Gothenburg, situated on the west coast of Sweden, close the sea and a stunning archipelago, was the host of the recent 28th edition of the International Conference on Diamond and Carbon Materials. Attended by 295 researchers from 43 countries, the meeting featured 264 presentations spread over four full days. In addition to two high-level Keynote lectures, 17 Invited presentations were also delivered. Igor Aharonovich enlightened us on “Advanced diamond nanofabrication techniques for quantum sensing and nanophotonics” in a fully booked tutorial after the Materials Today Publishing Seminar. For the first time, the DCM Early Career Research Award was handed out, with Romana Schirhagl as the first recipient of what hopefully will become a tradition for years to come. To underline the importance of materials research in modern day society, Volker Presser discussed the use of different carbon materials for water desalination in the Materials Today “Materials in Society” Lecture. Last but not least, Quantum Photonics, Wide Band Gap Power Electronics, and (Photo)catalysis on Carbon Surfaces received special attention in the form of Focused Sessions with dedicated invited speakers selected by the respective Focused Session Chairs.
It is a pleasure to see the number of submissions for the DCM Young Scholar Awards (YSAs) steadily increasing each year. After passing a tough selection by dedicated YSA committee members, the six finalists were awarded oral presentations in appropriate sessions of the oral programme. Based on an accompanying poster, the Poster Session Chairs had the hard task of judging the presentation skills and scientific understanding of the finalists, ultimately leading to two Gold and four Silver Award winners. Jorne Raymakers (Hasselt University, Belgium - Gold) and Nattakarn Suntornwipat (Uppsala University, Sweden - Gold) were each awarded a €250 cash prize, in addition to the YSA Award certificate, which was also given to Kuralai Ashikkalieva (General Physics Institute – RAS, Russia - Silver), Yohei Harada (Asahi Diamond Industrial Co., Ltd., Japan - Silver), Simon Hemelaar (Groningen University, The Netherlands - Silver), and Marcell Kiss (EPFL, Switzerland - Silver). Congratulations to each of them!
I want to thank all of you for attending DCM 2017 and hope you enjoyed the beautiful conference and banquet venues, which provided a stimulating environment for exchanging ideas, meeting old colleagues, and making new friends. Join me again next year at the start of September for DCM 2018 in Dubrovnik, known as the “Pearl of the Adriatic”, a UNESCO World Heritage Centre situated at the Dalmatian coast of southern Croatia!
Best wishes, Ken Haenen, Conference Chair