XIIth International Conference on Small-Angle Scattering

The XIIth International Conference on Small-Angle Scattering (SAS2002) took place in Venice, Italy, on August 25–29, 2002, at the site of the Venice International University Campus on San Servolo Island. More than 300 participants from five different continents attended the conference, reflecting the ever-growing interest of the scientific community in small-angle scattering techniques. It is important to point out that, although the conference took place in Europe, countries like Japan, USA, Brazil and India were well represented at SAS2002. The largest number of European participants came from Germany, Italy, France and the United Kingdom. More than 80 requests for financial contributions, mainly from young scientists, were received by the Organizing Committee, which is proud to have been able to respond positively to all of them, thanks to the contributions offered by a number of funding agencies, national laboratories and instrument manufacturers.

Figure 1 Geographical breakdown of SAS2002 participants.

Figure 2 SAS2002 participants during a break from the meeting.

The conference was opened by two memorial talks in memory of the `father' of small-angle scattering, Professor André Guinier, and of Professor Harry Brumberger, who, among significant scientific contributions, organized the first small-angle scattering conference in 1965. Both have passed away since the XIth International Conference on Small-Angle Scattering, held in Brookhaven (USA) in May 1999.

The scientific program of the conference contained eight plenary lectures on `hot topics'. More than 150 oral presentations and more than 200 posters contributed to the scientific success of the event. The conference was organized in nine different scientific sessions: biology, surfaces and interfaces, complex fluids, polymers, theory, techniques, alloys/ceramics, colloids, and industrial applications, run in parallel throughout the event.

Following the initial idea of the SAS99 Organizing Committee to recognize the achievements in small-angle scattering, the SAS2002 Organizing Committee and the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) Commission on Small-angle Scattering decided to present an IUCr prize, in honour of Professor A. Guinier, for outstanding contributions in the field of small-angle scattering. Furthermore, they also decided to present prizes in honour of other great scientists and contributors to small-angle scattering: Professor O. Kratky, Professor P. W. Schmidt and Professor H. Brumberger. These prizes were reserved for younger scientists (namely those having obtained their PhD degrees within the past six years) attending SAS2002. The scientific impact of the research as well as the quality of the presentation (oral or poster) were considered for the prizes. In particular, the O. Kratky Prize considered development related to instrumentation, the P. W. Schmidt Prize considered development related to evaluation/theory, and the H. Brumberger Prize considered development related to applications of the technique. A. Benedetti, P. Fratzl, J. S. Pedersen, R. Triolo and G. D. Wignall (recipient of the 1999 P. W. Schmidt Award) were selected to be members of the jury. The A. Guinier Prize was awarded to M. Agamalian (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA), the O. Kratky Prize to G. Pabst (Austrian Academy of Science, Graz, Austria), the P. W. Schmidt Prize to B. Goderis (Catholic University of Leuven, Heverlee, Belgium) and the H. Brumberger Prize to D. Pontoni (ESRF, Grenoble, France). The Committee sincerely hope that this initiative can be continued at future conferences.

On August 28, 2002, meetings of the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) and of the Collective Action for Nomadic Small-Angle Scatterers (CanSAS) took place in the morning and in the afternoon, respectively.

A two-day satellite workshop on `Introductory Training in SAXS/WAXS at ELETTRA' was held at the site of the synchrotron ELETTRA (Trieste, Italy) just before SAS2002. The course, organized by H. Amenitsch, S. Bernstorff, M. Kriechbaum, P. Laggner and M. Rappolt, consisted of tutorials on modern time-resolved SAXS/WAXS techniques, practical measurements on a laboratory SWAX camera, and an introduction to the corresponding data treatment procedures on computers. Students from Brazil, USA and several European countries participated.

Manuscripts of the papers contained in this Proceedings issue were submitted during and up to about one month after the conference. More than 150 manuscripts were submitted to the refereeing procedure. Thanks to the precious help of about 300 scientists and researchers (some of them reviewed more than one manuscript) it was possible for the Guest Editors to complete the scientific evaluation by February 2003.

