SSD Meeting Minutes
21st September 1999
Vienna, Austria

Attendance
K. Wandelt (Germany), M. Szymonski (Poland), F. Solymosi (Hungary), A. Naumovets (Ukraine), J. Kirschener (Germany), M. Sancrotti (Italy), J. Weaver (USA and Chair), P. Varga (Austria), J. Jupille (France) and P. Dastoor (Australia and Minutes Secretary).

1. Opening Agenda
The second meeting of the Surface Science Division (SSD) was opened by John Weaver as co-chair of the Surface Science Division.
Thanks were expressed to P. Varga for the organization of the ECOSS meeting and the SSD meeting arrangements.
The two primary objectives of the SSD for the current triennium were defined to be
1. Identifying and supporting workshops relevant to surface science.
2. Planning of the next International Vacuum Congress (IVC).

2. SSDC Report
5 workshops were proposed and approved for the 1998-2001 triennium. Their status is as follows:
1. Gas-surface interactions, Leibnitz, Austria, 26-29th September 1999, organized by A. Winkler. This workshop was jointly sponsored by the Applied Surface Science Division (ASSD)
2. Surface holography, Hong Kong, Autumn 2000, organized by David Tong. Arrangements are in progress and a programme committee has been formed. This workshop is 100% organized by the SSD.
3. Dynamical phenomena related to electrons at surfaces, Hokkaido, Japan, January 2000, organized by Y. Murata. The arrangements are well underway. This workshop is 100% organized by the SSD.
4. Near surface analysis using ion beam techniques, England, late June/October 2000, organized by D.W. Moon and J. O'Connor. Location and time yet to be finalized. This workshop is jointly organized with ASSD (50% SSD).
5. Gas-surface interactions in CVD. Art Kleyn is helping to organize this workshop, working with Prof. Rebrovof the Thermo Physics Institute in Novosibirsk. A programme committee will be formed shortly.

3 & 4. Division report for ECM 83 and 84
M. Sancrotti represented the SSD chair at the ECM 84 meeting in Cancun, Mexico.
It was reported that 2 workshops had been approved at the ECM 84 meeting. The SSD was being notified of these meetings for information only and there were no support implications for the SSD.
1. Nagoya, Japan, 2000
The workshop will be in the area of electronic materials and processes.
2. Hamburg, Germany, 2000
The workshop will be in the area of spin-resolved nano probes and will be organized by Roland Wiesendanger.

5. Plans for IVC-15 and ICSS-11 (San Francisco, 2001).
The IVC organizing committee had intended to identify an international programme committee (IPC) by the 15th September. Each division was to nominate 3 - 6 members of this committee. These members were to be drawn from a broad technical and geographical background.
The SSD has nominated its entire committee plus 1 co-opted member, making 11 in all. A strong argument was made to the IVC organizing committee that this was necessary on the basis of the significant representation that SSD members will have at the congress. The response so far has been amicable and the request is still being considered.
A preliminary meeting of the divisional chairs of the IPC will occur in Seattle. A meeting to identify topics and invited speakers is planned for Spring 2000, and there will be a meeting in June 2001 to organize the final program after the abstracts are submitted. It is anticipated that not all members of the SSD committee will attend these meetings but will be requested for electronic input.


6. Report on ECOSS-18 (P. Varga).
At the time of the meeting there were 588 attendees at the conference and the number was expected to rise to approximately 630. The delegates were drawn from 43 nations.
15 companies had participated in the conference providing approximately 15% of the conference cost.
The policy of the conference organizing committee regarding financial support was widely praised with financial assistance provided to more than 100 delegates.
This support was provided in one of three ways:
1. Reduced conference fees
2. No conference fees
3. No conference fees plus local accommodation.
The conference budget has balanced and the conference workers will receive payment for their efforts.
To accommodate the contributed papers, ECOSS-18 was expanded to consist of 4 parallel sessions; this may need to be repeated in future years. The possibility of expanding the conference to 5 days was discussed, and it was noted that there was no formal 4 day limit.
280 papers had been submitted for publications out of a total of 750 contributions. The conference organizers were praised for their use of internet abstracting, and it was noted that there was information exchange between past and future ECOSS organizing committees so that innovations in conference organization could be transferred.
The three countries with the largest number of papers and representatives were Germany, Japan, and Austria, demonstrating that the level of commitment from Asia to ECOSS is still high despite the advent of the VASCAA conference series.

7. Future ECOSS meetings (K. Wandelt).
The ECOSS conference series is the responsibility of the ECOSS board which consists of the Surface and Interface Section of the European Physical Society (EPS) plus the European representative of the IUVSTA SSD.
Proposed new locations for ECOSS are:

• ECOSS-19, Madrid, Spain, September 19-23, 2000
• ECOSS-20, Krackow, Poland, 2001.

8. Report on VASSCAA-1
A brief report on the first Vacuum and Surface Sciences Conference of Asia and Australia, held in Tokyo, Japan, was given by J. Weaver, using input provided to him. In many ways, VASSCAA uses the ECOSS model for a regional technical conference on surface science. The fear of losing Asian contribution to ECOSS itself appears to have been unfounded, given the strong support for both conferences in 1999.

9. Other Business
ECM85 will take place in Namur, Belgium while ECM86 will take place in Slovenia in October.
The next SSD meeting is scheduled for Madrid, Spain in September 2000, in conjunction with ECOSS-19.
Decision regarding the SSD meeting in September 2001 will be made at a later date.
The members of the SSD committee of the next triennium will be decided in the summer of 2001.
ECM88 is scheduled to occur in San Francisco at the next IVC meeting and there will be a handover period between the old and new committees.
M. Sancrotti noted a request for endorsement from the SSD for an international workshop on Auger and electron spectroscopy. It was noted that an endorsement required no financial support whereas a sponsorship involved financial support from IUVSTA. It was agreed to endorse the workshop.

There being no other business the meeting was adjourned at 2.15 p.m. (proposer M. Sancrotti, seconded J. Weaver).