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Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Luminescence and Electron Spin Resonance Dating
Radiation Measurements 41 (2006) 737 www.elsevier.com/locate/radmeas
Guest Editorial
Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Luminescence and Electron Spin Resonance Dating The 11th International Conference on Luminescence and Electron Spin Resonance Dating was held between 24th and 29th July, 2005 at the Kardinal-Schulte-Haus, BergischGladbach, Köln, Germany. Originally built as a seminary, this magnificent venue is set in an elevated position that provides a panoramic view of the Rhine Valley. Conference delegates were treated to a two-day pre-conference tour, led by Professor Ludwig Zöller, who guided delegates to a group of selected Quaternary sites along the Rhine Valley from Heidelberg to Köln that have been the subject of detailed chronometric studies. As the Chairman of the Scientific Organising Committee, Professor Ulrich Radtke ensured the smooth running of the meeting and the excellence of the catering. Once again, the number of participants increased, with about 200 people attending from 34 countries. A memorable conference dinner was enjoyed whilst gliding along the Middle Rhine. However, the meeting will be best remembered for the building being hit by lightning at 5 a.m., with all delegates (except those few who slept through the accompanying alarm) enjoying daybreak on the steps of the building. Over 200 presentations were made in either oral or poster form and the papers produced were submitted to either Radiation Measurements or Quaternary Geochronology for publication of the proceedings as special issues of these journals. The conference retained a strong engagement with the application of trapped charge methods to dating problems, and over half of all the papers presented were related to the luminescence dating of sediments. Most of the dating papers were submitted to Quaternary Geochronology. For this issue of Radiation Measurements the papers represent a broad range of investigation related to the improvement of techniques, mostly luminescence, the development of new approaches, fundamental studies of luminescence mechanisms and the characteristics of minerals, mathematical modelling and aspects of dosimetry. Two prizes, awarded for student papers presented at the conference, were made to Femka Davids for the best poster and to Wang Xulong for the best oral presentation. During the preparation of this issue we were saddened to hear of the untimely death of Professor Motoji. Ikeya, recently retired from Osaka University. Prof. Ikeya, best known for his book New Applications of Electron Spin Resonance, was a distinguished ESR specialist of extraordinary energy and
1350-4487/$ - see front matter © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.radmeas.2006.08.003
imagination and was single-handedly responsible for raising the profile of ESR as a dating method. The papers were refereed by a panel of Reviewers and we are very grateful to the colleagues listed below who contributed to the proceedings by undertaking this time consuming work. The proceedings of this conference have been published in Radiation Measurements (and its precursor Nuclear Tracks and Radiation Measurements) since the early 1980s. They serve as an essential periodic vade-mecum of current research and can usually be spotted on laboratory shelves as now dog-eared copies due to the wealth of information contained in them. Using a decade as a gauge of development it is interesting to look back to the proceedings of the Canberra meeting, held in 1996. The issue, containing some 47 papers, reflects a preoccupation with the characteristics of feldspars, as opposed to quartz in the 2005 conference, and notably the development of the underpinnings for single aliquot measurement procedures that were to emerge in the following 5 years. A futuristic paper on remote TL and OSL measurements for asteroid and meteoritic studies by the Osaka group is a fore-runner of the work on Martian sediments included in this issue. Reviewers G. Adamiec A.J.J. Bos R.M. Bailey A. Bluszcz L.BZtter-Jensen B.J. Brennan R. Chen M.L. Chithambo J.H. Choi V. Correcher D. Degering D.I. Godfrey-Smith
M. Fattahi S. Greilich G. Guérin H.Y. Göksu P. Guibert D.J. Huntley M. Jain R. Kalchgruber G. Kitis M.R. Krbetschek N. Kristianpoller S.-H. Li
M. Martini S.W.S. Mc Keever D. Miallier A.S. Murray V. Pagonis W.J. Rink D.C.W. Sanderson A.R. Skinner P.J. Thomas S. Tsukamoto R. Visocekas
Ian Bailiff University of Durham E-mail address: [email protected] (I. Bailiff), Ann Wintle University College of Wales, Aberystwyth E-mail address: [email protected] (A. Wintle).
