Preface

Abstract

This is the first proceedings for a CMMP Conference, and we are delighted that nearly 60 papers are presented in this volume. CMMP10 was itself a very successful conference, with 422 participants and over 300 papers spread over 23 symposia. Over the years, this conference has had its up and downs, starting off life as the Manchester Solid State Physics Conference, held annually at the beginning of January. Having been held for many years during the Easter holidays, it is now held in the week before Christmas, which seems to suit most people, and the CMMP conference is once more on an upward slope. A special effort was made this year to include symposia on 'Biological Physics', 'Soft Matter in Action', and 'Polymer Physics', and one of the highlights of the conference was the Mott lecture presented by Professor Athene Donald, on 'Self assembly of proteins'. Biological and soft matter physics is well represented in this volume, with 9 papers, and we hope that it will continue to play a large part in future CMMP conferences.Many people contributed to the success of the conference, and the organisers would especially like to thank the team from the Institute of Physics Conference Office, led by Claire Garland. The local organisers and conference office from the University of Warwick did a splendid job, and we all enjoyed an excellent conference atmosphere, culminating in the conference buffet on the Wednesday evening. A huge amount of work falls on the symposium organisers, who choose the invited speakers (32 this year), and put together the oral and poster sessions. They were, on the whole, very patient and put up with the nagging of the conference secretary and chairman.This year there were 7 plenary lectures – always the mainstay of the conference. As well as the annual Mott lecture, the Wohlfarth Memorial lecture – sponsored by the Magnetism Group – is presented at the CMMP conference. This year the Wohlfarth lecture was given by Guido Meier, from the University of Hamburg, with the title 'Imaging magnetization dynamics on its intrinsic time scale'. The opening plenary lecture of the conference was given by Marshall Stoneham, on 'Where quantum physics meets biology', presented with his usual panache. Marshall, who had been President of the Institute of Physics since 1 October 2010, stayed for the whole conference, and participated with enthusiasm, interacting with young physicists and the older members of the community alike. It was with great sadness and almost disbelief that we learned of his death on 18 February 2011. We will all miss him, and these proceedings are dedicated to his memory.John Inglesfield Marshall Stoneham, FRS 18 May 1940 – 18 February 2011 Photograph by Philip Wade Conference Chairman Peter Weightman Physics Department University of LiverpoolConference Secretary and Proceedings Editor John E Inglesfield School of Physics and Astronomy Cardiff UniversityConference Sponsors We would like to thank the following sponsors of CMMP10: AWE, EPSRC, IOP Publishing.