Words from the LOC

Abstract

The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is honored to have the opportunity to host the 11th Pacific Rim Conference on Stellar Astrophysics. The conference was attended by 100 researchers from 20 countries, including Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, UK, USA, and Vietnam.The meeting began on the evening of December 13 with the reception held in the foyer of the Faculty of Science office. The 4-day (December 14-17) scientific sessions were held in the Centennial Campus, a new extension of the HKU campus constructed in 2011. On December 16, we had an organized afternoon tour of the south side of the island of Hong Kong, making stops at Repulse Bay and Stanley and ending at the Victoria Peak. The conference banquet was held in the Tien Yi Restaurant in the Peak Tower, which commands a gorgeous view of the Victoria Harbor. Before the banquet, we were treated to the magnificent traditional Chinese face-changing show, where the artist was able to change her face masks in fractions of a second right in front of the audience. After the conference, there was a self-guided tour to Macau on December 19, cumulating with a Portuguese dinner at the historical building of the Clube Militar de Macau.I would like to thank the many people who helped in the organization of the conference. First I would like to acknowledge the contributions of Anisia Tang, who ably oversaw the logistics of the entire conference, including the venue, budget, registration, web site, and tours. Not only she had to deal with the various vendors and suppliers, she also managed to satisfy the many complex university regulations. After the conference, Anisia was instrumental in the editing and production of these Proceedings. To Anisia, I want to express my deepest personal thanks. Linda Lee was in charge of the organization of the travel and lodgings of the participants. Venus Chu made the arrangements for the banquet as well as the Macau tour and she chose the menus that we so much enjoyed. Y.L. Lee provided essential support of many aspects of the organization, in particular the reception. Jenny Cheng was the official photographer and Emily Wong did the video taping of the proceedings. I am in debt to Angela Tsang, the Faculty Secretary, whose unwavering support of this conference was crucial to its success.We are grateful for the financial support provided by the Croucher Foundation, K.C. Wong Education Foundation, and the Faculty of Science of the University of Hong Kong. David Foster, Director of the Croucher Foundation, has been a good friend of HKU astronomy and his continued support is greatly appreciated.I want to express my deepest gratitude to my old friend Kam Ching Leung. Kam Ching was the person who got the Pacific Rim series started 30 years ago. His perseverance and organization skills are the reason why the conferences have been so successful over the years. I thank him in particular for proposing to hold the 11th meeting in Hong Kong and the hard work that he has put in to help this conference achieve all its goals.Finally, I want to thank the participants. Many of you came from distant parts of the world for this conference and your talks and posters are the reasons behind the scientific success of this conference. I hope that these proceedings will serve as a useful landmark for the development of evolved stars research and that this field will continue to prosper for a long time to come.