The organizers thank also the Guest Editors for their tireless work in managing the review and in editing the 107 accepted contributions in this special issue of the Journal of Applied Crystallography. Special thanks go to G. Kostorz, the Editor, and P. R. Strickland, the Managing Editor, for their patience and dedication.

During the conference the participants were asked to express their preferences with regard to the next SAS conference and it was decided that the next International Conference on Small-Angle Scattering will be held in Japan in 2006.

Special thanks are expressed to all the members of the Local Organizing Committee, who did their very best to ensure that we enjoyed their wonderful city.

Finally, we would like to thank again all the participants for their scientific contribution, competence and enthusiasm.

Arrivederci in Japan!

2. International Advisory Board

Y. Amemiya, Tokyo, Japan, H. Amenitsch, Graz, Austria, J. D. Barnes, Chevy Chase, USA, S. Bernstorff, Trieste, Italy, S. H. Chen, Cambridge, USA, S. Ciccariello, Padova, Italy, A. F. Craievich, São Paulo, Brazil, A. Eisenberg, Montreal, Canada, P. Fratzl, Leoben, Austria, R. Gehrke, Hamburg, Germany, P. S. Goyal, Bangalore, India, O. Glatter, Graz, Austria, T. Hashimoto, Kyoto, Japan, G. Kostorz, Zürich, Switzerland, J. S. Pedersen, Roskilde, Denmark, J. Penfold, Didcot, UK, H. Reynaers, Leuven, Belgium, D. Richter, Jülich, Germany, C. Riekel, Grenoble, France, T. M. Sabine, Sidney, Australia, D. Schneider, New York, USA, I. Serdyuk, Moscow, Russia, J. M. Squire, London, UK, H. B. Stuhrmann, Grenoble, France, D. Svergun, Hamburg, Germany, J. Teixera, Gif-sur-Yvette, France, P. Thiyagarajan, Argonne, USA, P. A. Timmins, Grenoble, France, I. Torriani, Campinas, Brazil, R. Triolo, Palermo, Italy, V. Trounov, Gatchina, Russia, J. D. White, Canberra, Australia, G. D. Wignall, Oak Ridge, USA, C. E. Williams, Paris, France.

3. Scientific Program Committee

A. Benedetti, Università Ca' Foscari di Venezia, E. Caponetti, Università di Palermo, F. Carsughi, Università di Ancona, A. Deriu, Università di Parma, S. Enzo, Università di Sassari, P. Laggner, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Graz, F. Rustichelli, Università di Ancona, M. Stefanon, Bologna.

5. Local Organizing Committee

P. Canton, Università Ca' Foscari di Venezia, E. Cattaruzza, INFM Venezia, B. Dubini, Università di Ancona, F. Gonella, Università Ca' Foscari di Venezia, R. Frattini, Università Ca' Foscari di Venezia, M. Pergolini, Università di Ancona, S. Polizzi, Università Ca' Foscari di Venezia, F. Spinozzi, Università di Ancona.

6. Sponsors and Exhibitors

Sponsors: Consorzio Interuniversitario Nazionale per la Scienza e Tecnologia dei Materiali, INSTM (http://www.cineca.it/hosted/incm/instm/index.php), ESS – European Spallation Source (http://www.ess-eu.de), Forschngunszentrum Gesthaacht GKSS (http://www.gkss.de), Forschungszentrum Juelich (http://www.fz-juelich.de), Hahn Meitner Institut (http://www.hmi.de), International Union of Crystallography IUCr (http://www.iucr.org), ISIS Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, UK (http://www.isis.rl.ac.uk), Istituto Nazionale per la Fisica della Materia INFM (http://www.infm.it), Laboratoire Leon Brillouin (http://www-llb.cea.fr), Parco Scientifico e Tecnologico VEGA (http://www.vegapark.ve.it), Philips Analytical (http://www.analytical.philips.com), Università Ca' Foscari di Venezia (http://www.unive.it), Università di Palermo (http://www.unipa.it). Exhibitors: Anton Paar (http://www.anton-paar.com), Bruker AXS (http://www.bruker.com), Hecus Braun (http://www.hecus.at), Molecular Metrology (http://www.molmet.com), Osmic (http://www.osmic.com).