IOP Groups
Previous events
Reports from previous events
Technological Plasmas Workshop (14-15 Dec 2006, Manchester)
(IPSI co-sponsored)
This was another very successful meeting, with attendance numbers significantly up on last year’s event, including overseas attendees and a high student turnout. Next year’s Workshop will be held in Belfast.
Next Generation Materials Characterisation (14 March 2007, MMU)
(IPSI co-sponsored)
This launch event showcased the new analytical microscopy facility at Manchester Metropolitan University, bringing together academics, industrialists and those from government agencies to learn about the equipment and see demonstrations. The morning session (with about 90 delegates) concentrated on describing the capabilities of the new analytical system and the opportunities for external access. In an afternoon session (with about 45 delegates) four invited speakers discussed high resolution surface and materials characterisation techniques, including applications for quasicrystals, semiconductor materials and devices, photovoltaics and forensics.
Surrey Ion Beam Centre Annual User Workshop (28 April 2007)
(IPSI co-sponsor)
This event, co-sponsored by IPSI, occupied one day of the week of a student training course at the IBC. Chatting with students who were attending the course revealed much enthusiasm and camaraderie – this appears to be an extremely worthwhile arrangement.
A full programme of talks covered an impressively wide range of topics, including Early Photographic Chemistry (from Dr David McPhail, of Imperial College), Property Changes in Fusion Reactor Materials (Dr Mike Jenkins, Oxford) and Nano-Engineered Electron Field Emission Cathodes (Prof. Ravi Silva, Surrey). In addition, there was an extremely entertaining slide session in which each poster presentation (there were about 30 in all) was introduced in just 60 seconds. These included some slick work with PowerPoint, some fast talking, and even a poem. Following a more relaxed poster session, over lunch, the joint IPSI-IBC poster prize was awarded to Prashant Mistry, of the IBC, for the 2nd year – he really is very good at producing eye-catching, clear posters about his research!
 | Image: Prashant Mistry with his prize-winning poster at the recent Surrey Ion Beam Centre Annual User Workshop |
Plasmas, Surfaces and Thin Films (20 June 2007, Institute of Physics London, with the IPSI AGM in the lunch break).
This one day conference has become an annual event providing a forum for those involved in using plasmas or ion beams for surface modification and thin film deposition. Topics covered included modelling of fundamental atomic collisions in solids through to new techniques for high throughput industrial processes. The meeting attracted equal numbers of participants from Universities and Industry. The IPSI AGM was held during the conference.
 | Image: Exhibitor displays and poster area. |
 | Image:Dr Hazel Assender presenting an overview of transparent thin films for use in high gas barrier applications. Hazel was also elected to the IPSI committee at its Annual General Meeting held during the conference. |
 | Image: Dr Alec Goodyear chairing the IPSI Annual General Meeting |
High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (10 - 11 July 2007, Sheffield)
Advances in Industrial PVD Technologies. High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering. (HIPIMS Days 2007)
Co-sponsored by:
- Ion and Plasma Surface Interaction Group of the Institute of Physics
- Hazer Techno Coatings, The Netherlands
- IonBond International
This meeting provided a forum for those involved in using highly ionised metal plasmas for surface pre-treatment, modification and thin film growth. High power impulse magnetron sputtering (HIPIMS) is one of the latest developments in technology for physical vapour deposition. Innovations in all aspects of the HIPIMS technology were discussed, starting from the fundamentals of plasma discharges, plasma diagnostics and coating growth, incorporating HIPIMS for deposition of a wide range of new materials, utilising HIPIMS for improved adhesion and, very importantly, the industrial exploitation of the technology. Topics on PVD and hybrid vacuum technologies were also covered.
