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State Key Lab for Superconductivity Holds 12th M2S-2018

Date:28-08-2018 Print

The 12th International Conference on Materials and Mechanisms of Superconductivity (M2S-2018) was successfully held from August 19 to August 24, 2018, at Beijing International Convention Center. More than 1,200 delegates from 31 countries and regions attended the conference. The first M2S conference took place in 1988, initiated and organized by Karl Alexander Müller, who is the discoverer of copper oxide high-temperature superconductivity and the Nobel Prize laureate in Physics. The M2S conference is held every three years and is the largest and most influential academic event in the field of superconducting research. Twenty one years after the fifth M2S Conference was held in Beijing in 1997, the State Key Lab for Superconductivity of Institute of Physics (IOP) of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) once again hosted the M2S conference in China. This year’s conference was co-chaired by Prof. Zhou Xingjiang, Director of the State Key Lab for Superconductivity, IOP, and CAS Academician Zhao Zhongxian. The members of the academic committee of the conference include: Zhang Fuchun, Professor of the University of CAS, Xiang Tao, CAS Academician & Professor of IOP CAS, Chen Xianhui, CAS Academician & Professor of the University of Science and Technology of China, and Wang Nanlin, Professor of Peking University. The conference invited more than 130 outstanding scientists all over the world in the field of superconductivity to serve as members of the International Advisory Board.

In recent years, with its rapid progress in basic research, scientific and technological innovation, and science commercialization, China's international academic status has greatly improved and influence enlarged. In particular, China is currently among the best in the world in the field of superconductivity research. In recent years, China’s superconductivity research team has made many original and important breakthroughs in materials, physical properties, mechanisms and applications of iron-based superconductors, winning the 2009 Qiushi Group Award for Scientific and Technological Achievements, and the 2013 First Prize in National Natural Science. Academician Zhao Zhongxian won China's 2016 Top Science and Technology Award. Hosting the 12th M2S Conference was the embodiment of the comprehensive strength of China's superconductivity research, and also an important platform for international and domestic superconducting researchers to share their latest achievements, exchange ideas and promote cooperation.

The conference covered high-temperature superconductivity of copper oxides, iron-based superconductivity, heavy fermion superconductivity, organic superconductivity, topological superconductivity and other research fields, and reported the latest international progress in superconductivity theory and applications. A total of 60 sessions were arranged, with 13 invited reports for the plenary session, 235 invited reports for the branch sessions, 102 oral reports and 429 poster presentations. At the conference, the highest international award in the field of superconductivity was presented, including the Bernd T. Matthias Prize (awarded to Katsuya Shimizu from Osaka University, Japan), the Kamerlingh Onnes Prize (awarded to Yuji Matsuda from Kyoto University, Japan and Louis Taillefer from University of Sherbrooke, Canada) and the John Bardeen Prize (awarded to Andrey V. Chubukov from University of Minnesota, the United States, Igor Mazin from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and Sebastian Doniach from Stanford University, the United States) for their outstanding contributions to the exploration of superconducting materials, superconductivity experimental research and theoretical research, respectively. The academic committee of the conference also presented the Best Poster Award. CAS Academician Zhao Zhongxian, Chairman of the conference, presented prizes and certificates to the winners, who were five graduate students from Nanjing University, IOP CAS, University of Geneva, University of Sherbrooke and Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Germany. Finally, Zhou Xingjiang, Chairman of the conference, announced that, voted by the International Advisory Board, the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, will be the host of the next M2S Conference (2021).

The M2S-2018 Conference was strongly supported by CAS, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) and other relevant institutions, and was sponsored by nearly 60 domestic and foreign exhibitors. Teachers and students from the State Key Lab for Superconductivity of IOP CAS actively participated in and organized the conference, and more than 50 graduate students from the IOP participated in volunteer work. The success of this M2S-2018 was widely praised by participants at home and abroad.?


Figure 1. Prof. Zhou Xingjiang, Chairman of M2S-2018, is delivering a welcome speech. 
 
Figure 2. The opening ceremony of M2S-2018 is held.

Figure 3. All delegates of M2S-2018 are taking a group photo.

Figure 4. The awarding ceremony of M2S-2018 Superconductivity International Awards is held.

Figure 5. The awarding ceremony of M2S-2018 Best Poster Awards is held.