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I am writing this message on behalf of all those who have participated at the International Symposium on Ultrafast Intense Laser Science (ISUILS) in the past ten years. On the occasion of celebrating the 10th anniversary of this highly successful symposium, I would like to express my gratitude first to the visionary, extensive and leading supports for this international activity extended from the following organizations in Japan; Ministry of Education, Sports, Culture and Technology, Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Japan Intense Light Field Science Society, and the University of Tokyo. The symposium was further significantly enhanced by many other industrial and academic organizations whose names are listed at the end of this message.I also would like to sincerely thank Prof. Kaoru Yamanouchi for his great leadership and patience to have guided this symposium to its extraordinary success.

It is extraordinary because the meeting is a unique one in the sense that it emphasizes full discussions. It is extraordinary because all top scientists active at the forefront of this field are invited with equal respect regardless of their country of origin. This permits them to ask extensive questions and challenge one another in the field of intense laser science. It is because of the relaxed yet serious atmosphere that all participants have sufficient amount of time to not only learn from one another, but to get to know each other. The consequence is the close friendship that was developed among us with no boundary.

I always ask myself this question as to whether science and technology could ever make a society prosperous, peaceful and harmonious with all those inside and outside the society. This symposium has demonstrated that it is at least possible to achieve this ideal partially. I learn from participating at this symposium in the past ten years that we could achieve this ideal of understanding one another through peaceful interaction around one subject and in our case, the discussion around science and technology.

Bravo!

See Leang CHIN

Industrial and academic sponsors of ISUILS over the past ten years:

The University of Tokyo, Laval University, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, University of Palermo, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Shanghai Commission of Science and Technology, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Instituto per i Processi Chimico-Fisici, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Foundation of Research and Technology-Hellas, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Helmholtz Institute Jena, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Asian Office of Research and Development, Spectra Physics, Amplitude Technologies, Thales Laser (Thales Optronique and Thales Japan), Coherent, Fastlite, Femtolasers, Photonics Industries, Newport Corporation, SILIOS Technologies, Horiba Jobin Yvon, Japan Laser, Optima, Tokyo Instruments, Hamamatsu Photonics, Princeton Instruments, Nippon Roper, Asahi Business,
QB System, International Academic Printing, Springer.