Announcements
Please check for current updates
Last update - July 13, 2008

• XIII Training Course in the Physics of Strongly Correlated Systems [The application deadline is very short: July 18, 2008] July 10, 2008 (A47)
• Program of the 5th FLUXONICS RSFQ Design Workshop June 19, 2008 (A46)
• ULT 2008 “Frontiers of Low Temperature Physics” to Be Held in London June 5, 2008 (A45)
• CRYOCONFERENCE 2008 for Young Researchers June 4, 2008 (A44)
• Anniversary of Superconductor Science & Technology June 3, 2008 (A43)
• EMSA 2008 Detailed Program Available May 23, 2008 (A42)
• Special Issue of IEICE Transactions on Electronics on Recent Progress in Superconductive Digital Electronics Appeared March 8th, 2008 (A41)
• Proceedings of the XIII Polish National School of Superconductivity
  May 8th, 2008 (A40)
• European Summer School on Superconductivity 2008 April 23, 2008 (A39)
• The 5th FLUXONICS RSFQ Design Workshop to be Held April 18, 2008 (A38)
• Principality of Monaco ITER Postdoctoral Fellowships (Applications Deadline  is April 30, 2008) March 29, 2008 (A37)
• Lectures on Superconductivity Available Online March 29, 2008 (A36)
• The BIOMAG 2008 Conference Abstract Deadline Extended to April 3rd March 24, 2008 (A35)
• Proceedings of EUCAS 2007 Papers Accessible Online March 20, 2008 (A34)
• WOLTE-8, International Workshop on Low-Temperature Electronics (Call for abstracts extended to March 21, 2008) March 10, 2007 (A33)
• Highlights of New Journal of Physics March 3, 2008 (A32)
• Free Access to Selected 2008 Superconductor Science and Technology Articles February 15, 2007 (A30)
• Superconductivity at EPS - CMD22 in Rome, Italy January 31, 2008 (A28)
• The BIOMAG 2008 Conference to Be Held in Sapporo Japan January 19, 2008 (A27) 
• Special Issue of IEICE Transactions on Electronics on Recent Progress in Superconductive Digital Electronics January 3, 2008 (A25)
• New EU Seventh Framework “S-PULSE” December 21, 2007 (A24)
• European Summer School on Superconductivity 2008 December 3, 2007 (A22)
• WOLTE-8, International Workshop on Low-Temperature Electronics December 3, 2007 (A21)
• INTERMAG 2008 to be Held in Madrid November 21, 2007 (A20)
• International Nanophysics Conference to Be Held in Dubna November 21, 2007 (A19)
• The 25th International Conference on Low Temperature Physics to Be Held in Amsterdam, Holland November 20, 2007 (A17).
• Cool Topics at the First KIT Summer School on Materials and Applications of Superconductivity in Karlsruhe July 27, 2007 (A12)
• Russian Bulletin on Superconductors in Electric Power Industry May 28. 2007 (A7)
• Reorganization of Some French Laboratories Active in Superconductivity April 30, 2007 (A4)
• New Profile of IPTH-Jena April 18, 2007 (A3)
• European Superconductivity News Forum– Results of the Poll March 17, 2007 (A1)

top

XIII Training Course in the Physics of Strongly Correlated Systems

July 10, 2008 (A47).  The XIII Training Course in the Physics of Strongly Correlated Systems will be held at Vietri sul Mare (Salerno), Italy, from 6th to 17th October 2008.  Below we reproduce the content of the first circular.  The poster publicizing this course can be found here.  The application deadline is very short: July 18th, 2008.  Application form and all the logistic information are available at: http://scs.physics.unisa.it/TCXIII,

Experimental and theoretical research in the physics of strongly correlated systems has been growing rapidly in the last few years.  The complexity of the problem of correlations makes the field intrinsically interdisciplinary, requiring an international coordination for the achievement of reliable results. The training course, which is aimed at graduate and postdoc researchers, will offer the possibility to meet, in one setting, various experts from different physics areas relevant to the investigation of strongly correlated systems. The training course intends to promote the research in the field of highly correlated systems by bringing together senior experienced researchers and young researchers.

The course will be opened to a limited number (around 30) of young (aged under 35) researchers. The registration fee, which includes one copy of the Proceedings and cannot be waived, will be €350. The room and board expenses (full-board accommodation) will be on the order of €1100. A significant number of grants to cover either partially or totally these expenses will be assigned, upon request, to accepted participants. A limited number of participants (around 10) will have the opportunity to deliver a seminar and contribute to the Proceedings.

