Preface: Phys. Status Solidi C 6/6

Abstract

Abstract The present issue of physica status solidi (c) contains papers presented at the 35th International Symposium on Compound Semiconductors (ISCS 2008). The symposium was held 21–24 September 2008 at the Europa‐Park in Rust, Germany. This conference is one in an annual series, which has in the past rotated between the United States, Europe and Asia and was organized for the second time at the Europa‐Park. The last three conferences were held in Kyoto, Japan (2007), Vancouver, Canada (2006) and Rust, Germany (2005). The history of the symposium goes back to 1966 when the first “International Symposium on GaAs and Related Compounds” took place in Reading, England. The scope of the meeting includes both science and technology and the entire spectrum of III–V and II–VI compound semiconductors as well as SiGe, SiC and carbon related materials. The symposium was attended by 130 registered participants from 17 countries with 26% from Asia, 12% from America and 62% from Europe. A total of 101 papers were presented at the symposium including 4 plenary talks, 13 invited talks, 41 contributed talks and 43 poster presentations. The conference was opened with a plenary session to highlight current research activities within the German “excellence initiative” at the Universities of Aachen, Karlsruhe and Konstanz. Reinhart Proprawe opened this series with his view on “Reaching excellence in university R&D – The institutional strategy of RWTH Aachen 2020”, followed by a presentation on “Photonic metamaterials: Optics starts walking on two feet” by Martin Wegener from the University of Karlsruhe. Alfred Leitenstorfer highlighted application oriented research in a paper entitled “The Konstanz center for Applied Photonics: Bridging the gap between fundamental research and high tech industry”, followed by the industrial view of Stefan Illek on “Light from crystals – Light emitting diodes are penetrating our everyday life”. Three prestigious research awards were presented at the symposium, the Welker Award, the Quantum Device Award, and the Young Scientist Award. We thank all the participants as well as the Program Committee members of ISCS 2008 for contributing to the success of the meeting. Finally, we extend our thanks to the Local Organizing Committee for the excellent organization of the symposium. The 36th International Symposium on Compound Semiconductors will be organized by Umesh Mishra and will be held at the University of California at Santa Barbara, on 31 August–2 September 2009 (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)