Vol.34 (Oct) 2024 | Article no.28 2024
The 55th Council Meeting of the Association of Asia Pacific Physical Societies (AAPPS) was held in a hybrid format from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (UTC + 9 h) on November 4, 2023, and from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM (UTC + 9 h) on November 5, 2023 in Lahan Hotel Pohang, Korea and hosted online by the Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics (APCTP). It was attended by Hyoung Joon Choi (president), Tao Xiang (vice president), Jae-Hyung Jeon (secretary), Keun-Young Kim (treasurer), Jun'ichi Yokoyama (former president, ex-officio), and council members Xiu-Dong Sun (Chinese Physical Society, Beijing), Ruiqin Zhang (Physical Society of Hong Kong), Mio Murao (Physical Society of Japan), Rajdeep Singh Rawat (Institute of Physics Singapore), and Ying-Jer Kao (Proxy of Meng-Fan Luo, Physical Society located in Taipei). The meeting was observed by Sang Pyo Kim (chair of DACG), Byungsik Hong (chair of DNP, online), Nojiri Hiroyuki (chair of DCMP), Kwang-Yong Choi (proxy, chair of DCMP), Setsuko Tajima (proxy, chair of Women in Physics), Won Namkung (proxy, editor-in-chief of the AAPPS Bulletin), Yunkyu Bang (president of APCTP), Eunjeong Lee (head of office research support of APCTP), and Dayoung Yang (AAPPS liaison and editorial staff member). Council Members Nicole F. Bell (Australian Institute of Physics), Qing Shen (Japan Society of Applied Physics), Kurunathan Ratnavelu (Malaysian Institute of Physics), Narayan Prasad Chapagain (Nepal Physical Society), Dinh Lam Vu (Vietnam Physical Society), and Kadyr G. Gulamov (Council of Uzbekistan Physicists) were absent.
Secretary Jae-Hyung Jeon confirmed the presence of 10 out of 16 council members. President Choi opened the 55th Council Meeting and welcomed the participants. Former President Yokoyama and APCTP President Bang also delivered welcome addresses. The agenda, prepared by President Choi, was adopted. All participants, including chairs of divisions, the working group, and other observers, introduced themselves. The draft minutes of the 54th AAPPS (online) Council Meeting will be sent by email for approval. It was subsequently approved by email on November 22, 2023.
Treasurer Keun-Young Kim reported on the financial status of AAPPS, including the total balance, account statements, membership dues from 15 societies for 2023, and contributions to the AAPPS Bulletin (AB). The tentative budget for 2024, covering various expense plans, was also presented. Acting as a proxy for the editor-in-chief, Won Namkung reported on the current status and history of AB, noting its acceptance into Scopus in 2023 and the need for more citations. President Choi mentioned that all of the donations from the Leo KoGuan Foundation will be reserved for AB.
Jae-Hyung Jeon introduced APCTP, highlighting its mission, activities, and financial support for AAPPS and related events. He mentioned a decrease in support for 2024 due to reduced government funding. Rajdeep Singh Rawat, chair of the selection committee of the AAPPS-APCTP C. N. Yang Award, reported on the selection of three final awardees for the AAPPS-APCTP C. N. Yang Award, and President Choi expressed sincere thanks to the selection committee for their efforts.
Rajdeep Singh Rawat, also acting as proxy for the chair of the Division of Plasma Physics (DPP), reported on DPP's current status and the upcoming 7th Annual Conference in Nagoya on November 12–17, 2023. Sang Pyo Kim, chair of the Division of Astrophysics, Cosmology, and Gravitation (DACG), reported on the upcoming International Symposium on Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics (CosPA) 2023 in Hong Kong on November 10–13, 2023 and leadership changes in 2024. Byungsik Hong, chair of the Division of Nuclear Physics (DNP), provided a status report on the DNP and mentioned its upcoming annual meeting in Daejeon on November 10, 2023.
Nojiri Hiroyuki, Chair of the Division of Condensed Matter Physics (DCMP), reported on DCMP's history, current status, and the upcoming Asia-Pacific Conference on Condensed Matter Physics 2023 (AC2MP2023) in Hualien on November 27–29, 2023. It was discussed that the AAPPS Bulletin needs more editors in condensed-matter physics and DCMP may help with this. Setsuko Tajima, acting as a proxy for the chair of the Women-in-Physics Working Group (WIPWG), reported on the current status of women in physics and proposed a resolution for WIPWG. It was discussed that the resolution of WIPWG would be revised after further discussion and would be finalized as a resolution of the AAPPS Council later.
Tao Xiang reported on the preparations for the 16th Asia Pacific Physics Conference (APPC16), including the proposal to change the venue to Haikou in Hainan Island. President Choi proposed changing the venue of APPC16 to Haikou, which was seconded, and all attending council members voted in favor of this, so it was approved that APPC16 will be held in Haikou. President Choi reported on the progress of APPW2023 and requested encouragement of registration to be promoted.
Explaining the current status of the AAPPS account, President Choi proposed changing the account holder of the AAPPS account from the treasurer to APCTP with AAPPS added to the name of the account holder, which was seconded, and all attending council members voted in favor of this proposal. Therefore, it was approved that the account holder of the AAPPS account will be changed from treasurer to APCTP with AAPPS added to the name of the account holder. President Choi also proposed the 2024 budget plan, including support for the AAPPS-XPS Award, one-time support for AAPPS Divisions for 2024, and 3 years of support for Women in Physics from 2024 to 2026. It was seconded, and all attending council members voted in favor of this, so the budget plan of the AAPPS Council for 2024 was approved.
The formation of new divisions, such as the Division of Computational Physics and the Division of Particles and Fields, was briefly discussed. A proposal was made to create a division directory on the AAPPS website to facilitate better communication and organization within the divisions. President Choi mentioned the opportunity for AAPPS-DCMP to hold the Asia Europe Physics Summit (ASEPS) with the European Physical Society during the annual meeting of the European Physical Society's condensed matter division in September 2024. President Choi discussed a preliminary plan for a joint leadership meeting with the American Physical Society in 2024, possibly in Hong Kong or Singapore, with an online meeting to develop the agenda beforehand. It was reported that 2025 is the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ), and AAPPS decided to join the IYQ activities. AAPPS became a partner of IYQ on November 8, 2023.
Ying-Jer Kao, President of the Physical Society located in Taipei, reported the current status of the Physical Society located in Taipei including the 2nd AAPPS-TPS Award successfully presented to three awardees, hosting of Asia-Pacific Conference on Condensed Matter Physics 2023 (AC2MP 2023) of AAPPS DCMP on November 26-29, 2023, and hosting and participation of international networking activities. Mio Murao reported on the current status of the Physical Society of Japan, highlighting the 1st AAPPS-JPS Award ceremony held in September with five awardees and the AAPPS liaison webpage of JPS. President Choi reported the current status of the Korean Physical Society, including journals, annual meetings, hosting of the Asian Physics Olympiad 2026, hosting of the International Physics Olympiad 2028, and the list of MOUs.
There was intense discussion regarding how to strengthen the role of the C. N. Yang Award and better reflect diversity in terms of societies, fields, and genders. Amendments to the AAPPS-APCTP C. N. Yang Award rules were considered, with the final wording to be decided via email. The AAPPS-XPS Awards, conducted by PS Taipei and JPS, were discussed, and member societies were encouraged to propose new AAPPS-XPS awards.
President Choi expressed sincere thanks to APCTP for supporting the council meeting and to the APCTP staff members for their efforts, and he officially closed the meeting.
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