The young researchers will benefit from training in scientific techniques and various methodologies under the guidance of 4 highly qualified senior researchers:

Professor Gabriel Aeppli
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University College London
London
United Kingdom

Professor Peter Littlewood
Department of Physics
University of Cambridge
Cambridge
United Kingdom

Professor Kazumi Maki
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA
USA

Professor Matthias Troyer
ETH Zürich
Institut f. Theoretische Physik
Zürich
Switzerland

TOPICS:

• Professor Gabriel Aeppli [13-17 October 2008]: Collective quantum effects in simple insulators;
• Professor Peter Littlewood [13-17 October 2008]: Novel quantum condensates in excitonic matter;
• Professor Kazumi Maki [6-10 October 2008]: BCS theory of Nodal superconductors;
• Professor Matthias Troyer [6-10 October 2008]: Quantum Monte Carlo methods.

A detailed bibliography related to the topics of the Training Course will be sent with the second circular. This is to favor a background preparation for further discussion and operative research activity.

LOGISTIC:
The course is organized not as usual workshops or schools, where formal lectures are delivered and no real contact develops between lecturers and audience. The idea is to put together for two weeks senior and young researchers in a close and informal atmosphere. The aim of the course is training. The duration of the course is two weeks,  with two senior researchers per week. In the morning, each senior researcher will deliver a lecture. The afternoon sessions are devoted to training and effort will be put on introducing young researchers to some specific problems and to guide them. The participants will be encouraged to present their own activity. Seminars on specific topics will be organized. The aim is to help young researchers to become more familiar with different approaches and to start new collaborations.

SCHEDULE:
(i) Morning session from 9.00 to 13.30, with two lectures (two hours
each) by the two speakers;
(ii) Afternoon session from 15.00 to 18.00, devoted to training (one hour for students' seminars, two hours for lecturers' training session).

VENUE:
Vietri (from Veteri, its ancient Roman name) sul Mare (on sea) is located within walking distance from Salerno and marks the beginning of the Amalfi Coast. It is situated five minutes by car from Salerno, one hour from the Naples Airport and three hours from the Rome Airport.  Short rides take to Positano, Sorrento, Herculaneum, Pompei, Paestum, Vesuvius or, by boat, to the islands of Capri, Ischia, Procida.

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE:
A. Avella, F. Mancini, M. Marinaro

SPONSORS:
Università degli Studi di Salerno, IIASS.

For further information please contact:

Dr. Adolfo Avella
Dipartimento di Fisica "E.R. Caianiello"
Università degli Studi di Salerno
Via S. Allende
I-84081 Baronissi (SA)
Italy

Tel. +39 089 965418
Fax: +39 089 965275
E-mail: avella@physics.unisa.it
Web page: http://www.physics.unisa.it/Homepage.asp?avella

Program of the 5th FLUXONICS RSFQ Design Workshop

ULT 2008 “Frontiers of Low Temperature Physics” to Be Held in London

June 5, 2008 (A45).  We announce belatedly the conference “Frontiers of Low Temperature Physics” (ULT 2008) which will be held at Royal Holloway, University of London, August 14 to 17th, 2008, immediately following the LT-25 Conference (see A17). 

The aim of ULT 2008 is to discuss new physics in condensed matter systems at temperatures below 1K, to identify new research directions, and to discuss technical challenges and innovations.  Conference workshops include:

• Cold nano and micromechanics (organisers: J Parpia, J Owers-Bradley, A Armour)
• Current problems in Quantum Turbulence (organisers: J Vinen, M Tsubota, A Golov)
• Impact of cryogen-free revolution (organiser: H Godfrin)
  Supersolid 4He (organisers: J Beamish and K Shirahama)
• Cosmology and Condensed Matter (organisers:R Haley, G Volovik, and R Schuetzhold)
• Quantum Matter (organisers: A Huxley, A Mackenzie, S Julian)
• Nanoscience; the ultra-low temperature frontier (organisers: T Oosterkamp, D.Zumbuhl, A Sachrajda)

For program and registration details go to www.ULT2008.org.

The deadline for abstracts is June 29th, 2008; abstracts for posters can be submitted until July 31st, 2008.  The extended early registration deadline is June 29th, 2008.

CRYOCONFERENCE 2008 for Young Researchers
 
June 4, 2008 (A44).  The Cryoconference 2006 for young researchers is being organized within the Series of Conferences and Training Courses "Marie Curie Advanced Cryogenics Course" (CRYOCOURSE) 

The aim of this conference is to allow excellent young researchers and engineers active in Cryogenics and Low Temperature Physics to present and discuss (with their peers and a few senior scientists) their most relevant results. Participants (around 60 of them) will gather in the summer residence of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, located in a pleasant resort outside Madrid (Miraflores de la Sierra) from 8 to13 September, 2008.

