Introductory Remarks on Behalf of IUPAP
Willem T.H. van Oers
Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3T 2N2
and
TRIUMF, 4004 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 2A3
Keywords:
PACS:

It is a great pleasure to express words of welcome on behalf of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) at this 18th International Symposium on Spin Physics. These symposia have indeed a rich history and are the amalgamation of the International Symposia on Polarization Phenomena in Nuclear Physics and the International Conferences on High Energy Spin Physics. It is entirely satisfying to notice the large attendance to this 18th International Symposium with many younger scientists participating. On behalf of IUPAP and its Commission on Nuclear Physics I am wishing great success of what promises to be a very stimulating and exciting conference.

I would like to make use of the opportunity given to present a brief overview of IUPAP, its Commissions, in particular the Commission on Nuclear Physics (C12), and its Working Groups, in particular ICFA, the International Committee on Future Accelerators, andWG.9, theWorking Group on International Cooperation in Nuclear Physics.

IUPAP - A BRIEF HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

The beginning was the formation of the International Research Council in 1919, largely through the efforts of representatives of the National Academy of Sciences,Washington, DC, USA, and of the Royal Society of London, United Kingdom. The objective of this body was the coordination of efforts in the different branches of science towards the formation of respective international unions.

The first General Assembly of the International Research Council took place in 1922 in Brussels, Belgium. The physicists present at the General Assembly decided that the formation of a Physics Union was indeed imperative. The physicists represented thirteen countries, in alphabetical order: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Japan, the
Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States of America, and the Union of South-Africa. A Steering Committee was formed with Sir William Bragg as President and Members: M. Brillouin, O.M. Corbino, M. Knudsen, M. Leblanc, R.A. Millikan, H. Nagoda, E. van Aubel, and H. Abraham; names that are encountered in first year physics text books.

The first General Assembly of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics was held in Paris, France, in 1923. Three more countries joined the Union: Czechoslovakia, Italy, and Sweden. It confirmed the membership of the Executive of the Union with one replacement. And during the deliberations Madame Curie complained about the proliferation of scientific reports! IUPAP’s mission is:

  • to assist in the worldwide development of physics,
  • to foster international cooperation in physics,
  • to help in the application of physics toward solving problems of concern to humanity.
FIGURE 1. Sir William Bragg, President of the Steering Committee

The activities of IUPAP can be listed as follows:

  • sponsoring international meetings,
  • encouraging research and education,
  • fostering the free circulation of scientists (even today of great relevance !),
  • promoting international agreements on symbols, units, and nomenclature,
  • cooperating with other organizations on disciplinary and interdisciplinary problems,
  • fostering communications and publications.
As already indicated above the membership of IUPAP was originally from the countries that had joined, but with the difficulty of representation from both the Republic of China (ROC) and the People’s Republic of China, membership in IUPAP is now through identified physics communities in a geographical region. These identified physics communities form an “Adhering Body” with a National IUPAP Liaison Committee. Delegates appointed by the various National IUPAP Liaison Committees attend the IUPAP General Assembly. The number of delegates is determined by the number of (annually paid) shares in IUPAP.

The IUPAP Executive Council for 2006 - 2008 is as follows:

President Alan Astbury
Past President: Yves Petroff
President Designate: Sukekatsu Ushioda
Secretary-General: Judy Franz
Associate Secretary-General: Peter Melville
   
Vice Presidents (elected at large): Jia-Er Chen
  Carmen Cisneros
  Bruce McKellar
   
Vice Presidents (of the Commissions) Dan Dahlberg
  Pavel Exner
  Pratibha Jolly
  Leslie Pendrill
  Annick Suzor-Weiner
The General Assembly is the governing body of IUPAP, which consists of the delegates appointed by the National IUPAP Liaison Committees, the Chairs or Secretaries of the nineteen Commissions, and the members of the Executive Council. The General Assembly is held every three years at a location that circulates the globe. The General Assembly elects the incoming Executive Council and the members of the Commissions. It also appoints the physics representatives to other international scientific bodies.
IUPAP COMMISSIONS
Currently there are nineteen IUPAP Commissions:
1 - Finance 11 - Particles and Fields
2 - SUNAMCO 12 - Nuclear Physics
3 - Statistical Physics 13 - Physics for Development
4 - Cosmic Rays 14 - Physics Education
5 - Low Temperature Physics 15 - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
6 - Biological Physics 16 - Plasma Physics
7 - 17 - Quantum Electronics
8 - Semiconductors 18 - Mathematical Physics
9 - Magnetism 19 - Astrophysics
10 - Structure and Dynamics of
Condensed Matter		 20 - Computational Physics

Among the activities of the IUPAP Commissions one can list:

  • The organization of conferences in the given subdiscipline of physics.
  • The awarding of prizes and medals.
  • The establishment of authoritative websites for the particular subdiscipline.
    – with brief comprehensive reviews of the current activities,
    – with links to other authoritative sites, e.g., giving the latest accepted values of the fundamental constants, giving the compilation of atomic masses.
  • The arrangement of representation on related scientific bodies, e.g., IUPAP Commission C2 on Symbols, Units, Nomenclature, Atomic Masses, and Fundamental Constants (SUNAMCO) has formal connections to Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) [Sevres, France], to Comite Consultatif des Unites (CCU), International Organization for Standardization (ISO) [Geneva, Switzerland], Organisation Internationale de Metrologie Legale (IOML) [Paris, France], International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).
  • The publication of a Red Book on the standard usage of symbols and nomenclature.

