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Posters: Databases, Data Needs, Data Production

Foreword

This Special Publication contains the poster papers presented at the first International Conference on Atomic and Molecular Data and Their Applications (ICAMDATA), which was convened at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, MD from September 29 through October 2, 1997. One hundred seventy-one registered participants from 20 countries attended the conference. In addition to the poster papers recorded here, twenty-seven invited talks were given, which are collected in a separate volume of proceedings [1].

Atomic and molecular (A+M) data are essential for the solution of a wide range of problems in diverse fields of science and technology. Major current areas of science requiring large amounts of A+M data are astrophysics, plasma physics, atmospheric physics, and basic atomic physics. Major current technology areas in which A+M data are an essential input are the plasma processing of materials, the development of lighting sources, and spectrochemistry.

The enormous variety of A+M data and the diverse data needs have led to quite a fragmentation of this field, and a focal point has been missing. This conference, as well as a planned future conference series, is therefore intended to serve as such a focal point, with one of its main purposes to bring together data producers, compilers, and users in an open forum and provide close interactions and intensive exchanges of ideas.

The principal topics of the poster presentations were (a) the production of collision and radiation data, both atomic and molecular, including benchmark data; (b) the presentation and detailed description of available atomic and molecular databases, their management and data assessment, and (c) reviews of data needs in various user communities.

It is a pleasure to acknowledge the competent editorial assistance of C. Marlow and R. Jocson.