Scientists on hand will chair the sessions, foster discussions, and offer advice to the young speakers in view of their future career.  Chairs of the Cryoconference are S. Vieira and H. Suderow, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.  The Conference secretary can be reached at: youseli.gonzalez@uam.es.

All costs (including travel) can be covered for those participants meeting the eligibility criteria of Marie Curie Training events. Reduced fees, covering full board (although no travel) will be made available to those not eligible.

More information can be found at: http://www.uam.es/gruposinv/cryo_08/.

European Coordinator: H. Godfrin, henri.godfrin@grenoble.cnrs.fr

Anniversary of Superconductor Science & Technology
June 3, 2008 (A43).  The Institute of Physics (UK) journal Superconductor Science & Technology celebrates its 20th anniversary by making all the online content in the journal (including archival issues) FREE to read for all of June 2008.  The access address is: http://herald.iop.org/SUST/m61/anf/132364/link/1662.

EMSA 2008 Detailed Program Available

May 23, 2008 (A42).  The detailed program of the 8th European Magnetic Sensors & Actuators Conference (EMSA 2008) is now available online: www.emsa2008.org .
You can also register directly online, and benefit from the ealy bird rates, available until June, 1st, 2008.

EMSA 08 will be held in Caen, France, from June 30th till July, 2nd  2008 ,at the University of Caen, Campus 2.  More information is available on the conference website: www.emsa2008.org.

This Conference topics are:

• Magnetic materials for sensors and actuators including new 
• materials, materials development, new phenomena...
• Magnetic sensors including flux gate sensors, Hall and 
• semiconducting sensors, magnetoresistive and giant magnetoresistance 
• sensors, magnetoimpedance sensors, magnetoelastic sensors, 
• magnetooptical sensors, SQUIDs and cooled magnetic sensors, hybrid 
• and others...
• C. Magnetic actuators including electromagnetic actuators (C1) : 
• linear and rotating actuators, multidimensional actuators. Also 
• included are non-electromagnetic magnetic actuators (C2) : 
• magnetoelastic actuators, ferromagnetic shape memory alloy based 
• actuators, magneto-rheologic, electromagnetic actuators...
• D. Simulation, design and implementation of magnetic sensors and 
• actuators including theory, computation, modeling, bearings and 
• magnetic suspension, sensor associations, active control interfacing, 
• electronic signal processing, system integration, packaging...
• E. Applications including industrial production, automotive and 
• transport, electronic surveillance and security, biology and medical 
• applications, non destructive testing and evaluation, space 
• applications, geomagnetism.

Special Issue of IEICE Transactions on Electronics on Recent Progress in Superconductive Digital Electronics Appeared March 8th, 2008 (A41).  The “Special Issue of IEICE Transactions on Electronics on Recent Progress in Superconductive Digital Electronics” appeared in vol. E91-C of March 2008.  The list of contents can be found here.  Unfortunately, the IECE Transactions adhere to a rather restrictive policy on access to their issues for non-subscribers, who must purchase the articles of interest or request reprints directly from the authors.  Our News Forum obtained now access to the Special Section, courtesy of its Editor, Dr. Shinya Hasuo.  In our forthcoming Issues 5 and 6, we envisage publishing highlights of this Special Section and of some of invited articles included there.  The Special Section provides a good worldwide overview of the status of the field in early 2007.

Proceedings of the XIII Polish National School of Superconductivity
May 8th, 2008 (A40).  The Proceedings of the XIII Polish National School of Superconductivity, which was held at the Lądek Zdrój resort in early November 2007, will be published in Acta Physica Polonica A, vol. 114 scheduled for July 2008.  The preview of the Contents list can be found here.

European Summer School on Superconductivity 2008

April 23, 2008 (A39).  Organizers of the there European Summer School on Superconductivity 2008 asked us to announce that there are still a few openings available.  Therefore, the deadline for applications is extended until May 10th, 2008.  Please rush: first come, first serve!  The School is to be held in Pori, Finland, on June 11-18th. For more information please look at: http://www.prizztech.fi/sivu.aspx?taso=1&id=249

The 5th FLUXONICS RSFQ Design Workshop to be Held

April 18, 2008 (A38)   The 5th FLUXONICS RSFQ Design Workshop will be held, as usual, at the Ilmenau University of Technology (IUT) in Ilmenau, Germany, from June 29th to July 2nd, 2008.  This 5th Workshop is organized under the auspices of European project “S-Pulse”.  The Workshop is intended for those, who wish to get familiar with the design and simulation of superconducting digital electronic circuits and the development of new related applications.  The first flyer of the Workshop containing the information on registration and tentative general program can be found here.  The event is organized by Dr. Thomas Ortlepp of IUT: Thomas.otlepp@tu-ilmenau.de.

