The 19th European Conference on Applications of Surface and Interface Analysis

Abstract

The 19th European Conference on Applications of Surface and Interface Analysis (ECASIA'22) was held at the University of Limerick in the Republic of Ireland from 29 May – 3 June 2022. For many this was the first face-to-face meeting since the end of the COVID 19 Pandemic and for this reason it is perhaps not surprising that numbers were somewhat lower than one would expect to see at an ECASIA Meeting. The Pandemic meant that it was not possible to run the conference in its traditional slot two years after the previous one in Dresden in 2019. However the organisers, Professor Tofail Syed and his team at the University of Limerick, ran a one-day virtual event on 18th June 2021 to ensure that ECASIA remained firmly fixed in people's minds. Bearing in mind the circumstances, the conference was well attended with well over 200 delegates. Together some 200 papers were presented including 16 plenary and keynote contributions and 130 oral presentations. The ECASIA Award was made for the fifth time, with Professor Jiro Matsuo following in the distinguished footsteps of Siegfried Hofmann (2013), Jim Castle (2015), David Castner (2017) and Aleksander Jablonski (2019). Jiro's Award Lecture was entitled “Collisions of Cluster Ions: Fundamental Phenomena and Applications” and gave a wide-ranging exposition of the development of massive gas cluster ions for use in SIMS and XPS depth profiling, along with a thorough overview of current and future applications. The traditional Wednesday afternoon excursion was to Bunratty Folk Park & Castle, which was followed in the evening by the conference dinner at the Strand Hotel in Limerick city centre. The latter featured traditional Irish music and much dancing! This Special Issue of the journal features but a small cross section of the papers presented at the Conference. These papers cover many of the topics that traditionally feature at ECASIA conferences and make them so deservedly popular. Topics that feature in this Special Issue include biomaterials, catalysis, corrosion, data analysis, depth profiling, electronics and polymers. As always it falls to us to thank the authors for responding in a timely manner to reviewers comments and, of course, to the professional manner in which all referees carried out their task so diligently. The referees are the unsung heroes of the publishing world and as our lives get busier and busier, it is gratifying that there is still such a dedicated band of individuals. So, the ECASIA Conference series moves towards its twentieth meeting. This will be held in Gothenburg Sweden during the week of 9 – 14 June 2024, with Professor Lars Nyborg as Conference Chair. More senior members of the ECASIA Community may remember the ECASIA'97 held in this city, a difficult act to follow but we know Lars and his team are up to it. See you in Gothenburg in June 2024!