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of the STD, which was under the leadership
of A. Van Oostrom (NL) as Scientific Director,
during the 1986-92 period.
The first IUVSTA Scientific Workshop arose
from the STD’s decision to sponsor a high level
scientific workshop in 1989. The idea was to
provide a forum for intense scientific debate
and discussion between a small number of
experts in a focused scientific field which fell
within the area of activity of the Divisions of
IUVSTA. The purpose of the workshop was to
be scientific rather than educational.
The topic of this first workshop was
“The Structure and Reactivity of Small
Molecules on Surfaces”. It was organised
by D. P. Woodruff (GB), Chair of the
Surface Science Division, and A. Bradshaw
(GB). It was held at Ofir, Portugal, on
17-22 September 1989. There were
58 participants (20 from the FRG, 10 from
the USA, 10 from GB, 6 from Japan and
12 from nine other European countries)
including 17 invited speakers. This
workshop was judged to be a complete
success and the format was retained
for future workshops, two of which were
organised for the following year, 1990.
These first few workshops were so
successful that they were numbered
and continue as a series. It is intended
that they remain informal and that they
involveall delegatesbeing“in residence”,
typically at a relatively remote site (i.e.
not in a large city). It is also intended that
the workshop be kept small enough and
long enough to ensure active debate
(i.e. less than 100 delegates and about
5 days duration).
There are no printed proceedings of these
workshops, thus allowing new and untried
ideas to be raised and discussed. Proposals
for workshops can be initiated by Divisions,
or by individuals through Divisions.
The STD Discretionary Fund support for
these meeting is intended to guarantee
financial stability. Initially this support
was SFr 15,000 but experience showed
that SFr 10,000 was sufficient and this
latter figure has been taken as the normal
maximum since the 16
th
Workshop. Since
the Union working currency is now the
Euro, the maximum support provided to
each workshop is
€
6,000. Any surplus
funds generated are returned to the STD.
The number of IUVSTA Workshops presen
ted each year has increased dramatically and
the program currently constitutes the largest
item of expenditure in the STD budget. A total
of 80 Workshops have currently (August
2016) been held (2 have been cancelled),
as shown in Table X.
In general, it is more expensive to
run a Summer School, particularly for
students from developing countries,
than to run conferences or scientific
workshops. Thus it was recognised
that, for Schools, a partner organisation
was required. Such a partner was
first found in the International Centre
for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in
Trieste, Italy, which is now called the
Adbus Salam International Centre for
Theoretical Physics.
After extended negotiations, in which
M. Croset (F) and A. Zalar (SLO) were
heavily involved, it was agreed to run a
jointly sponsored Educational Workshop on
the Science and Technology of Thin Films.
The IUVSTA contributed SFr 10,000 and
organised the program and instructors,
whilst the ICTP contributed more than
five times this amount and supplied their
facilities which included accommodation
areas, lecture rooms, laboratory space, a
library and computing facilities. P. Barna (H)
took a leading organisational role on behalf
of the IUVSTA.