Principality of Monaco ITER Postdoctoral Fellowships (Applications Deadline  is April 30, 2008)

March 29, 2008 (A37).  Within the Partnership Agreement between the ITER Organization and the Principality of Monaco which was signed recently, the Principality will make funding available for a postdoctoral fellowship program. This will allow scientists and engineers who have received their PhD within the last 3 years to conduct research at ITER for periods of up to 2 years. The funding is expected to allow up to 5 postdoctoral positions to be awarded every 2 years.
The current deadline for applications is April 30, 2008.  All necessary information can be found at: http://www.iter.org/monaco-partnership/. 

Lectures on Superconductivity Available Online

March 29, 2008 (A36).  A project to produce video lectures on superconductivity, featuring contributions from leading world experts in academia and industry, was announced in 2002 by the European Network for Superconductivity, SCENET-2.  This project was led by Dr. Bartek Glowacki, University of Cambridge, England, and received financial support from SCENET-2, Pi-Shift and the European Science Foundation.

The production and editing process have been finally completed, and the “Lectures on Superconductivity” are now available free-of-charge online at: http://www.msm.cam.ac.uk/ascg/lectures .  Some technical details on accessibility and formats can found here.

Although the films are available online, this is an on-going project to educate students and to celebrate the centenary of the discovery of superconductivity in 2008.  Dr. Glowacki and his colleagues aim to gradually add supporting text, questions and links to further reading and related videos, for each film.  It is also hoped that present films can eventually be updated, and coverage of some subjects increased, as the opportunity arises.

Contributions of supporting material from the superconductivity community are now being sought (see details here).  Please send your comments and contributions by e-mail to los@msm.cam.ac.uk .

The BIOMAG 2008 Conference Abstract Deadline Extended to April 3rd

Proceedings of EUCAS 2007 Papers Accessible Online

March 20, 2008 (A34).  The invited papers of EUCAS 2007 are now published in the online version of the special issue of Superconductor Science and Technology (SuST), vol. 21, No. 3, March 2008.  At present, these papers are accessible at http://www.iop.org/EJ/toc/0953-2048/21/3 .  The contributed papers appeared in the free online Journal of Physics: Conference Series (JPCS), vol. 97, 2008.  These are accessible at http://www.iop.org/EJ/toc/1742-6596/97/1 .  Selected EUCAS papers were pre-published earlier in this Forum, Issue 3 and Preview of Issue 4.  Note that some papers pre-published here include content not available in the Proceedings version.  This is the consequence of Forum reviewing process, which is independent of JPCS and EUCAS 2007.

WOLTE-8, International Workshop on Low-Temperature Electronics
Call for abstracts extended to March 21, 2008
March 10, 2007 (A33).  The 8th International Workshop on Low-Temperature Electronics, WOLTE-8, will be held in Ilmenau, Germany from June 22 to 25, 2008.  Details can be found in Announcement (A21) and the WOLTE-8 webpage www.wolte8.eu/.  Responding to multiple requests, the deadline for abstracts is now extended until March 21, 2008.

10th Anniversary Highlights of New Journal of Physics

March 3, 2008 (A32).  This year will mark the 10th anniversary of the free-to-read, online journal, New Journal of Physics (NJP) (co-owned by the Institute of Physics and German Physical Society).  To celebrate this milestone, the NJP Editorial Board and publishing staff have compiled a short list of some of their article highlights from right across physics that have been published in the journal since 1998.  To accompany the selection, they put together an exclusive '10th Anniversary Highlights' collection of non-specialist summaries written by the original authors themselves. The full list of selected articles, together with the collection of summaries and a series of interviews with some of the featured authors, can be read at http://herald.iop.org/NJP_10years/m274/crk/132364/link/1351.   Superconductivity-related articles of this selection are:

• Dagotto, E.: “Open questions in CMR manganites, relevance of clustered states and analogies with other compounds including the cuprates
  Frigeri, P. A., Agterberg D. F. and Sigrist,M.: “Spin susceptibility in superconductors without inversion symmetry
• Sekitani, T.; Matsuda, Y. H. and Miura, N.: “Measurement of the upper critical field of optimally-doped YBa₂Cu₃O_7-δ in megagauss magnetic fields”.

Comments on the highlights, the summary collection and on the NJP in general should be directed to Dr. Tim Smith, Publisher, New Journal of Physics, E-mail: njp@iop.org , http://www.njp.org, Tel: +44 (0) 117 930 1204,  Fax: +44 (0)117 920 0948.

