Welcome to the XVIII International Colloquium on Magnetic Films and Surfaces Madrid, Spain 22-25 July, 2003

IMA local team (and some recent distinguished visitors)

Presentation
The 18th International Colloquium on Magnetic Films and Surfaces (ICMFS-2003) is to be held at Conference Hall of the CSIC, in a central area of Madrid, Spain, from Tuesday (July 22nd) to Friday (July 25th). The aim of this Colloquium is to bring together scientists working on magnetic thin films and surfaces and facilitate exchange of recent results and ideas around the following selected topics with emphasis on nanoscale magnetic systems. The series of ICMFS (initially named as International Colloquium on Magnetic Thin Films, ICMTF) were launched in 1964 in London by Professor E.P. Wohlfarth. We hope that you and your colleagues will be willing to participate in ICMFS-2003 in Madrid and present your most recent results.

The participation of young scientists is most welcome!!

Topics
-Nanogranular, nanostructured and nanopatterned thin films
-Exchange coupled multilayers
-Surface/Interface magnetism, anisotropy and magnetostriction
-Tunnelling phenomena and spintronics
-Epitaxial magnetic nanostructures and self-organized growth
-Thin film media for magnetic recording, GMR, MO recording
-Magnetization reversal and fast dynamics
-Magnetic semiconductors
-Specific characterization techniques for thin films and surfaces:
-MOKE, XMCD, ARPE, Mössbauer, FMR, transport and magnetoresistance, strain measurements,micromechanical devices, magnetic imaging.

Scientific program
Scientific sessions will be held from Tuesday (July 22nd) to Friday (July 25th). Invited papers and a limited number of contributed papers will be presented in oral sessions whereas most of the contributed papers will be presented at poster sessions. There will be no parallel sessions. A digest book with a page text of each presentation will be prepared and distributed at the Colloquium. The proceedings of the Colloquium will not be published.

The preliminary list of invited speakers will be included in the next announcement.

The official conference language is English. No simultaneous translation will be provided.

International Advisory Committe

R. Atkinson (Ireland)	S. Bader (USA)
M.N. Baibich (Brazil)	J.A.C. Bland (UK)
P. Bruno (Germany)	J.N. Chapman (UK)
C. Chapert (France)	W.J.M. de Jonge (Netherlands)
B. Heinrich (Canada)	X. F. Jin (China)
J. Kirschner (Germany)	E. Kisker (Germany)
C. Lodder (Netherlands)	S. Maekawa (Japan)
G. Mathon (UK)	J. Miltat (France)[Vice-chair]
T. Miyazaki (Japan)	H. Ohno (Japan)
S. S. P. Parkin (USA)	D. T. Pierce (USA)[Chair]
S. Prasad (India)	S.C. Shin (Korea)
T. Shinjo (Japan)	H. Szymczak (Poland)
M. Takahashi (Japan)	A. Vedyayev (Russia)
S. Visnovsky (Czech)

Organizing Committee

A. Hernando (Instituto de Magnetismo Aplicado, UCM)[Chair]

F. Briones (Instituto de Microelectrónica de Madrid, CSIC) [Chair]

R. Miranda (Dept. Física de la Materia Condensada, UAM) [Chair]

J.M. Rojo (Dept. Física de Materiales, UCM)[Chair]

Local Committe

J.M. Alameda	J.M. Barandiarán
A. Cebollada	P. Crespo
J.M. González	R. Ibarra
J. Nogués	X. Obradors
J. Tejada	J.L. Vincent

Registration
Registration (estimated cost 400€) includes conference materials and books of abstracts, welcome reception, coffee breaks and a half-day excursion to Segovia with dinner.

Registration and Payment Deadline is May 23rd, 2003

Student support and financial help
A limited number of grants will be offered to support the attendance of graduate students. The grant will cover the registration fee and student hall lodging. To request a grant, a formal letter of application and curriculum vitae should send by e-mail to the following electronic address < icmfs.2003.madrid@renfe.es >. The candidates applications should be backed by 2 letters of recommendation, which should be sent separately to the same address.

Conference Location
Madrid is a friendly cosmopolitan city located in the central part of Spain, with more than four millions inhabitants. Madrid offers to visitors a lot of resources of interest. The old town of Madrid is a melting pot of cultures and traditions of different historic times. Also, a large number of theatres and museums can be visited (among the latter, two of the best in the world, Prado and Thyssen). During the summer months there is a bustling night life.

The weather in Madrid in July is rather warm, with an average daylight temperature between 30-35oC but it is not unpleasant due to the very low humidity. Furthermore, temperatures fall to below 20 o C during the late evening.

Visa requirements
Citizens from most countries do not require a visa. However, in case of doubt, foreign participants are advised to contact the Spanish Embassy or Consulate in their home countries to check their particular visa requirements.
Participants who need a personal invitation letter for the visa procedure should contact the Organizing Committee.

Important dates
December 2nd, 2002
Call for Contributions and Registration Procedures

April 1st, 2003
Deadline for contributions submission

April 25th, 2003
Decision on acceptance of contributions

May 23rd, 2003
Deadline for registration (after this date + 50€)

Mailing address and additional information
You can contact us by email icmfs.2003.madrid@renfe.es. Alternatively, you can use Phone or FAX. A Web page for the Colloquium will be available shortly.

If you are interested in attending this conference, please send us a reply of this mail with a tentative title of your contribution.

The XVIII International Colloquium on Magnetic Films and Surfaces

E-mail: icmfs.2003.madrid@renfe.es

Phone: +34-91-3007173 / 74 / 75

Fax: +34-91-3007176