IUVSTA NEWS BULLETIN
No. 155, January - June 2004

The French Vacuum Society (SFV) hosted ECM-94 in the Beaujolais region, north of Lyon, on February 13-15, 2004. Although February skies tend to be gray and low, the spirits were lifted by the surroundings and, the meeting facilities were excellent. The large meeting room sported large, and old, wine presses. Everything went smoothly, including shuttles to and from the airport and TGV station. Poor Bernard, from the SFV office, hardly had time to eat as he drove back and forth! Thanks for all the detailed arrangements are due to Alain Roche. Several of the attendees went on to the Program Committee meeting for IVC-16/ICSS-12/NANO-8 in Genova on the following day.

ECM-95 will be hosted by the Italian Vacuum Society in Trento, June 25-27, the weekend before the International Vacuum Congress in Venice from June 28 to July 2, 2004. All the conference activities, including the equipment exhibit, will be held in the Cinema Palace on the Lido. The triennial General Meeting and ECM-96 will also be held there. ECM-95 was moved from Venice to Trento to reduce the costs to the attendees. The attendees will be transferred from Trento to Venice on the Sunday afternoon, in time for the Congress.

In preparation for the General Meeting and the next triennium, the Presidents of all member societies were invited to make nominations for President-Elect,. Jean-Jacques Pireaux was nominated by the Belgian Vacuum Society and Bill Rogers by the American Vacuum Society, with official support from Hungary and Italy. After presentations by both candidates during ECM-94, the Council voted to submit Bill Rogers to the General meeting for approval. He would then serve as IUVSTA President for the 2007-2010 triennium. Ugo Valbusa will be President for the 2004-2007 triennium.

The society Presidents also nominated their Delegates to the General Meeting, and Councillors, Alternate Councillors and Electoral College members for the next triennium. Massimo Sancrotti, the Scientific and Technical Director, then organizes votes by each of the eight Divisional Electoral Colleges to select a Committee, and a Chair, for each Division.
The change in name of the Vacuum Metallurgy Division to Surface Engineering Division had been approved at ECM-93. In the few months prior to ECM-94, the Vacuum Science Division's Electoral College voted to change the name to the Vacuum Science and Technology Division, and this was approved by ECM-94, along with the Division's revised statutes.

Another important activity at ECM-94 was to review bids to host the 2010 International Vacuum Congress (IVC-18). Excellent bids were received from the Chinese and Korean Vacuum Societies to hold the IVC in Beijing and Daegu, respectively. The "winner" will be selected at ECM-95 in Trento, after both societies provide additional information requested by the Congress Planning Committee.

The deadline for applications for the 2005 Welch Scholarship was April 15, 2004. The Scholarship of US$15,000 is intended to provide partial support for a post-doctoral fellow to carry out research for one year in a foreign laboratory. The scholarship is intended to provide base funding for the study period, and levering additional funds from the institution where the research will be carried out. Lars Hultman, a former Scholar and now the Councillor for Sweden, feels that it is an excellent means of encouraging study abroad.
If you know of someone to whom this applies, check the IUVSTA web site for detailed information on how to apply.

IUVSTA receives information from a number of organizations throughout the year, including UNESCO, the International Council of Science (ICSU) and the International Standards Organization (ISO). More of this information is now being made available on the web. For example, UNESCO's new Natural Sciences Quarterly Newsletter "A World of Science" is available at www.unesco.org/science. ICSU Insight, provides information of direct interest to members of the ICSU family, partner organizations, and the broader scientific community. The ICSU web site is http://www.icsu.org

Bill Westwood.