Free Access to Selected 2007 Superconductor Science and Technology Articles

February 15, 2008 (A30).  The popular IOP Journal Superconductor Science and Technology (SuST) made accessible free-of-charge a selection of 27 articles published in 2007.  This selection will be freely accessible until 31 December 2008 at http://www.iop.org/EJ/journal/-page=extra.highlights2007/0953-2048 . The subject range extends from theory and materials to electronic and large-scale applications.  These highlights have been chosen by the Editorial Board to represent the quality of research that was published in the journal during 2007.  We list below the two topical review articles selected as highlights:

• Eisterer, M.: “Magnetic properties and critical currents of MgB2”.
• Noe, M. and Steurer, M.: “High-temperature superconductor fault current limiters: concepts, applications, and development status”.

Superconductivity at EPS - CMD22 in Rome, Italy

January 31, 2008 (A28).  The 22nd General Conference of the Condensed Matter Division of the European Physical Society (EPS - CMD22) will be held in Rome, Italy, from August 25th to 29th, 2008.  One of the announced focus sessions will deal with “Superconductivity and Highly-Correlated Systems”.  Full details of the conference, including plenary and invited speakers, are now available at www.cmdconf.org.  The deadline for abstracts is April 1, 2008.

The BIOMAG 2008 Conference to Be Held in Sapporo, Japan Deadline Extended to April 3rd (see A35)

January 19, 2008 (A27)  The 16th International Conference on Biomagnetism, BIOMAG 2008 will be held in Sapporo, Japan, August 25th to 29th, 2008.  Biannual BIOMAG conferences provide a leading international forum bringing together researchers working in diverse fields of biomagnetism, which involves recording and analysis of magnetic fields associated with living systems.  These conferences are also of interest to practitioners of superconductivity, because biomagnetic fields are currently sensed by SQUIDs and SQUID arrays; most of SQUIDs in operation today are in biomagnetic systems.  Disciplines of biomagnetism are utilized to investigate biological and physiological functions, to improve detection and imaging technologies, and to develop clinical applications. The upcoming conference is organized by the Japan Biomagnetism and Biomagnetics Society.  The Conference will be co-chaired by Professors Shinya Kuriki (Sapporo), Shoogo Ueno (Fukuoka, Japan) and Toshiki Yoshimine (Osaka, Japan).

The Conference venue will be Hotel Royton, 11-chome, Kita-1jo Nishi Chuoku, Sapporo City, Japan.  Sapporo is the capital city of Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan. Hokkaido is a very attractive tourist destination, also due to relatively cool and dry summer climate.  The abstract submission deadline is middle of March, 2008.  Detailed information on the conference, registration, paper submission, etc., can be found at http://www.biomag2008.org/index.html. 

Special Issue of IEICE Transactions on Electronics on
Recent Progress in Superconductive Digital Electronics

January 3, 2008 (A25).  The IEICE (Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers) Transactions on Electronics (Japan) announced a forthcoming Special Section on "Recent progress in Superconductive Digital Applications" to be published in Vol.E 91-C, No.3 (March), 2008.

In recent years, the developments in superconductive digital electronics have been making rapid progress. Especially, digital logic circuits based on Single-Flux Quantum (SFQ) circuit technology, a high-speed digital signal processor and switching circuit for router system, which operate at a few tens of GHz have been fabricated. A high-speed interface connecting with the conventional semiconductor circuits necessary for practical application has been also demonstrated.  The purpose of this Special Section is to make these results known to wider range of professionals, and to be helpful in making practical use of these technologies earlier.

Access to the IEICE Transactions can be found at: http://ietele.oxfordjournals.org/.  
The table of contents, abstracts of articles and contact information for the authors are available at no charge at this website.  Non-members of the IEICE, can purchased full text PDF copies of these articles via this website.  

If there are any questions about this Special Section, please contact the Guest Editor, Shinya Hasuo (International Superconductivity Technology Center, e-mail:  hasuo@istec.or.jp ).

New EU Seventh Framework “S-PULSE”

December 21, 2007 (A24).  The European 7th Framework Project “S-PULSE” (Shrink-Path of Ultra-Low Power Superconducting Electronics) will start on January 1st 2008 under the leadership (coordination) of the Institute of Photonic Technology (IPHT) in Jena, Germany. The project consortium includes 15 partners from universities, research institutes and high-tech companies of Germany, France, The Netherlands, Sweden, Great Britain and South Africa.

The focus of the work will be to establish a new electronics family based on
quantum effects in superconductors. The Rapid Single Flux Quantum (RSFQ)
electronics provides an ultra-low power consumption of only 1atojoule per logic operation (10000 times less than a modern transistor) and is therefore a promising future alternatively to today’s CMOS electronics.  The RSFQ is capable to operate at clock frequencies above 100 GHz. The further growth of packaging density in conventional integrated CMOS circuits is already limited by their power density generating a massive thermal heating. The RSFQ electronics provides an interesting perspective for several special applications and should facilitate further progress beyond today’s scaling limits.

