6th Liquid Matter Conference

Abstract

This special issue of Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter contains the Proceedings of the 6th Liquid Matter Conference held in Utrecht, The Netherlands, 2–6 July 2005.The three-yearly Liquid Matter Conference is organized by the Liquids Section of the Condensed Matter Division of the European Physical Society. This series of meetings began in Lyon in 1990. The most recent meeting was held in 2003 in Konstanz. The aim of the Liquid Matter Conferences is to bring together scientists working on the liquid state of matter. This rapidly growing field includes the physics, chemistry, biology and chemical engineering of liquid matter as well as various applied research areas. In fact, the Utrecht meeting had, for the first time, a special session devoted to Fundamental Challenges in Applied Liquid Physics and Microfluidics.The Utrecht meeting had 760 registered participants from four continents. An important event at this meeting was the award of the First Liquid Matter Prize of the European Physical Society to Professor Jean-Pierre Hansen FRS, of Cambridge University. In addition to a plenary speech by the recipient of the Liquid Matter Prize, the scientific programme consisted of 10 plenary lectures, 117 symposia talks, 25 of which were keynote lectures and some 650 poster contributions. The meeting also hosted a one-day symposium of the Division of Liquids and Interfaces of the Chemical Sciences division of NWO. This special issue of Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter contains 61 of the oral communications.Liquid state physics is at the interface of many fields of research. As a consequence, many of the attendants come from adjacent fields and find in the Liquid Matter Conference a forum to meet experts from other areas of research. This aspect of the Liquid Matter Conference makes it an exciting meeting as it not only offers the participants an up-to-date picture of the status of research into the liquid state of matter, but it also allows them to establish new (and often unexpected) trans-disciplinary contacts for joint scientific endeavours. This applies in particular to the area of soft condensed matter such as colloidal suspensions, polymeric systems and biological materials. The conference was held at the Uithof, the campus of the University of Utrecht.The organizers gratefully acknowledge the generosity of the University and City of Utrecht, which enabled us to stage both the scientific part of the conference and several festive and cultural events in some of the most attractive venues of the Netherlands.We were also delighted by the substantial contributions offered by the sponsors of the 6th Liquid Matter Conference. With this support it became possible to support a large number of scientists who would otherwise not have been able to attend.Finally, we owe a great debt of gratitude to the secretarial staff of the conference and the many students, postdocs and other colleagues who helped tirelessly (and very efficiently) to make the conference run smoothly.The Board of the Liquids Section of the European Physical Society decided that the 7th Liquid Matter Conference will be held in Lund (Sweden). The tentative dates are Friday 27 June 2008 to Tuesday 1 July 2008.