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The first Asia-Oceania conference on Neutron Scattering held in Tsukuba
8 Dec, 2011
The first Asia-Oceania Conference on Neutron Scattering (AOCNS) was held from November 20 to 24, at the Tsukuba International Congress Center, Tsukuba, Japan. AOCNS was organized by the Japanese Society for Neutron Science (JSNS) and the Asia-Oceania Neutron Scattering Association (AONSA). The conference was established to promote collaboration and exchange of ideas and opinions in the field of neutron science in the Asia-Oceania region. Attending the first AOCNS were more than 500 researchers from over 12 countries/ regions including Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, and Taiwan.
Following opening remarks by Professor Toshiji Kanaya , Chair of the AOCNS organizing committee, Professor John W. White, President of AONSA, Mr. Katsuhiko Hara, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Fumihiko Takasaki, Trustee of KEK, Shoji Nagamiya, Director of J-PARC, and Mr. Chikatsu Mashiko, Ibaraki Prefecture, gave speeches.
At the beginning of the meeting, participants offered a silent prayer for victims of the major earthquake and ensuing tsunami that hit Japan on March 11 this year. Speakers expressed their deep appreciation for the concern, sympathy and encouragement that Japan has received since the earthquake, and Nagamiya reported on the damage and present status of recovery at J-PARC.
Invited speakers from AOCNS members gave presentations on each facility by country/region. Participants took part in 24 sessions that covered the following fields; (1) hard matter, material science, chemistry, (2) soft matter, bio-macromolecules, (3) complementary use of neutrons and other techniques, (4) industrial applications, (5) neutron techniques, (6) fundamental physics and neutron properties, and (7) a facility report.
With more than 400 poster presentations, the poster session was held from Nov. 21 to 23. It was a very dynamic session during which students gave enthusiastic explanations of their research experiments.
Researchers who study neutron scattering and high intensity proton beams expressed their strong desire to see the resumption of J-PARC following the temporary shutdown.
In addition, the JSNS annual meeting was held. The JSNS award ceremony was held on Nov. 22, and the JSNS Award, JSNS Distinguished Award, JSNS Technology Award, and JSNS Award for young scientists celebrated outstanding research. Tetsuya Yokoo of KEK won the JSNS Technology Award, as one of the research group members who have made a major contribution to the “development of a high efficiency inelastic neutron scattering method utilizing the multi energy of incident beams.”
On November 21 and 23, the Global Cooperation sessions were held, and representatives from the major institutes and AONSA gave presentations on research activities. On Nov. 23, Noboru Watanabe, KEK honorary professor, was awarded the AONSA Prize at the prize ceremony, and participants enjoyed his acceptance speech. He is responsible for building the foundation of the current neutron science.
On the final day, representatives from the 24 sessions presented a summary of each session. Following this, the poster prizes were awarded to the 10 best poster presentations from among 120 students. The next AOCNS will be held in Australia in 2015.