The first main target of the project is to disseminate the university knowledge of the RSFQ technique to potentially interested users.  Besides facilitating presentations at scientific conferences, the project S-PULSE aims at the education of researchers and engineers.  Industrial partners will be educated and supported in their long term project planning via special workshops and seminars on circuit design, packaging and example applications of RSFQ solutions.

The second main target is to enhance European competitiveness in
superconducting electronics, and to define and coordinate strategic research and
development activities, in a way similar to the semiconductor roadmap ITRS. New approaches to improving packaging density and device miniaturization down to nanostructures will be analyzed in several research studies.

The project should focus the strategic planning in Europe to keep track of the strong progress in this field, especially in Japan and the US.  Further information will become accessible via the new PULSE webpage of IPHT (of course with links from and to FLUXONICS).

European Summer School on Superconductivity 2008

December 3, 2007 (A22).  The ESAS European Summer School on Superconductivity 2008 will be held in Pori, Finland, from June 11 to 18, 2008.  As the previous summer schools, it is designed for graduate students (Master and PhD level), postdocs and also engineers and scientists, who wish to learn more about superconductivity.  Up to 25 participants will be chosen from applicants.  The School fee will be 100 EUR per person, covering also lunches, evening meals and refreshments.  Travel and lodging expenses will not be covered. 

The School is co-organized by the Prizztech Oy/Magnet Technology Centre (Finland), Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH (FZK, Germany), Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble (INPG, France), Centre National de la Recherche Scienfifique (CNRS, France) and Université Joseph Fourier (UJF, France).  Local organizers will be the Tampere Institute of Technology (TUT), University of Turku (TU), and Prizztech Oy Magnet Technology Centre.  The First Announcement by Prizztech contains more details and can be found here.

WOLTE-8, International Workshop on Low-Temperature Electronics

December 3, 2007 (A21).  The 8th International Workshop on Low-Temperature Electronics, WOLTE-8, will be held in Ilmenau, Germany from June 22 to 25, 2008.  The topical scope of WOLTE-8 includes:
• Semiconductor devices at low
  temperatures
• Cryogenic amplifiers
• Interfacing of superconducting circuitry by
  semiconductor devices
• Digital electronics at low temperatures, both semiconducting and   
  Superconducting (RSFQ)
• Quantum limited detectors and detector readout
• Optoelectronics at low temperatures
• Cryogenic MEMS and NEMS and coupling to electronic readout.
The workshop is organized by the Institute of Photonic Technology (IPHT) of Jena, Germany, under the aegis of the IEEE Electron Devices Society.  The venue will be the Hotel Gabelbach (“Romantik Berg- und Jagdhotel Gebelbach”) in the picturesque mountain forest near Ilmenau.  More details can be found here.  The abstract submission and registration information will be forthcoming shortly at the WOLTE-8 webpage www.wolte8.eu/.  The deadline for abstracts is March 7, 2008.

INTERMAG 2008 to be Held in Madrid

November 21, 2007 (A20).  The  INTERMAG  2008  Conference  will  be  held  in  the  Municipal Conference  Center  of  Madrid,  from  May  4  to  May  8,  2008. All members of the international scientific communities interested in new developments in magnetism and associated technologies are invited to attend.  While this year’s categories do not specifically include superconductivity, the topical are of INTERMAG is related closely enough to be announced in our Forum.  More information can be found here.  At this juncture, nominations for Invited Speakers and Symposia are solicited. 

To nominate, please follow these steps:
1. Go to http: http://intermag.abstractcentral.com/
2. Create an account (or, if you still have one from digest submission for a previous Intermag conference, use that account).
3. On the Submission page, select Invited Speaker and/or Symposium Nomination Center as appropriate.
4. Click the "Create New Submission" link, complete and submit your nomination. In case you have secured co-sponsors for your nomination, please enter their names and email address under "Authors" (step3).

The nomination site for invited speakers will close on December 3, 2008.

International Nanophysics Conference to Be Held in Dubna

November 21, 2007 (A19).  The International conference “Dubna-Nano2008” is organized by the Bogoliubov Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Russia. The conference will be held in Dubna, Moscow Region, from July 7 to July 11, 2008. The conference is devoted to various problems of nanophysics and related applications, with the accent on theoretical aspects. A multidisciplinary character of the conference promotes effective exchange of ideas between different areas of nanophysics.
The covered main topics will be:

• carbon nanosystems
• quantum dots
• electron and spin transport
• spectroscopy and dynamics of atomic clusters
• Josephson junctions
• applications of nanosystems.

More information, registration form, etc., can be found here.

