NIMS Conference 2013 and Announcement of NIMS Award 2013

he National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS, President: Sukekatsu Ushioda) hosts the “NIMS Conference” every year and invites the world’s leading researchers to discuss various issues in materials science and nanotechnology and to present their latest results.

The theme of this year's conference, which is the tenth NIMS Conference, is “Structure Control of Atomic/Molecular Thin Films and Their Applications” and will be held for three days, from July 1–3, 2013, at the Tsukuba International Congress Center.
Semiconductor devices and electronics (a typical example is the large scale integrated circuit) are fundamental technologies that support the ubiquitous computing society. Electronic devices have become faster and power consumption has become smaller by increasing their degree of integration and decreasing their size. However, these advances are approaching a limit, which needs to be overcome by using new materials with new structures. Therefore, new materials with diverse functionalities are attracting attention in this context. In particular, organic molecules are effective as two-dimensional devices because lamellar growth is possible in them. Moreover, recent developments in integrating organic molecules with inorganic materials have resulted in new functionalities. The interest is also growing in the use of atomic layer deposition for growing these new materials as well as ultrathin films of nanosheets. Significant advances have been made in surface analysis technologies using X-rays and neutron beams to assess the nanostructures. These new materials and evaluation techniques will be introduced to the attendants of the NIMS Conference, and we expect that this conference will be a place where diverse information regarding future nanoelectric devices will be exchanged.

To open the NIMS Conference, the NIMS Award will be presented to those researchers who have achieved substantial progress in the field of materials science and technology and have made significant contributions to the development of NIMS. Candidates had been nominated from the world’s top researchers based on the above-mentioned criteria. A committee of impartial experts made the final choice and selected Prof. Hideo Hosono of Tokyo Institute of Technology as the recipient for this year. An award lecture will be held after the presentation ceremony at the NIMS Conference.
The achievements of this year’s NIMS Award recipient are given in the attached document.

■NIMS Conference
Dates: July 1–3, 2013 (NIMS Award ceremony and award lecture to be held on July 1, 2013)
Location: Tsukuba International Congress Center (Epochal Tsukuba)
http://www.nims.go.jp/nimsconf/2013/