International Nucleation and Atmospheric Aerosol Conferences

1954 to 2015

The return of the International Conference on Nucleation and Atmospheric Aerosols to Galway in Ireland for the seventeenth conference in the series provided a good opportunity to consider the history of the development of these conferences over their first fifty years. This history is now updated at the time of each new conference.

This conference series may be said to have begun with what R Siskna (1966) described as the ‘Zeroth Conference’ at the General Assembly of the IUGG in Rome in 1954. A group of four met in a cafe to hear an informal lecture by L.W Pollak on his work in Dublin developing condensation nucleus counters. They prevailed on him to organize the Symposium on Condensation Nuclei which may be called the first international conference. It was held on the 26-28 April 1955 and was attended by 34 persons from 8 countries. With 26 papers presented over five half day sessions there was plenty of time for discussions and viewing the exhibition and demonstrations of various photoelectric and photographic condensation nucleus counters in Pollak’s laboratories. The main organizers were L.W. Pollak and P.J. Nolan.

The Second Symposium on Condensation Nuclei was held in Switzerland at Basle and Locarno on the 1-4 October. 1956. This second conference brought together about 50 persons from 12 countries and 28 papers were presented. It introduced the happy idea, repeated on four occasions, of holding the conference in two locations so that participants learned more about various centers of research. The main organizers were F. Verzár, M Bider and J,C, Thams.

The third International Symposium on Condensation Nuclei was held in the UK at the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge on the 16-18 July 1958. It was attended by 50 participants from nine countries and 24 papers were presented. It was organised by T.W. Wormell.

The fourth International Conference on Atmospheric Condensation Nuclei was held at two locations in Germany on the 24-28 May 1961. The first part was held in Frankfurt / Main was concerned with fundamental aspect of atmospheric aerosols. The second part was in Heidelberg and concentrated mainly on radioactivity in the atmosphere. The main organizers were H.W. Georgii and G. Schumann. Some 74 persons from 14 countries presented 37 papers. The proceedings of the first four conferences were published as special volumes of the journal Geofisica pura e applicata (PAGEOPH) volumes 31, 36, 42, and 50. They give only the abstract of some presentations as they were published in full in other journals.

France was the host country for the fifth international conference on condensation nuclei and ice nuclei on the 13-17 May 1963. For the first time ice nuclei featured in the title of the conference. There were 54 registered participants from 14 countries. The principal organizer was H. Dessens. The first day was held in the University of Clermont-Ferrand and was devoted to ice nuclei. On May 14 the participants made the 400 km journey to Toulouse, with a memorable break for a 16 course lunch at Aubrac en route. The second part in the University of Toulouse covered condensation nuclei, their origin and measurement and radioactivity. The conference concluded on May 17 with a visit to l’Institut de Physique de l’Atmosphere at Lannemezan and a spectacular demonstration of the Meteortron, producing convection in the atmosphere by burning oil at the rate of 1000 litres per minute! There were 34 presentations to the conference. All of the abstracts and 16 of the papers, in either English or French, were published in the Journal Recherches Atmosphériques Volume 1, 1963 as well as a note giving references to where another 15 papers appeared in other journals.

The sixth international symposium on condensation nuclei was held at two venues in the USA on the 9-13 May 1966. The first part was held in the State University of New York at Albany, NY and the second part was in Pennsylvania State University at University Park, PA. The main organizers were V.J. Schaefer and C.L. Hosler. There were 86 delegates from 14 countries and the 55 presentations were published in a special number of the Journal Recherches Atmosphérique, Volume 2, pp 50 – 436, (1966). The Proceedings were dedicated to the memory of L.W. Pollak, who had died in November 1964. The organization of these conferences over the first ten years had been undertaken on a voluntary basis by interested individuals, without statutes or rules or officers or offices. It was then decided to entrust the general organization of future conferences to a sub-committee on nucleation of the International Commission on Cloud Physics within the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics. This official status facilitated wider publicity for the conferences and easier participation for some in them through official channels, without disrupting the close links of personal friendship, which had become a feature of these meetings.

The seventh international conference on condensation and ice nuclei was held at two locations in Central Europe, Prague and Vienna, on the 18-24 September 1969. The host institutions were the Institute for Physics of the Atmosphere of the Czechoslovak Academy of Science and the Institute 1 for Physics of the University of Vienna. The main organizers were J, Podzimek, K. Spurny and O. Preining. Participants from 26 countries presented 80 papers which were published as a special book of the proceedings and a supplement by the Czechoslovak Academy of Science.

The eight conference in the series was held in Russia at Leningrad ( St. Petersburg) on the 24-29 September 1973. It was called the Eighth International Conference on Nucleation and was the first conference to be devoted almost entirely to the problems of ice nucleation. The main organizer was I.I. Gaivoronsky. There were 74 presentations from scientists from 18 countries. These were published, mainly in English and some in Russian, in a book by Gidrometeoizdat in Moscow in 1975.

