History

Beginnings

The beginning of the International Conference on Physics of Advanced Materials was in 1980, under the name National Conference on Physics and Technology of Crystalline and Amorphous Materials. This conference was organized by the Solid-State Physics Department of Faculty of Physics, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania every 4 years (1980-2000). During this period, the participants were mostly Romanian scientists and invited scientists from the Republic of Moldova.

ICPAM-7, ICPAM-8

The Conference developed organically and attracted the interest of scientists from European countries, thus, in 2004 the conference was transformed into an international conference, the first name being “The 7th International Conference on Physics of Advanced Materials, ICPAM-7”, with a numbering scheme that acknowledges and honours the beginnings and the two-decade history of this event, while promising continuity. ICPAM-7 was held on June 10-12, 2004, in Iasi, Romania.

The 8th International Conference on Physics of Advanced Materials, ICPAM-8 was organized by Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi in collaboration with Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi, in Iasi on June 4-7, 2008. As a result of the opening of collaborations with European countries, European scientists have expressed their desire to contribute to the conference organization. Some of them, like Isabelle Berbezier-Aix Marseille University and Shashi Paul – De Montford University, continue to contribute to the conference organization till today.

The chairpersons of the events organized in the period 1980 – 2008 were Professor Ilie D. BURSUC PhD, Professor Gheorghe I. RUSU PhD and Professor Neculai SULITANU PhD. Due to their efforts the number of participants increased significantly from one edition to another, and the conference succeed to become an international one.

The papers presented in ICPAM-7 and ICPAM-8 were published in a special issue in Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials and as regular papers in prestigious journals.

ICPAM-9 – ICPAM-13

The emancipation of the conference held in Iasi, Romania, continued with the next editions ICPAM-9 (September 20-23, 2012) and ICPAM-10 (September 22-28, 2014) due to the important contribution of prestigious universities and research institutes that accepted to be co-organizers. In 2014 the first autumn school on Physics of Advanced Materials, PAMS-1 was held in parallel with ICPAM-10. This event is focused on providing interdisciplinary expert training, involving both fundamental knowledge and current research topics. The fact that the school is organized in parallel with the conference assures a better interaction between the conference participants involved in different fields of physics of advanced materials and the participants attending the school.

During ICPAM-10, the Organizing Committee decided to continue the process of events’ emancipation and for this reason the events become itinerants.

ICPAM-11, PAMS-2 and ICPAM-12, PAMS-3 were organized at Faculty of Physics, Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj, Romania (September 8-14, 2016), respectively Technological and Educational Institute of Crete, Heraklion Crete (September 22-28, 2018) and were very successful.

Around 300 participants attended every edition of the International Conference on Physics of Advanced Materials and over 40 participants (lecturers + attendees) attended the editions of the Autumn School on Physics of Advanced Materials. The presented papers were published as special issues in prestigious journals like Materials Science and Engineering: B (ICPAM-9), Applied Surface Science (ICPAM-10, ICPAM-11, ICPAM-12) and Materials Today: Proceedings (ICPAM-10, ICPAM-11).

Due to pandemic situation, ICPAM-13 and PAMS-4 events were organized at Hotel Eden Roc by Brava Hoteles, Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Spain, on September 24-30, 2021, in hybrid format. Around 100 participants attended these events onsite and around 110 participants attended online, the interactions between participants being successful due to the effort of Organizing Committee and Secretariate. The process of manuscript publication is still in progress in three Special Issues: New Achievements in Nanostructured and Low Dimensional Materials and Systems published in the open access journal Nanomaterials; New trends in functional materials and devices published in the open access journal Coatings, New developments in physics of advanced materials published in the open access journal Materials.

3th – 6th editions of the International Festival of NanoArt organized by NanoArt 21 – founded by artist and scientist Cris Orfescu – were hosted by the International Conference on Physics of Advanced Materials. Since 2014, ICPAM-10 introduced the Art, Science and Technology topic to improve communication among scientists, artists and engineers involved in visual arts, and to create new opportunities for exploration of new digital virtual creativity by promoting the development of the current artistic movements and tools. The artworks presented in ICPAM-10 were donated by NanoArt 21 to Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, where they constitute the first permanent exhibition for NanoArt in the world.

Sponsors from Romania and other countries came to meet these events by facilitating the awarding of prizes (ICPAM-9 – ICPAM-13) and supporting the participation of young scientists (in all editions). The number of awards increased every edition in number and value.

To honour the pioneers of these events and some prestigious Romanian scientists, the Organizing Committee, IMT Bucharest, Romanian Physical Society -Cluj-Napoca and Iasi branches and Association ICPAMS introduced the Ilie D. Bursuc, Neculai Sulitanu, Augustin Maior, Ioan Ursu and Dan Dascalu awards.

ICPAM-14, PAMS-5

ICPAM-14 and PAMS-5 events were organized on September 8-15, 2022, at University of Dubrovnik, Croatia. Around 100 participants attended the events onsite and around 80 attended online. There was a fruitful interaction between onsite and online participants during the scientific presentations, well monitored by the Organizing Committee and Secretariate and facilitated by the University of Dubrovnik.

Due to the contribution of our sponsors (Arcelor Mittal, NANOTEAM, PRIMAlab, Materials, Nanomaterials, APEL LASER and ENFUTUR) and partners (University of Dubrovnik, Petru Poni Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Coatings, American Elements and NANO EXPRESS) an important number of awards were offered for the best oral and poster presentations (15 awards for ICPAM-14 and 4 awards for PAMS-5) and an important number of young participants benefited of no registration fee.

The process of manuscript publication is still in progress in special Issues of important journals like Nanomaterials, Materials and Coatings.

ICPAM-15, PAMS-6

ICPAM-15 and PAMS-6 events were organized in a hyrbrid format on November 19 – 26, 2023, in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, at Pyramisa Beach Resort. Around 100 participants that attended onsite and around 100 that attended online had fruitful interactions during the scientific presentations, due to the effort of the Organizing Committee and Secretariate in facilitating their onsite and virtual meetings.

Due to the contribution of our sponsors (NANOTEAM, APEL LASER, INOESY, AMERICAN ELEMENTS) and partners (Petru Poni Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Coatings, NANO EXPRESS, Materials,Nanomaterials, ACADEMIA MATERIALS SCIENCE, Addi Center ) an important number of awards were offered for the best oral and poster presentations (12 awards for ICPAM-16 and 5 awards for PAMS-6) and an important number of young participants benefited of no registration fee.

The process of manuscript publication is still in progress in special Issues of important journals like Nanomaterials, Materials, Nanomaterials and ACADEMIA MATERIALS SCIENCE

Due to the successful interaction between participants, the Organizing Committee decided to organize these events every year.

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