You may be aware that the Asia-Pacific EPR/ESR Society has been established in January 1997, with myself elected as the President of the Provisional Council of the Society, and Prof. Asako Kawamori (Japan) as the Vice-President, Dr Yeung Yau-yuen(Hong Kong) as the Secretary [nominated later by the President], Prof. Hiroaki Ohya-Nishiguchi (Japan) as the Treasurer; Prof. John Pilbrow (Australia/New Zealand), Prof. Asako Kawamori (Japan), Prof. R. Y. Zhan (P. R. China), Prof. S. V. Bhat (India), Prof. S. H. Choh (Rep. of Korea), Prof. N.T. Nguyen (Vietnam), and Prof. A. Ziadtinov (Russia - Far East) as the Representatives from the countries as indicated.

Since you are an active EPR/ESR researcher and/or have an interest in applications of the EPR/ESR techniques I would like to inform you about the recent developments and get your valuable feedback.

Objective and structure of the Asia-Pacific EPR/ESR Society.

 The major objective of the Asia-Pacific EPR/ESR Society is to carry out the activities aimed at

1. improving the efficiency of applications of the EPR techniques and 
2. facilitating the communication between EPR researchers in the Asia-Pacific region. 

 These activities must be coordinated both internationally as well as locally. We need a strong organization to achieve the above aims. One way is to work from top-down and as the President of the Society I will try to do my best in this regard. The other way is to work from down-top and I believe that the grass root support is most important for any Society. Therefore I would like to encourage all EPR/ESR researchers in a given locality, be it a bigger city or an area, to get together and form a local EPR/ESR Users' Group. The idea of forming such Groups has been well implemented in a number of places in Europe. Let us in Hong Kong lead and set up an example for other places in the Asia-Pacific region to follow.

The next step would be to form the national EPR/ESR Groups like those existing in most European countries with a sizeable EPR/ESR community. The national EPR/ESR Groups should be in charge of the local organization and also responsible for handling the financial affairs of the future Asia-Pacific EPR/ESR Symposia. The logistic support for and coordination of the organization of the future Symposia will be provided by the Asia-Pacific EPR/ESR Society.

For your information: I have recently conducted a search for an Asia-Pacific EPR/ESR group willing to host the next Symposium. After consultations with the potential hosts it has just been decided that the 2nd Asia-Pacific EPR/ESR Symposium will be held at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, P.R. China, in November 1999. Prof. Yuanzhi Xu, the Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee, is the member of Magnetic Resonance Special Committee, Chinese Physical Society. More details will be provided later.

In Europe the national EPR/ESR Groups are only loosely linked into the European Federation of EPR Groups. Instead of a loose federation I believe that rather a strong Asia-Pacific EPR/ESR Society would suit better our regional needs. Than our research efforts can be better coordinated and we can achieve more in this way.

Formation of the Hong Kong EPR/ESR Users' Group. 

The membership in the Hong Kong EPR/ESR Users' Group is open to all active EPR/ESR researchers and scientists with interest in the applications of the EPR/ESR techniques. The Group would provide a forum for informal meetings of all interested EPR/ESR researchers, where we could effectively share information about our current research and/or opportunities for collaboration. A schedule for the discussions and/or seminars is to be worked out at the Inaugural Meeting of the Group. Initially brief overviews of the EPR/ESR research being carried out in each Department/University could be presented. As our activities become more co-ordinated we could consider setting up the Joint Universities EPR/ESR Facility, which was first informally discussed with some colleagues in May/June of 1996.

I would like to invite you cordially to join the Hong Kong EPR/ESR Users' Group. Please fill in the attached Reply Form and return to me within two weeks.

For your information a list potential members of the Hong Kong EPR/ESR Users' Group is given below. If you know of any colleague who might be interested and is not on the list please either let me have his name & address or just pass a copy of these forms to your colleague. Your comments on any of the above matters are most welcome. Hoping to hear from you soon.

Prof. Czeslaw Rudowicz
Hong Kong, 27 October 1997