Soft Magnetic Materials 19 Conference Co-Chairs' Foreword

Abstract

HE 19th “Soft Magnetic Materials” Conference (SMM 19) was held from September 6–9, 2009 in Torino, Italy. The conference was organized by INRIM, the Italian Institute for Research in Metrology, in collaboration with Politecnico di Torino and Universita degli Studi di Torino. The Soft Magnetic Materials Conference, first established in 1973, provides a forum for discussion on properties and applications of soft magnets through a broad range of topics. It is the ideal environment for the presentation of the latest developments in the properties and applications of soft magnetic materials. Torino, the first capital of the unified Italian kingdom, is an important cultural and technological center, renowned for its baroque architecture, universities and research institutions, museums, winter sport facilities, superb wines, and cuisine. The Conference was held in the Torino Incontra Convention Center, centrally located in Torino and surrounded by the major historical and cultural attractions of the city. The conference dinner was held in the historical building of the University Rectorate, close to where notable men of science such as Erasmus of Rotterdam, Friederich Nietzsche, J. L. Lagrange, Amedeo Avogadro, Giuseppe Peano, and Galileo Ferraris, among others, spent part of their life, advancing human knowledge into new unexplored realms of science and philosophy. Despite the widespread global economic downturn, the Conference was quite successful. We received more than 490 abstracts, with 360 accepted for presentation at the Conference. The Conference attracted more than 350 registered delegates from 33 countries, of which nearly 90 delegates were students. This makes SMM 19 the largest SMM conference ever. The large participation and in particular the remarkably high number of students confirm that the area of soft magnetic materials remains vital, with much potential for the future. There were twelve invited talks delivered from participants from university and industry; twenty shorter oral contributions and about 330 posters were presented. This issue of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS contains the conference-related papers that were accepted for publication after careful review carried out according to the usual IEEE standards. On Tuesday, September 8, a special oral session was held that featured the Magnetics Society Distinguished Lecture on spintronics by Hideo Ohno of Tohoku University, Japan, as well as a lecture about philosophical and historical aspects of magnetism presented by Vittorio Marchis, Politecnico di Torino. Both lectures were extremely interesting and very well received. This was a good service to the Magnetics Society, as more than 300 scientists from all over the world could discover and appreciate the value of the Distinguished Lecturer program. During the closing session on Wednesday, September 9, Ryusuke Hasegawa of Metglas presented a most stimulating general overview of the SMM 19 technical program. After the announcement of the three best student presentation awards, it was announced that the next Soft Magnetic Materials conference, SMM 20, will be organized in Athens, Greece, in 2011. Our best wishes to the organizers of SMM 20 for a most successful conference. The success of SMM 19 has been the result of the joint effort and dedication of all the researchers and students of the magnetics research group in Torino, and of the INRIM logistic and administrative support staff. Without their invaluable assistance it would not be possible to host a successful SMM 19 Conference. Our most sincere thanks to all of them.