BACKGROUND TO ICSOS-9

Nature of Conference

 

  The ICSOS meetings provide forums to assess the status of atomic-scale structure determination for surfaces, interfaces and nanostructures, and the relationships between such structure and physical and chemical properties. Topics include bonding geometries of adsorbates, surface relaxation and reconstruction; their roles in determining electronic, vibrational and dynamic properties; applications to phase transitions, disordering, defect formation, crystal growth, interface diffusion, segregation and chemical reactivity. The meetings also serve to highlight the development of new and advanced experimental techniques for structure determination, and of sophisticated theoretical methods for modeling surface, interface and nanostructure.
   
  These meetings have been held every three years. Previous conferences in this series took place as follows: ICSOS-1 Berkeley, USA (1984); ICSOS-2 – Amsterdam, The Netherlands (1987); ICSOS-3 – Milwaukee, USA (1990); ICSOS-4 – Shanghai, China (1993); ICSOS-5 – Aix-en-Provence, France (1996); ICSOS-6 – Vancouver, Canada (1999); ICSOS-7 – Newcastle, Australia (2002); ICSOS-8 – Munich, Germany (2005). The commitment has been to rotate the conference sites as far as possible in the order Europe, America, Asia. Each ICSOS meeting so far appears to have provided the most complete forum in its time where important challenges in surface and interface structure have been assessed with different approaches, and from which wider-ranging applications have been stimulated. Members of the various Organizing Committees for ICSOS-9 (see below) believe that these meetings continue to have a very significant role, particularly given that this area of activity undergoes rapid developments with regard to both new methods and ranges of application, for example with the growth of nanoscience and nanotechnology.
   
  The tone of each meeting is set by the choice of focus topics and invited speakers (approach discussed below). High standards are maintained throughout by selecting other papers for presentation from the abstracts submitted.
   
  ICSOS-9 will continue to award the Structure of Surfaces Prize (for outstanding achievement in the field of surface and interface structure) and the ICSOS Young Scientist Prize (for a current or recent Ph.D student in surface and interface structure). The winners of these prizes will be invited to give lectures at the meeting.
 

 

International Character

 

  The officials who will be responsible for ensuring that the host country fulfills the obligation that the meeting be open to all scientists regardless of nationality or citizenship are Prof. Joost Frenken, Steering Committee Chair (Leiden University, The Netherlands), Dr. C de Castilho, Chair (Federal University of Bahia, Brazil), Dr. Vagner E. de Carvalho, Vice-Chair (Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil). Participants from all IUPAP countries will be welcome. No problems are expected on these issues, from past experience.
   
  The ICSOS meetings have two international committees to advise on the scientific program, as well as a Local Organizing Committee. These committees are listed in the Appendix. The first of these committees takes the long-term view, its members being elected for a term of three conferences (normally 9 years). The International Steering Committee proposes names for invited speakers and topics, and it has power to ensure that each meeting is most appropriately structured and disseminates knowledge on the structure of surfaces and interfaces to the international community. The International Advisory Committee is selected anew after each conference (normally every 3 years), and it provides a wider-based input to the Steering Committee on such issues as choice of speakers and topics.
   
  The ICSOS meetings have always been international; for ICSOS-9 it is anticipated that over 70% of the participants will be from countries other than Brazil, most of them visitors to South America.