CENTENNIAL OF THE DISCOVERY OF POLONIUM AND RADIUM                      
                                INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE                                   
                          NUCLEAR PHYSICS CLOSE TO THE BARRIER                             
               Warsaw University, Heavy Ion Laboratory, 30.06 - 4.07.1998                  

FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT

We take pleasure in informing you that this Conference, organised by the Heavy Ion Laboratory and the Institute of Experimental Physics of Warsaw University, will be held in Warsaw, Poland from June 30 to July 4, 1998.

The Conference is one of the events commemorating the centennial of the discovery of Po and Ra. On the other hand, it is intended to be a forum to discuss the achievements and future of low energy heavy ion physics (up to 10 MeV/amu). The Warsaw Cyclotron is the only accelerator in Central Europe providing such beams. In recent years the operation of many similar facilities was terminated or curtailed, so the question to answer is whether this trend is justified and thus irreversible or whether there are still important problems to be solved in the field. Among the topics to be addressed we suggest:

Exotic Nuclei - nuclei far from stability, new elements and isotopes (a link to Po and Ra)

Coulomb Excitation and Direct Nucleon Transfer Around the Barrier

- Electromagnetic Structure of Nuclei

- Nuclear Shapes, including complementary methods to the above such as studies of exotic atoms,
laser spectroscopy, etc.

- Coulomb/nuclear interference as a probe of nuclear forces

Giant Resonances

Symmetries and Symmetry Breaking

Nuclear Astrophysics

Applications

- Solid state studies, material technology, micromechanics

PARTICIPATION

Those who are interested in attending the Conference are asked to contact us by e-mail :

conf@slcj.uw.edu.pl

To receive the second announcement, please respond by December 31, 1997.

FEES

The estimated cost of participation is 250 ECU. This includes the conference fee, conference proceedings, lunches, concert and conference dinner.

For the Organising Committee:

Tomasz Czosnyka (Co- Chairman) Jerzy Jastrzêbski (Co- Chairman) Anna Stolarz (Scientific Secretary)

E-mail: CONF@SLCJ.UW.EDU.PL                                      Heavy Ion Laboratory,     
                                         Warsaw University                                 
Phone: (+48-22)-822 2123 or                                      ul. Pasteura 5A, 02-093   
(+48-22)-658 2021 Fax:                   Warszawa,                                         
(+48-22)-659 2714                                                                          
                            http://www.slcj.uw.edu.pl/~conf/