The 25th International Conference on Low Temperature Physics to Be Held in Amsterdam, Holland

November 20, 2007 (A17).  The 25th International Conference on Low Temperature Physics will be held from August 6th to 13th, 2008, at the international conference center in Amsterdam, the RAI.  The year 2008 also marks the 100th anniversary of the liquefaction of helium by Prof. Heike Kamerlingh Onnes.  This milestone in low temperature physics will receive some attention at the Conference, especially during the excursion day in Leiden, Holland, planned for Sunday, August 10th, 2008.

The program will include the following topical areas:

• Quantum Gases, Fluids and Solids
• Superconductivity
• Quantum Phase Transitions and Magnetism
• Electronic Quantum Transport in Condensed Matter
• Cryogenic Techniques and Applications.

The Conference will be hosted by the Leiden Institute of Physics at the Leiden University and chaired by Prof. Peter Kes, Leiden University, Netherlands.  The submission procedures and deadlines will be announced later.  For updates please look at http://www.lt25.nl/ .  (Pre)registration will be possible through that web site soon. If you want to get a reminder please send an email request to lt25@physics.leidenuniv.nl .

Cool Topics at the First KIT Summer School on Materials and Applications of Superconductivity in Karlsruhe

July 27, 2007 (A12) “Really cool” was the answer of a student asked about his impressions of the first KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology*) Summer School on materials and applications of superconductivity, which was held at the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (Research Center Karlsruhe) from 23-27 of July 2007. The organizers were Prof. Mathias Noe from the Institute of Technical Physics at the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe and Prof. Michael Siegel from the Institute of Micro- and Nanoelectronic Systems at the University of Karlsruhe.  The school attracted 25 young students and scientist from Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Finland, Spain, the Netherlands, UK and Germany, who spend one intense week in Karlsruhe.  The program included lectures ranging from physics of superconductivity, over different low- and high-Tc superconducting materials to a variety of interesting applications. “This positive feedback wouldn’t have been possible without the great support of many international experts from research centers, universities and industry, who were lecturing here”, stated Mathias Noe. The ratio of 13 lecturers for 25 students was probably higher than at Harvard and gave students the opportunity to interact intensively with the lecturers. For the years 2008 and 2009 similar schools are foreseen in Finland and France, in 2010 the summer school will be held again in Karlsruhe.

The photo below shows all students and most of the lecturers in front of the (Fusion) Toroidal Field Model Coil at the Institute of Technical Physics, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe.

*KIT is a cooperation of the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe with the University of Karlsruhe.

May 28. 2007 (A7).  Our readers familiar with Russian language might benefit from reading the Bulletin on “Superconductors in Electric Power Industry” http://perst.isssph.kiae.ru/supercond/  published by a dedicated team at the Moscow’s famous Kurchatov’s Institute (see teams group photo below), with collaboration of co-editors from other institutions active in the field. 

This Bulletin enjoys a rapidly growing readership: from April 27th, 2007, it had nearly 9000 online visitors!  The published material is largely based on foreign information sources, but it represents a very useful and interesting compilation.  It also facilitates direct access to these sources.  Simultaneously, the Bulletin provides excellent insight into the pertinent activities in Russia.

Fig. 1: The team publishing the Russian Bulletin “Superconductors in Electric Power Industry”.  Standing from left to right: V.I. Scherbakov (Editor), O. K. Alekseeva, N. K. Morozova, D. I. Shutova, A. a. Nikonov, I. L. Furletova, V. V. Lobyncev and M. P. Smaev (Editor).  Sitting are, left to right: F. A. Shkliaruk, A. K. Tchernysheva, A. A. Veligshanin.

Reorganization of Some French Laboratories Active in Superconductivity

April 30, 2007 (A4).  In France, superconductivity-related research and development activities are in-part conducted in the so-called “mixed laboratories” involving one or more universities (or an industrial organization), and an organizational unit (section) of the French “Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique” (CNRS, the French National Center of Scientific Research).  In these mixed laboratories, the research is conducted jointly, usually on the campus of one of the participating universities.  Examples of such laboratories are listed in the “Guide to European Superconductivity-related Activities”.  Effective January 1, 2007, several of these mixed laboratories have been or are being reorganized.  Consequently, the pertinent entries of that Guide might not be entirely relevant or functional.  Once the reorganization and the construction of corresponding new webpages will be completed, the pertinent CNRS entries to the Guide will be updated accordingly.
            At this juncture, we can already report that in the Grenoble area two major reorganizations took place:

1. CRTBT, Laboratoire de Cristallographie, LLN and LEPES were integrated to form the new Néel Institute: http://neel.cnrs.fr/ , officially inaugurated on the 26th  and 27th of April, 2007.  Of these, the CRTBT and Laboratoire de Cristallographie are still listed in the Guide.  The new website of Néel Institute’s Superconductivity Group is: http://neel.cnrs.fr/spip.php?rubrique65 .
   
