ISIAME'96

The first efforts to attract the attention of the industrial world to the applicative potential of Mössbauer spectroscopy can be attributed to John Stevens and Gary Long who, in 1984, organized the 1st Symposium on the Industrial Applications of the Mössbauer Effect held in Honolulu, Hawaii. This conference was planned as part of the 1984 International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies.

In 1988, the International Symposium on the Industrial Applications of the Mössbauer Effect was organized in the form of an autonomous meeting at Parma, Italy under my personal direction, with the acronym ISIAME'88 and with its own logo that represents two atomic nuclei, one emitting and the other resonantly absorbing -rays. On that occasion an International Advisory Board was instituted which has become a permanent structure for the organization of the conferences. In 1993 a Scientific Executive Committee was also instituted, with the main duty of determining where future ISIAME conferences should be held and to supervise the effective pursuit of the established objectives of these conferences, with particular emphasis on the applications aspects. The logo, the conference length of 5 days and the decision to hold the conference every 4 years has been maintained, with successive conferences held in 1992 in Seta, Japan, chaired by Prof. Yoji Nakamura and the present conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, chaired by Prof. Herman Pollak. In particular, holding the conference every 4th year, in the even numbered years was adopted to avoid undesirable overlapping with similar conferences, and especially with the International Conference on the Applications of the Mössbauer Effect (ICAME).

The targeting of the ISIAME to industrial applications of Mössbauer spectroscopy has turned out to be a definite success. The emphasis on technological problems has led to increasing participation of chemists, materials scientists and engineers with considerable broadening of the types of competence involved.

- Encourage collaboration between scientists with different backgrounds who work in different countries, with attention focused on international research and development programs and with exchange programs involving researchers, teachers and students.

- Finally, suitable criteria were adopted for publication of the conference Proceedings which provide for adequate diffusion of technological contributions presented by or carried out in collaboration with industry.

Another positive factor regarding the organization was the accommodation of all delegates in just one location, the ESKOM Congress Center in which, thanks to the excellent reception, services and facilities, meetings between delegates and the exchange of information were particularly favored.

The scientific and technical contributions to the ISIAME'96 are reported in the following table, just as they were presented, subdivided according to subject.

Topics, Introductory Talks (IT), Invited Lectures (IL), Oral Presentations (O) and Poster Contributions (P).

In this conference various traditional topics for the ISIAME series of symposia were thoroughly represented and in addition, sectors in which there had been only sporadic contributions in the past were developed to the point of being able to be considered as new topics. It therefore seems to be worthwhile to formulate some comments in this regard.

In regard to the traditional topics, in the Catalysis sector, in addition to catalysts containing ⁵⁷Fe (or ⁵⁷Co) those containing ¹¹⁹Sn and ¹²¹Sb were also dealt with. Some lines of research concerned the catalytic properties of small particles, microcrystalline phases and nanosystems.

In the Metals and Alloys sector, attention was directed mainly to phase formation and transformation, processes of thermal and mechanical alloying, and aging phenomena.

In the Glass and Amorphous Materials sector, there was a considerable preponderance of contributions regarding possible applications to sensors.

In the Minerals sector, the contributions for the most part regarded characterization of the minerals while contributions in the Chemistry sector were particularly varied, with only a small number of papers specific to the sector.

In the Magnetism and Electronic Materials sector there was a considerable decrease in the number of contributions relative to massive materials, while growing interest was shown for recording media materials and nanostructured materials.

Under the heading of New Materials, some contributions were presented relative to quasi-crystals, while other contributions overlapped various topics, mainly amorphous and magnetic materials.

Finally, it should be pointed out that there was a considerable decrease in contributions regarding the sector of Superconducting Materials.

In regard to the new and interesting topics introduced at this conference, mention should be made first of all to the Human Related Topics, in which particular emphasis was put on life sciences and drugs (new antibiotic vectors and targeted drugs for the treatment of tumors and other diseases), and on the environment (pollution, water, soil and plants, radioactive waste).

A sector characterized by numerous contributions was that of Metallurgy, with particular emphasis put on Metal Science. Some contributions concerned Surface Imperfections and Plastic Deformation while other contributions regarded Process and Mechanical Metallurgy. In addition, new lines of development emerged, regarding first of all a sector of particular applicative interest, Tribology and Tribochemistry. A very important topic regarding potential future developments is that of Transformation Processes of Metals and Alloys.

In the Minerals sector, new lines of research are being directed towards problems related to exploration, extraction and processing, with the participation of researchers from different African countries.

In the sector of Thin Films and Multilayers, there is growing interest for the relationships between properties and structure. Topics of possible future development regard magnetic materials, composites and materials for microtribology.

In the Corrosion sector, important for its high applicative interest, numerous contributions regarded problems of wet corrosion, with a few contributions on hot corrosion and oxidation, while dry corrosion emerged as an important subject of potential interest.

In the Surface Treatments sector (i.e., treatments to tailor surface properties for specific applications), subjects of potential interest include the New Technologies for Surface Modifications (e.g., ion nitriding of steels and plasma assisted or high energy beam assisted deposition techniques and interactions).

In the sector of Materials Processing, alongside contributions specific to the sector there were other papers that could have been presented in different sectors, such as, for example, Metallurgy. Further development of this sector in the next conference is to be hoped for.

Finally, in the sector of Instrumentation for Mössbauer Spectroscopy, contributions regarding Data Acquisition and Elaboration were presented. Improvements in decreasing the time required to make the necessary measurements and in the quantity of information that can be obtained are expected from the use of synchrotron radiation facilities.

- Functionality of the Congress Center and relative facilities.

Many people, groups and organizations have contributed to the success of the Symposium. All their efforts are gratefully acknowledged. Particular mention is due to:

- The Organizing Committee and in particular Herman Pollak, for his very effective and tireless organizing work, Frans Waanders, Uri Karfunkel, Johan Malherbe, Silvana Luyckx, Tercia Mauwane and the students Humphrey Dlomini, Zola Nkosilumore and Abel Debula.

- All the authors for their interesting presentations and for their much appreciated efforts to outline the possibilities of industrial applications of their results.

The conference also offered a rich program of social activities: the visit to the animal park with its interesting lion population, the Zulu entertainment and dinner, the get-together party, the Braai dinner, and the official banquet.

Particular mention goes to Jannine Pollak for her attentive, capable and punctual organization of the Ladies Program.

For all participants, this conference was a precious opportunity to visit this splendid country of South Africa, which for many of us was a first visit.

During the conference, two official meetings of the Scientific Executive Committee were held for the main purpose of evaluating possible areas of development of the ISIAME series of Symposia. It was agreed that the meeting schedule of once every four years should be maintained.

Various possibilities for the choice of the site for the next conference were carefully examined and the United States was selected.

I now have the pleasure of closing this meeting with presentation of the ISIAME logo to Prof. Cook.