The Soft Magnetic Materials Conference, commonly referred to as SMM, is the largest international conference dedicated to soft magnetic materials. Celebrated every two years in the month of September, it consists of invited, oral and poster presentations that span over a period of three days.
This conference brings together researchers from industry and academia working on all aspects of soft magnetic materials, with topics including, among others, materials properties, applications, device design, fundamental studies in magnetism and simulations. The 2017 edition was organized by Sevilla University, and took place on 10th - 13th September 2017. The logo of the conference combined Giralda Tower and Alamillo Bridge, two landmarks of the city, to show the attractive magnetic character of Sevilla (Fig. 1). There were 171 contributions, divided into 12 invited, 46 oral and 113 posters presentations. The total number of attendees was 210, including 58 students, originating from 5 continents and 33 countries, being Spain (50 participants), Japan (25 participants) and Germany (23 participants) the largest groups. Fig. 2 shows the group photo.
Banner of the 23rd Soft Magnetic Materials Conference, where Giralda Tower and Alamillo Bridge, two landmarks of the city, combine to show the attractive magnetic character of Sevilla.
Banner of the 23rd Soft Magnetic Materials Conference, where Giralda Tower and Alamillo Bridge, two landmarks of the city, combine to show the attractive magnetic character of Sevilla.
Participants were given the opportunity to submit a manuscript containing the work presented at the conference. The editorial process was diligently carried out by the editorial team chaired by Prof. V. Franco that included Dr. Javier S. Blázquez, Prof. Maria L. Fernández-Gubieda, Prof. Bogdan Idzikowski, Prof. Carlo Ragusa and Dr. Lajos K. Varga as editors. Upon a strict refereeing procedure to ensure originality and scientific quality, 74 manuscripts have been published in AIP Advances. The conference co-chairs are indebted to the editors for their excellent work that allowed the publication be finalized short after the conference. It is the first time that papers from the SMM Conference are published in an open access journal and we are convinced that it will facilitate the distribution of knowledge related to the conference to a broader audience.
The success of any conference is connected to the quality of its invited speakers. For the 23rd SMM we had the privilege of an outstanding group of speakers that included Prof. Anthony Arrott (Simon Fraser University, Canada), Prof. Greg Carman (University of California at Los Angeles, United States), Prof. Horia Chiriac (National Institute of Research and Development for Technical Physics, Romania), Dr. Olivier de la Barrière (SATIE, ENS Cachan, CNRS, Universite Paris-Saclay, France), Prof. Michael Farle (University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany), Prof. Horst Hahn (Institute of Nanotechnology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany), Dr. Shinichiro Ito (TDK Corporation, Japan), Prof. Fernando Landgraf (Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil), Prof. Anthony Moses (Cardiff University, UK), Dr. Motoki Ohta (Hitachi Metals. Ltd., Japan), Dr. Robert D. Shull (National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA) and Prof. Kiyonori Suzuki (Monash University, Australia).
For the first time in the SMM series of conferences, three best poster awards, one for each poster session, were presented to students. The winners were (in alphabetical order): Nicolas Boust, G2Elab (France), “Modeling of the hysteresis loop in transverse field-annealed FeCuNbSiB nanocrystalline ribbons”; Nora Leuning, RWTH Aachen University (Germany), “Influence of residual and external stress on the Villari effect and magnetostriction in high-silicon electrical steel sheet”; David Schuller, Aalen University (Germany), “Analysis of Soft Magnetic Materials by EBSD as a Powerful Tool”.
From the participant’s point of view, the scientific outcome of a conference is not only related to the scientific sessions, when they present their results or listen to what is presented by others. Building up connections with researchers from other laboratories, informal discussion about different research issues that emerge during their work at their own institutions, and putting faces to the authors of the papers or books that they read is equally enriching. All these complementary aspects give rise to future collaborations and can never be substituted by virtual meetings or exchange of correspondence. To facilitate interaction between participants, social activities at the 23rd SMM included a welcome reception on Sunday evening, where local food and wine could be tasted, a private visit to the Alcazar of Sevilla on Monday evening, and a gala dinner on Tuesday evening by the Guadalquivir River while enjoying the views of the most important landmarks of Sevilla.
Nowadays, funding for scientific research and, in particular, for conference organization is scarce. We had been fortunate to have a broad set of public and private sponsors, as well as a small but intense exhibition by equipment and materials’ manufacturers. The combination of both helped us to cover the expenses of the organization of the conference. We are thankful to all these institutions and companies for their support (listed in alphabetical order):
AIP Advances
Consejería de Economía y Conocimiento. Junta de Andalucía.
CRC Press
Evatec AG
Evico Magnetics
Lake Shore Cryotronics
LOT-QuantumDesign GmbH
Real Alcázar de Sevilla
Sigma-Aldrich Materials Science
United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research
United States Army RDECOM – Atlantic
United States Office of Naval Research Global
Universidad de Sevilla. Vicerrectorados de Investigación y de Relaciones Institucionales
Vacuumschmelze GmbH
In addition to these financial sponsors, the conference had the technical sponsorship of IEEE Magnetics Society and was endorsed by the American Physical Society Topical Group on Magnetism and its Applications (APS GMAG).
We would also like to acknowledge the support of the International Committee, led by Prof. Afef Kedous-Lebouc (Grenoble Electrical Engineering Laboratory, France), the excellent work of all members of the Local Organizing Committee, and the outstanding dedication of a group of volunteers that contributed to the smooth evolution of the daily activities of the conference.
The 24th SMM Conference will take place in Poznan (Poland) in 2019, chaired by Prof. Bogdan Idzikowski. We are convinced of the great success that the 2019 edition will have.
