SSRL sponsored a major international conference on superconductivity early this year. The conference, entitled "Spectroscopies in Novel Superconductors" was held at SSRL from March 15-18, 1995 and generated considerable interest in the scientific community. About 200 scientists from 14 countries attended: United States, Japan, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, France, The Netherlands, Sweden, India, Israel, Argentina, China, Finland and Russia were all represented. Among the participants were leaders in the field of high-temperature superconductivity, including two Nobel laureates. There were about 140 papers presented, with a 1:2 mixture of theory and experiment. The conference helped the scientific community reach consensus on some critical issues. The proceedings will be published as a special volume in the Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids . A summary of the conference by Philip Allen was published in the journal Nature. The conference was co-chaired by Zhi-Xun Shen and William E. Spicer, members of the SSRL faculty. Strong support was received from the scientific community, government agencies, sister laboratories, and particularly the SSRL staff. The leadership and able skills provided by Katherine Cantwell, the conference coordinator, was also a key to the success of this meeting.