2. LEG (listed in the Guide) and LEMD fusioned to form the G2Elab: http://www.leg.ensieg.inpg.fr/G2Elab/ .

At present, the new webpages indicated above are entirely or predominantly in French language.  The official rationale for the reorganization is to increase the visibility of these mixed laboratories. 

New Profile of IPTH-Jena

April 18, 2007 (A3).  At the beginning of 2007, the Institute of Physical High Technology in Jena, Germany, was renamed to become “Institute of Photonic Technology”.  However, it retained the acronym “IPHT”.  The IPHT Department of Quantum Electronics, which since inception was active in superconducting electronics, both analog and digital, assumed a new profile and became the “Department of Quantum Detection”.  The change is related to the continuing shift in funding opportunities (away from superconductivity in the traditional sense) and also the retirement of Prof. Dr. Eckhardt Hoenig, who used to provide leadership in superconductivity- and magnetics-related activities.  The IPHT entry in the “Guide to European Superconductivity-related Activities” was updated accordingly.
Below we reproduce the official announcement of the Department of Quantum Detection:

From Quantum Electronics
to Quantum Detection – a Traditional Department with a New Profile

According to the strategic decision of IPHT Supervisory Board the Institute is going to focus its long-term research and development activities on photonic technologies. In 2006, the Department of Quantum Electronics has developed a concept to make its outstanding technological potential and its scientific experience available to the Institute and to join these new strategic goals. In the framework of this concept, the Department will rearrange its research activities towards the development and application of quantum limited detection systems. In the forthcoming years research and development will concentrate stepwise on quantum radiometry and quantum magnetometers to open up novel and profitable fields of application such as for example Terahertz imaging and spectroscopy, bio-molecule spectrometry, and magnetic field mapping in geophysics and medicine.

The quantum limited detection of radiation is based on the Department’s long standing detector development in radio astronomy. In the next few years, it will be extended to a much wider photonic spectrum ranging from Gamma- and X-rays down to T-rays and radio waves as well. For the extremely sensitive sensors anticipated here, superconducting amplifier technology shall play an important role. Including also optoelectronic sensors, a wide field for research and development is determined, which for example in respect of Terahertz technology is generally considered to have an excellent and promising application potential.

The new field of quantum magnetometry further extends the worldwide accepted experience and the technological leadership of the Department for complex, ultra precise measuring systems for geomagnetic exploration purposes to new areas such as biology and biochemistry. For this purpose, a new group of researchers investigating optically pumped magnetometers will be established. Once these sensors reach a sufficiently high sensitivity they may substitute superconducting quantum interference devices, this way providing a significantly wider application potential for ultra precise magnetometry.

The Department admits its responsibility for the European FLUXONICS Initiative and continues operating the circuit foundry, i.e., continues manufacturing SQUID and large scale integrated superconductive electronic circuits on customer’s request. The development and application of the customary SQUID sensors and the Josephson voltage standard are transferred to Supracon Ltd., the spin-off company of the Department.

European Superconductivity News Forum - Results of the Poll

March 17, 2007 (A1).  In response to the CSC Europe Committee and ESAS poll of February 23rd, 2007, concerning the expected usefulness of the European Superconductivity News Forum project we obtained by March 15th, 2007 the following tally:

Comments:

1. Balances to 100% are blanc votes.
2. Answers “maybe”, “possibly” or “perhaps” were counted as blancs.
3. Respondents, who used the questionnaire posted in Internet, could not differentiate between questions 2 and 3.  An answer “Yes” or “No” was thus applied to both 2 and 3.

Approximately 50% of those asked to participate responded, which represents a statistically valid and highly representative sample.  We extend our sincere thanks to all of you, who participated in the poll.  Clearly, an overwhelming majority sees the need for the News Forum, and very respectable majorities are interested to contribute now or in the future.    Indeed, the Forum can be sustained only if a sufficiently large fraction of the whole European superconductivity community contributes actively.  The overall sample size suggests that this is possible but not necessarily assured, especially that the numbers of those, who wish to contribute (answers to questions 2, 3, 4), are naturally lower than the overall number of respondents.  We’ll thus embark on this Forum project initially on the trial basis.  This European experiment might be discontinued by the end of 2008 if a sufficiently broad interest base and participation will not be attained.  However, we certainly hope that the Forum will meet the expectations of those, who voted “yes” and will prove informative, useful and rewarding.  In this case, the IEEE Council on Superconductivity might attempt to expand this project worldwide.