C10. Commission on Structure and Dynamics of Condensed Matter

EXCON'02: 5th International Conference on Excitonic Processes in Condensed Matter

July 22-26, 2002
Darwin, Australia

Report

EXCON'02 was held at the Mal Nairn Auditorium, Northern Territory University, Darwin, 22-26 July, 2002. There were 110 participants from 15 counties of the world. The maximum participation was from Japan, followed by Germany and Canada. More than 95% participants were from overseas. The conference was chaired and organized by Professor Jai Singh, Faculty of SITE, NTU. On behalf of the Chief Minister the conference was opened by Hon Jane Aagaard, NT Minister for Health & Community Services, who was introduced by Professot Ron McKay, Vice-Chancellor, Northern Territory University. EXCON'02 was the 5th international conference of a series that originated in 1994 and the first conference EXCON'94 was held in Darwin and it was also chaired and organized by Professor Singh.

It was a forum of scientific presentations of new research results in the field of excitonic research. Each presentation followed by questions and comments. More informal discussions on new ideas of mutual interests took place during the coffee breaks and lunches. Papers were presented in 12 oral and two poster sessions. It was very encouraging to see an increase in the student participation in EXCON'02 to 20 students.

Social functions included a reception by the NT Administrator Hon John Anictomatis, a BBQ at the Darwin Sailing Club and conference dinner at the Pee Wee's restaurant. According to the feedback from the participants: "It was one of the best organized EXCON meetings held so far and NT is a very fascinating place." Many participants spent an extra week for sightseeing after the conference.

Manuscripts of all presented papers were peer reviewed and all accepted papers are included in the proceedings of the conference, published in the International Journal of Nonlinear Optics (Taylor & Francis Publishing Co., London) volume 29, 2002.

The Organizing Committee gratefully acknowledges the sponsorships by the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP), Northern Territory Government, Northern Territory University and Australian Institute of Physics. The Chair of the conference is grateful to the Local Organizing Committee for their efforts in making the event a success, in particular, to Dr Subhash Chandra, Ms. Margie Dizon, Mr John Parsons, Mrs Neddy Parsons and Dr In-Keun Oh. It would not have been possible to achieve such a successful result without their support.

Jai Singh
Chair, EXCON'02

International Advisory Committee

A. Blumen (Freiburg, Germany)
R. J. Cogdell (Glasgow, UK)
D.P. Craig (Canberra, Australia)
J.T. Devreese (Antwerpen, Belgium)
A. Efros (Washington DC, USA)
E. Fortin (Ottawa, Canada)
T. Goto (Sendai, Japan)
J. M. Hvam (Lyngby, Denmark)
T. Itoh (Osaka, Japan)
J. Knoester (Groningen, The Nehterlands)
J. - P. Lemaistre( Paris, France)
X. X. Liang (Hohhot, China)
K. Lindenberg (San Diego, USA)
A.H. Matsui (Kobe, Japan)
M. Nakayama (Osaka, Japan)
S. Permogorov (St Petersburg, Russia)
P. Petelenz (Cracow, Poland)
M. Schreiber (Chemnitz, Germany)
J. Singh (Nothern Territory University, Darwin)
K. S. Song (University of Ottawa, Ottawa)
T. Suemoto (Tokyo, Japan)
R. T. Williams(Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem)
W. M. Yen (University of Georgia, Athen)
G. Zimmerer (Hamburg University, Hamburg)

Local Organizing Committee

S. Chandra (DBIRD, Darwin)
M.P. Das (ANU, Canberra)
J. Dobson (Griffith, Nathan)
M. Gal (UNSW, Sydney)
N.B. Manson (ANU, Canberra)
I.-K. Oh (NTU, Darwin)
J. Parsons (DBIRD, Darwin)
K. Pressnell (NTU, Darwin)
J. Singh (NTU, Darwin), Chair
B. Usher (La Trobe, Melbourne)
C. Zhang (Wollongang)