News and Conferences

IGDSS

The GLADNET prize for the best presentation at the IDGSS at Albi was given to

1. Deborah Alberts
2. Varvara Efimova
3. Aranka Derzi

EW-GDS MEETING, BRUSSELS, SEPTEMBER 13th-14th 2007

This meeting will be held in junction with ECASIA and the EU Analytical Glow Discharge Training Network, GLADNET . A Training Course for GLADNET appointed researchers, to take place in Antwerp, 9th-12th  September, is open to other participants. For details, please contact Petr Smid or check at www.Gladnet.eu

All GLADNET Partners and Affiliates will receive a more detailed programme of GLADNET activities. Check the Gladnet.eu page for more news on the first Gladnet training course.

ECASIA GDS session: Thursday 13th Sept. Flagey, Brussels,

The sessions will cover GDS techniques and other depth profiling methods. The list of papers on GDS topics is available on the Ecasia web site.

Participants must pay the one-day ECASIA fee (200 €) via the ECASIA website as soon as possible . For Gladnet members, this is an allowable expense on the GLADNET budget.

The conference includes an extensive instrument exhibition.

GLADNET/EW-GDS meeting, Friday 14th Sept., Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).

The programme will include presentations on the GLADNET work packages and projects and on the EU STREP "EMDPA" , (Elemental and Molecular Depth Profile Analysis) submitted papers (oral & poster). (Late abstracts for this meeting should be sent to Dr Volker Hoffmann (V.Hoffmann@IFW-dresden.de ) as soon as possible. This EW-GDS meeting is free of charge !

The Payling Prize (value 1000€), arranged by EW-GDS in conjunction with instrument  manufacturers will be awarded for the best presentation, oral or poster, at the Thursday (ECASIA) and Friday (EW-GDS) sessions. It is therefore, even more then usually, important to prepare interesting posters and oral presentations.

MEETING LOCATION: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Building D, Room 007

Participants are responsible for arranging their own accommodation in Brussels. Everyone is warned that many hotels are already fully booked in this week in September, and that hotels prices in Brussels are high. Make booking your hotel accommodation your first priority  - in many cases there is no cancellation charge until close to the date booked. (Go to ECASIA website and follow "accommodation", or go to www.hotels.be)

News from the EW-GDS (European Working group for Glow Discharge)

Some time ago, just after the European Plasma Winter Conference in Budapest, Hu, the EW-GDS had a meeting. One of the topics was to look for possibilities to push our glow activities. Edward Steers from London Metropolitan, encouraged (pushed would be the proper word to use) us to look for support through funding by the European Community within the "6th Framework" ....and we agreed.The EMPA research group in Thun was honoured (there was no other candidate) to take the lead. Based on the experience with earlier attempts (by University of Oviedo, London Metropolitan University), the earlier successful EC Standards, Measurement and Testing (SMT) Thematic Network co-ordinated by Edward Steers and some serious work, we succeeded in establishing a new network - GLADNET - and submitting a proposal for a Research and Training Network within the Marie Curie Activities of the European Community. Honestly, the proposal was not selected in the firsts round, but was put on the reserve list. Eventually we were invited by the European Commission to enter the negotiation phase. That's where we still are. Right now, we are seriously hoping to be able to start work very soon and we keep you informed about the progress made.

Thomas Nelis (French representative of EW-GDS and EMPA) 01.12.2006

Euorpean Working group for Glow Discharge :

The steering committee of the EW-GDS decided not to organise the next EW-GDS meeting in combination with the 2007 European Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry in Taormina (Sicily, Italy). The meeting will be held most probably in conjunction with the ECASIA 07 meeting (10th -14th September 2007) in Brussels. The GD session of this conference will be probably on Thursday,13th September with the EW-GDS meeting on the following day. It is most likely that the Payling Prize will be offered at this meeting. Please, look for future up-dates on this page.


Volker Hoffmann, Chairman of EW-GDS; 23.11.2006 (EW-GDS)

13th German GD-User meeting September 2006 in Hanau de

The 13th German user glow discharge user meeting was held the 11th and 12th September 2006 in Hanau Germany. Thanks to the good organisation by Cornel Venzago, AQura GmbH, it was again a successfull and interesting meeting. During this years Glow Discharge Mass Spectrometry (GD-MS) was more in the focus of the discussion, then it used to be in the last years. The new high resolution mass spectrometer introduced by Thermo Elemental certainly raised significant interest.

Open discussion between the users of the GD-technique is most important for a successful meeting. Sponsoring of the "conference" dinner by Thermo Elemental, Spectruma GmbH and Leco Corp. and AQura GmbH was therefore much appreciated.

(09.10.2006)