Guest Editorial
Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Luminescence and Electron Spin Resonance Dating The 11th International Conference on Luminescence and Electron Spin Resonance Dating was held between 24th and 29th July, 2005 at the Kardinal-Schulte-Haus, BergischGladbach, Köln, Germany. Originally built as a seminary, this magnificent venue is set in an elevated position that provides a panoramic view of the Rhine Valley. Conference delegates were treated to a two-day pre-conference tour, led by Professor Ludwig Zöller, who guided delegates to a group of selected Quaternary sites along the Rhine Valley from Heidelberg to Köln that have been the subject of detailed chronometric studies. As the Chairman of the Scientific Organising Committee, Professor Ulrich Radtke ensured the smooth running of the meeting and the excellence of the catering. Once again, the number of participants increased, with about 200 people attending from 34 countries. A memorable conference dinner was enjoyed whilst gliding along the Middle Rhine. However, the meeting will be best remembered for the building being hit by lightning at 5 a.m., with all delegates (except those few who slept through the accompanying alarm) enjoying daybreak on the steps of the building. Over 200 presentations were made in either oral or poster form and the papers produced were submitted to either Radiation Measurements or Quaternary Geochronology for publication of the proceedings as special issues of these journals. The conference retained a strong engagement with the application of trapped charge methods to dating problems, and over half of all the papers presented were related to the luminescence dating of sediments. Most of the dating papers were submitted to Quaternary Geochronology. For this issue of Radiation Measurements the papers represent a broad range of investigation related to the improvement of techniques, mostly luminescence, the development of new approaches, fundamental studies of luminescence mechanisms and the characteristics of minerals, mathematical modelling and aspects of dosimetry. Two prizes, awarded for student papers presented at the conference, were made to Femka Davids for the best poster and to Wang Xulong for the best oral presentation. During the preparation of this issue we were saddened to hear of the untimely death of Professor Motoji. Ikeya, recently retired from Osaka University. Prof. Ikeya, best known for his book New Applications of Electron Spin Resonance, was a distinguished ESR specialist of extraordinary energy and
1350-4487/$ - see front matter © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.radmeas.2006.08.003
imagination and was single-handedly responsible for raising the profile of ESR as a dating method. The papers were refereed by a panel of Reviewers and we are very grateful to the colleagues listed below who contributed to the proceedings by undertaking this time consuming work. The proceedings of this conference have been published in Radiation Measurements (and its precursor Nuclear Tracks and Radiation Measurements) since the early 1980s. They serve as an essential periodic vade-mecum of current research and can usually be spotted on laboratory shelves as now dog-eared copies due to the wealth of information contained in them. Using a decade as a gauge of development it is interesting to look back to the proceedings of the Canberra meeting, held in 1996. The issue, containing some 47 papers, reflects a preoccupation with the characteristics of feldspars, as opposed to quartz in the 2005 conference, and notably the development of the underpinnings for single aliquot measurement procedures that were to emerge in the following 5 years. A futuristic paper on remote TL and OSL measurements for asteroid and meteoritic studies by the Osaka group is a fore-runner of the work on Martian sediments included in this issue. Reviewers G. Adamiec A.J.J. Bos R.M. Bailey A. Bluszcz L.BZtter-Jensen B.J. Brennan R. Chen M.L. Chithambo J.H. Choi V. Correcher D. Degering D.I. Godfrey-Smith
M. Fattahi S. Greilich G. Guérin H.Y. Göksu P. Guibert D.J. Huntley M. Jain R. Kalchgruber G. Kitis M.R. Krbetschek N. Kristianpoller S.-H. Li
M. Martini S.W.S. Mc Keever D. Miallier A.S. Murray V. Pagonis W.J. Rink D.C.W. Sanderson A.R. Skinner P.J. Thomas S. Tsukamoto R. Visocekas
Ian Bailiff University of Durham E-mail address: [email protected] (I. Bailiff), Ann Wintle University College of Wales, Aberystwyth E-mail address: [email protected] (A. Wintle).