The International Conference on Extreme Light (ICEL) sees the light in 2015
Less than ten years after its selection by the European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures [ESFRI] to be part of Europe’s Roadmap of research infrastructures of pan-European interest, the Extreme Light Infrastructure’s implementation is close to completion on three sites in Czech Republic (ELI-Beams), Hungary (ELI-Attosecond) and Romania (ELI-Nuclear Physics), and the ELI project is about to become one of the “ESFRI landmarks”, for its key role as reference project of scientific excellence and of competitiveness of the European Research Area [ERA].
Following-up on the tradition of the ELI-related conferences established some years ago with LEI2009 and LEI2011, the International Conference on Extreme Light (ICEL) has been conceived as a unique opportunity to gather together the scientific communities of ELI users at large in a single scientific event.
In 2015, the first of the regular series of conferences, ICEL2015, was held on the occasion of the UNESCO led celebration of the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies. ICEL2015 was co-organised by Extreme Light Infrastructure – Delivery Consortium (ELI-DC AISBL) and ELI Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) - the Romanian pillar of ELI – and took place in Bucharest, Romania, in the period 23-27 November, 2015.
Application fields covered by this first edition were:
- Advanced accelerator technologies
- Ultra-fast dynamics and atto-physics
- Plasma physics
- Nuclear physics
- Fundamental interactions
- Imaging
- Materials science
- Biological and medical applications
The Romanian Minister of Education and Research and the State Secretary for research were present for the Opening ceremony. About 170 participants from 26 countries attended the event. The scientific program of ICEL-2015 featured more than 60 invited and contributed oral presentations in plenary and parallel sessions, and comprehensive poster sessions. The conference also provided ample opportunities to discuss among colleagues from academia, research laboratories, and industry worldwide.
The conference was also attended by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Sandner, the Director General of ELI-DC AISBL, who shared with the participants his high views and ambitions for the high-intensity laser science in Europe. Unfortunately Prof. Sandner unexpectedly died only few days after the conference, on December 5th, 2015 (see Obituary by Prof. Toshiki Tajima) and will be missed by the whole scientific community.
The next edition of the International Conference on Extreme Light will be held after two years, in 2017.
To find out more about the event, please visit:
http://www.eli-np.ro/indico/conferenceDisplay.py?ovw=True&confId=28
To find out more about ELI, please visit:
ELI-DC AISBL: https://eli-laser.eu
ELI-ALPS: http://www.eli-alps.hu
ELI-Beams: http://www.eli-beams.eu
ELI-NP: http://www.eli-np.ro
