Enschede, The Netherlands

Report the Meeting of the

IUVSTA-Surface Science Divisional Committee

on Wednesday 17 September 1997 at 16:45-19:00

at the ECOSS conference site

1) IUVSTA Workshops: The workshop on "Dynamical phenomena related to electrons at surfaces", to be held in 2000 in Japan in the next triennium was again endorsed. The intention to hold a workshop on "Nano tribology" was supported. Possible organisers are J. Frenken (NL) and B. Persson (FRG). It should be considered to have the workshop in a location accessible to participants from less favored countries.

The report on the IUVSTA workshop nr 16 on "Outgassing Phenomena", held in Sweden, April 1997 was received with interest. The preparations of the 18th IUVSTA workshop on "Diffusion and growth in ultra thin surface films" to be held in Australia, November 1997 were reported to come along well.

The 19th IUVSTA workshop on "Surface chemistry on the nanoscopic scale", The Netherlands, September, 1997 was reported to have been very successful. Reports on these workshops can be found at the IUVSTA-WWW site.

2) IUVSTA Sponsorship was granted to ISASST-3, provided formal permission from the Secretary-General will be obtained. This concerns the 3rd International School on the Applications of Surface Science Techniques, to be held in Erice, Italy in the period 4-10 April 1998.

It was noted that Surface Science related schools supported by the European Union are also eligible to IUVSTA sponsorship.

It was again pointed out that SSDC members should actively try to interest more meetings in IUVSTA sponsorship.

3) Prof. Poelsema gave a preliminary report of ECOSS17. A final report will be made available at the WWW. Prof. Poelsema was congratulated with a very nice ECOSS17. It was noted that only limited support for scientists from Eastern Europe was available. The number of abstracts from those countries had sharply declined.

4) The status of the ICSS-10 at Birmingham can be found in the first announcement that has been sent out, and at the site:  http://www.iop.org/IOP/Confs/IVC/. It was remarked that the abstract selection meeting at 28 and 29 March 1998 is very early for a meeting in September, especially since the abstracts will be available electronically to the International Programme Committee. A later date and a later deadline for submission is strongly favored. However, the schedule seems to be fixed.

It was noted with interest to propose to the ICSS-organisers to have a tutorial course on: Surface science and biology, to facilitate surface scientists to take notice of new oportunities arising in this interdisciplinary field. Possible topics could include: nanostructures for biology, self assembled monolayers, membranes, protein and peptide adsorption.

5) The next SSDC meeting will be held at ECM80, the venue of which remains to be decided, provided a reasonable agenda and attendance can be expected. It might be useful to combine this meeting with the abstract selection of ICSS-10.

--- Aart W. Kleyn, chair SSDC