The Ninth International Conference on Atmospheric Aerosols, Condensation and Ice Nuclei was held in Galway in the west of Ireland on the 21-27 September 1977. The principal local organizers were T.C. O’Connor and A.F. Roddy. The widened scope of the conference, as seen in the title, was reflected in the attendance. Some 142 scientists from 22 countries presented 101 papers. The proceedings were published as a book entitled “Atmospheric Aerosols and Nuclei” by Galway University Press.

The tenth International Conference on Condensation and Ice Nuclei was held in Hamburg on the 26-28 August 1981 as part of the third Scientific Assembly of the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics (IAMAP). It was organized by the Nucleation Committee of the International Commission on Cloud Physics. The convener was H.W. Georgii. There was not a registration for the conference separate from that for IAMAP so the number and origin of the participants are not known exactly. The programme and abstracts of 58 presentations were included in the IAMAP proceedings and 26 papers were published as a special issue of Idớjárás, the Journal of the Hungarian Meteorological Service, Volume 86, numbers 2-4, 1982.

The eleventh International Conference on Atmospheric Aerosols, Condensation and Ice Nuclei was held in Budapest on the 3-8 of September 1984. It was sponsored by IAMAP through its International Commission on Cloud Physics and the Commission on Atmospheric Chemistry and Global Pollution.. The principal organizers were E. Meszaros and G. Vali. There were sessions in memory of N.A. Fuchs and J. E. Jiusto. There were 110 presentations many of which were included in the proceeding in a special issue of Idớjárás in 1985.

The twelfth International Conference on Atmospheric Aerosols and Nucleation was held in Vienna on the 22-27 August 1988. It was held for the first time jointly with the Nucleation Symposium to stimulate contact and an exchange of information between scientists in these closely related disciplines. The principal organizers were P.E. Wagner and G. Vali. Scientists from 28 countries presented 167 papers, which were published by Springer Verlag as number 309 of their Lecture Notes in Physics series under the title Atmospheric Aerosols and Nucleation.

The thirteenth International Conference on Nucleation and Atmospheric Aerosols was again held in the USA in conjunction with the Nucleation Symposium. It was organized in Salt Lake City by N. Fukuta of the University of Utah. Ninety papers were presented by scientists from 22 countries. The Proceedings, edited by N. Fukuta and P.E. Wagner, were published on 523 pages by A. Deepak Publishing under the title “Nucleation and Atmospheric Aerosols”.

The fourteenth International Conference on Nucleation and Atmospheric Aerosols was held in Helsinki on the 26-30 August 1996. The principal organizers were M. Kulmala and P.E. Wagner. There were 264 participants from 24 countries, including 52 with the title student. The Nobel Laureate P.J. Crutzen gave the opening lecture on "The Role of Particulate Matter in Ozone Photochemistry". There were ten plenary lectures, 87 oral presentations in 17 platform sessions and 101 posters plus some late breaking posters included in the proceedings. Of these many presentations 16 papers were published in a special issue of the journal Atmospheric Research, volume 46, nos 3-4, 1998. Of the many presentations 16 papers were published in a special issue of the journal Atmospheric Research, volume 46, nos 3-4, 1998.

The fifteenth International Conference on Nucleation and Atmospheric Aerosols returned to the USA to the University of Missouri at Rolla, MO on the 6-11 August 2000. The principal organizers were B.N. Hale and M. Kulmala.. Authors from 27 countries presented over 200 papers which are contained in the first electronically generated Proceedings. These were published by the American Institute of Physics in the AIP Conference Proceedings series and include a special symposium in honour of Howard Reiss.

For the sixteenth International Conference on Nucleation and Atmospheric Aerosols the venue was Kyoto University in Japan. It was held on the 26-30 of July 2004. The Proceedings contain 174 papers on 848 pages. They were edited by M Kasahara and M Kulmala and are published by the Kyoto University Press in 2004.

The seventeenth conference will be held again in Ireland at the National University of Ireland at Galway on the 13-17 August 2007. This was a historical return to the site of the 1977 conference. The proceedings were edited by Colin D O'Dowd and Paul E Wagner, and are published by Springer. There are 245 papers in the 1256 page book.

The seventeenth conference was held again in Ireland at the National University of Ireland at Galway on the 13-17 August 2007. This was a historical return to the site of the 1977 conference. The proceedings were edited by Colin D O'Dowd and Paul E Wagner, and are published by Springer. There are 245 papers in the 1047 page book.

The eighteenth conference was held in Prague, Czech Republic, with a historical nod to the 7th conference. Held on 10-14 August 2009, the conference included 247 papers representing scientists from 39 countries in the 1047 page conference book, edited by Jiri Smolik and Colin O'Dowd, and published by the Czech Aerosol Society.

The nineteenth conference was held in Fort Collins, CO, USA from 24-28 June, 2013. This was the first time for an ICNAA conference in Fort Collins, which had previously hosted the AMS Conference on Cloud Physics and the 2nd International Workshop on Condensation and Ice Nuclei, both in 1970.The 19th ICNAA included 247 papers representing scientists from 21 countries in the 997 page conference book, edited by Paul J. DeMott and Colin D. O'Dowd, and published by the American Institute of Physics (AIP Conference Proceedings, 1527).

The twentieth conference returns to Helsinki, June 25-30, 2017.

Table 1. ICNAA Conferences Summary