Special Issue on Nanostructured Functional Materials and Their Applications IV
Preface
2023 Volume 64 Issue 9 Pages 2069
Details
2023 Volume 64 Issue 9 Pages 2069
This is the fourth special issue of a series of “Nanostructured Functional Materials and Their Applications”. The preceding three issues were published as vol. 56, No. 9 in 2015, vol. 59, No. 7 in 2018, and vol. 61, No. 8 in 2020, in Materials Transactions, which contained 40, 15 and 32 excellent papers, respectively, related to the International Symposium of Frontiers in Materials Science (FMS) focusing upon cutting-edge materials science for nanostructured functional materials. After the continuous successes of the FMS series, the 6th FMS was planned to be held in Hsinchu, Taiwan, in 2021, which had been postponed by one year due to the pandemic of Covid-19. Unfortunately, the policy of the border control did not change in Taiwan in time for the scheduled date. Under such a circumstance as this, organizers decided having the 6th FMS in a hybrid style, i.e., both by face to face in Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam, and by online which was realized from 21st through 23rd of November, 2022. The symposium covered wide area of the materials science such as multiferroics and magnetic materials, materials for energy and environment, photonics and hybrid materials, spintronic materials and devices, and theory and computation. The success of this symposium far exceeded our expectations, in which 154 face to face presentations including 5 plenary, 41 invited and 25 oral talks and 83 poster presentations and 5 online invited talks were given, in which participants were from many countries such as Estonia, France, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, The Netherlands, Poland, Taiwan, Thailand, USA and Vietnam. All the submitted manuscripts have been subject to a strict peer-review process to meet with the standard of Materials Transactions.
Publication of research results in Materials Transactions have attracted continuous attention of scientists from Vietnam because of good quality of the journal, timely editorial support and improved ranking over time. It is not accidental to state that the high number of accepted papers from Vietnam in each issue of Materials Transactions related to FMS has considerable impact on maintaining good visibility of scientific development in Vietnam recently. Because of the pandemic, the last two years were very difficult for many Vietnamese researchers. Limited supports from funding agencies and lack of international collaborations were the main factors impeding the research activities, and therefore outputs. These difficulties seem to continue for a couple of years to come in Vietnam. Despite that, this issue has collected a good number of papers of high quality, demonstrating continuous research activities and international collaboration, especially between Vietnam and Japan. For this reason, we would like to express, as the organizers of FMS, our sincere thanks to all the authors who contribute to this special issue. Our special thank is given to Prof. Bach Thanh Cong, for his great contribution to FMS, true enthusiasm for collaboration, and with our deepest attitude we congratulate him for his 70th anniversary in 2022.
Finally, we are grateful for the support of sponsors, VNU-University of Engineering and Technology, Kagami Memorial Research Institute for Materials Science and Technology of Waseda University, New Materials Science on Nanoscale Structures and Functions of “Crystal Defect Cores” supported by JSPS, and HORIBA Co.