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| Image: Delegates attending HIPIMS days 2007 supported by the IPSI Group. There were more than 80 delegates from all over the world (USA, Canada, Japan, Europe). 24 oral presentations and 5 posters were delivered and 11 industrial companies exhibited their products. Click here for more details. |
The HIPIMS days 2007 were very successful, and the organisers were very grateful for the support received from the IPSI Group and other sponsors. There were more than 80 delegates from all over the world (USA, Canada, Japan, Europe) (see picture). 24 oral presentations and 5 posters were delivered, 11 industrial companies exhibited their products. Click here for more details.
Abstracts for this event are available under Archived Abstracts.
Biomedical Applications of Ion Beams (30 July - 2 August 2007, Surrey Ion Beam Centre)EPSRC Network conference with IPSI co-sponsorship.
Left: Artist’s impression of the building to house the new vertical nanobeam at the Ion Beam Centre, University of Surrey. The 1.5M project is funded in part by a prestigious grant from the Wolfson Foundation and is a collaboration between the Surrey Ion Beam Centre and the Gray Cancer Institute. The vertical nanobeam will be used to probe the way in which living cells respond to radiation with the aim of providing better radiotherapy treatment strategies for cancer and to understand the effects of environmental radiation exposure.
This conference was hosted at the University of Surrey and chaired by Dr Karen Kirkby. It attracted over 120 delegates from every continent of the world with the exception of Antarctica. The conference was deliberately multidisciplinary with internationally recognised invited and keynote speakers and aimed to bring together people who do not normally meet at the same conference. Thus the mix of clinicians, scientists and engineers discussing subjects as wide ranging as particle therapy for the treatment of cancer, dosimetry, modelling, cell irradiation, biomedical analysis using ion beams and the latest biomedical advances in proton beam writing proved to be a heady mixture and established new collaborations and research synergies. Although the conference was originally planned as a one off, the delegates so enjoyed the formula, interdisciplinary mix and diversity of the people attending, that they have asked for it to be made into a onference series and a decision was made to hold the next conference at Oxford in 2009. Social highlights of the conference were the cricket match organised by Dr Melanie Webb and Ms Morgiane Richard which allowed a rare victory for England against the rest of the world, albeit by the narrowest of margins (1 run) and the conference dinner at historic Farnham castle.
Surface Science of Biologically Important Interfaces: Designing surfaces to direct cell behaviour (13-14 September 2007, Manchester)
IPSI co-sponsorship.
This was a highly successful meeting, with around 100 attendees from academia and industry, including 4 international invited speakers and 5 exhibiting companies. Bursaries, funded by the IPSI Group had been advertised, but weren't taken up. This was probably related to the high level of sponsorship obtained, which allowed us to reduce the charge for student delegates to £75 for the two-day meeting. Next year's meeting will be organised by Dr Alex Shard, at NPL in London.
EuroCVD-16: 16th European Conference on Chemical Vapour Deposition (16-21 September 2007, Den Haag)
IPSI co-sponsorship
The conference was considered a success. Attendance was around the same as previous years but the number of participant countries increased. Total papers and posters were up around 25%. The venue was in a grand "Victorian" style hotel immediately on the front of the North Sea near The Hague. New topic areas this meeting included anti-bacterial surface Coatings and increased carbon nano-tube papers. John Hodgkinson (supported by IPSI) presented a poster on plasma generated metallic like coatings at atmospheric pressure.
Student report on this conference
Novel Applications of Surface Modification (17 – 20 September 2007, Southampton)
This was the 2nd Applied Physics and Technology Division conference on this theme, successfully bringing together scientists, engineers and manufacturers in different fields, and with some very fine presentations. Further details
Plasmas Surfaces and Thin Films (11 June 2008, IOP, London)
This was a very successful meeting with the Group AGM taking place in the lunch break.
Innovation and Opportunity in Surface Engineering (2 – 3 July 2008, Worcester)
Preliminary Programme and Registration Form
HIPIMS ’08 (8 – 9 July 2008, Venlo, NL)
The conference took place in Venlo, The Netherlands as part of the 25th anniversary celebration of Hauzer, one of the co organisers of the event.
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