studies of Residual Stress and arranged by Prof. K. Skold (Studsvik). To both these meetings well renowned international experts, Prof. M. Schlenker (Grenoble), Dr. R. McGreevy (Studsvik), Dr. R. Illic (Ljubljana), Prof. T. Eriksen (Stockholm) and Dr. T. Holden (Chalk River) were invited. Hopefully, the proceedings of the Euroconference are giving a flavor of the quality of the contributions. However, the collection of contributed papers does not illustrate all the activity at the Euroconference. In addition every young scientist was presenting a poster on his or her research and, as mentioned above, there were a large number of invited talks as well as some oral contributions. The vivid discussions both during the school and the conference as well as the stimulating atmosphere created by all the participants, young and less young, are not revealed in the proceedings but are nevertheless remembered with pleasure.

2nd edition. By W. I. B. Beveridge. (London : W. Heinemann, Ltd.). Pp. 166. Price 10s. 6d. Though this book is written by an eminent biologist, no excuse is necessary for bringing it to the attention of physicists; the principles with which Prof. Beveridge is concerned are common to all branches of science. In the preface he seems to imply that he is writing mainly for the benefit of the young scientist who is a beginner in research, but the book will be enjoyed by research workers and scientists of all ages.

Herbert F York Reading: WH Freeman 1976 pp 115 price £4.20 President Harry S Truman decided to go ahead with the development of the hydrogen bomb as an addition to the US atomic armoury in 1950. Herbert York, a young scientist in the atomic weapons programme at the time, but innocent of the deliberations going on behind closed doors, takes a retrospective look at how that decision was taken.

William J Kaufmann III 1980 Oxford: W H Freeman x + 221 pp price £4.60 Bill Kaufmann is a talented expositor of astronomical subtleties, and in itself this book is an excellent introduction for an intelligent general reader or young scientist to the nature of the universe. Curiously, though, no mention is made on the jacket or within the book of the fact that much of the material is culled – some verbatim, some paraphrased – from the author's other recent books, including Stars and Nebulas and Galaxies and Quasars (both also published by Freeman) and The Cosmic Frontiers of General Relativity (Little, Brown and Co).