The participants of this International Conference on Spin Physics are mainly represented by IUPAP Commissions C11 (Particles and Fields) and C12 (Nuclear Physics).

There exist also three affiliated Commissions: AC1 - International Commission for Optics, AC2 - International Commission on General Relativity and Gravitation, and AC3 - International Commission for Acoustics.
IUPAPWORKING GROUPS

At the present there are eight active IUPAP Working Groups. The Working Groups are formally established by the IUPAP General Assembly for three year renewable periods.

The eight IUPAP Working Groups are:

  • WG.1 - International Committee on Future Accelerators (ICFA).
  • WG.2 - Communication in Physics.
  • WG.3 - Facilities for Condensed Matter Physics with two subcommittees,
    - International Committee on the Future of Neutron Sources (ICFNS),
    - International Committee on High Magnetic Field Facilities (HMFF).
  • WG.4 - Particle and Nuclear Astrophysics and Gravitation International Committee
    (PANAGIC).
  • WG.5 - Women in Physics.
  • WG.7 - International Committee on Ultrahigh Intensity Lasers.
  • WG.8 - International Committee on Nanoscience.
  • WG.9 - International Cooperation in Nuclear Physics (ICNP)

Of relevance for the delegates at this International Conference on Spin Physics are WG.1 (ICFA) and WG.9 (ICNP).

The International Committee on Future Accelerators (ICFA), established in 1976, has as mandate to promote international collaboration in all phases of the design, development, construction, and exploitation of very-high energy accelerators with chief use in high-energy physics. ICFA played a prominent role in the establishment of the
Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN and is responsible for the coordination of efforts worldwide towards the future International Linear Collider (ILC). ICFA also organizes meetings to formulate advice on future plans for regional facilities, to formulate advice on joint studies and uses, to organize workshops on the technology of veryhigh
energy accelerator complexes and their international exploitation and to foster research and development of the necessary technology. The present Chair of ICFA is AlbrechtWagner from DESY and its Secretary is Roy Rubinstein from Fermilab [ website: www.fnal.gov/directorate/icfa ].

The Working Group on International Cooperation in Nuclear Physics (INPC) was
established in 2003. Its mandate given is as follows:

  1. To provide a description of the landscape of key issues in nuclear physics research
    for the next 10 to 20 years.
  2. To produce and maintain a compendium of nuclear physics facilities existing or
    under development worldwide.
  3. To establish a mapping of these facilities onto the scientic questions identified
    above.
  4. To identify missing components that would have to be designed, developed, and
    constructed to provide an optimized, comprehensive network of international nuclear
    physics facilities.
  5. To explore mechanisms and opportunities for enhancing international collaborations
    and cooperation in the nuclear sciences.
  6. To identify those research and development projects that could benefit from international
    joint efforts.
  7. To serve as a source of expert advice for governmental or intergovernmental organizations
    in connection with efforts to coordinate and promote nuclear science at
    the international level.
  8. To serve as a forum for the discussion of future directions of nuclear science in the
    broadest sense.
  9. To document the cross-disciplinary impact of nuclear physics and of the nuclear
    physics facilities and to identify mechanisms for fostering and expanding crossdisciplinary
    research.
To address the first four items above the IUPAP Working Group WG.9 published in July 2006 IUPAP Report 41 entitled “Research Facilities in Nuclear Physics” This report presented an overview of user facilities in nuclear physics worldwide as well as an outline of the five key questions that these and future nuclear physics facilities
were intended to address. The report also provided a compilation consisting of short descriptions of some 91 nuclear physics facilities worldwide with a constituency of users. The electronic version of IUPAP Report 41 can be found by going to the IUPAP website: www.iupap.org under Working Groups and then WG.9, and clicking on its
website. The report can be accessed as a pdf file.WG.9 has established a three year cycle for updating the electronic version of IUPAP Report 41. It will be soliciting updates of the descriptions of nuclear physics facilities in January 2009.
The IUPAP Working Group WG.9 (Chair and Secretary as well as the Chair of C12) was invited to join the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Global Science Forum’sWorking Group on Nuclear Physics. The Global Science Forum (GSF) is a venue for consultations among senior science policy officials
of OECD member and observer countries on matters relating to fundamental scientific research. The Global Science Forium’s Working Group on Nuclear Physics presented its report in May 2008. The report described the field of nuclear physics, including the science opportunities, facilities, workforce, and investment worldwide. The scientific vision for the future was given in the form of five key research questions (as developed by various national and regional documents of the scientific communities and advisory committees) and the new capabilities that are planned to address these. Significantly, a global roadmap for large facilities was articulated, looking forward to the year 2020.

The IUPAP Working Group WG.9 has encouraged and initiated the formation of nuclear physics co-operation committees for Asia and for South-America. It has established several sub-committees to advice on specific questions. The present Chair of the IUPAP Working Group WG.9 is Anthony W. Thomas of Jefferson Laboratory and its Secretary is Willem T.H. van Oers at TRIUMF. The website is as given above.

I hope that in what I have described, I have given a glimpse of the many activities of IUPAP and its Commissions and Working Groups in particular as these pertain to nuclear physics and particle physics.