Dear OCPA Members,
Greetings on the occation of the Chinese New Year and the beginning of the fourteenth year of OCPA!
We are pleased to report to you that the OCPA reception during the March meeting was well attended by more than 90 people and the Outstanding Young Researcher Award (OYRA) and the Achievement in Asia Award (AAA) have received more nominations than previous years. These are clear indications that OCPA continues to grow strong, and that the OYRA and AAA awards continue to recognize researchers of high caliber and accomplishment.
We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere appreciation to Cheuk-Yiu Ng who is stepping down as the Awards Committee Chair following his ourstanding work in the last 3 years. He will be replaced by the vice-president, Jen-Chieh Peng. We would also like to thank Zhi-Xun Shen and Fu-Chun Zhang who have stepped down from the coordinator positions of the condensed matter division. They have put a lot of effort in organizing the parallel sessions for OCPA4 and will continue to help in this regard.
As you may have heard, due to the SARS epidemic the Fourth Joint Meeting of Chinese Physicists Worldwide was postponed and is now rescheduled to be held in Shanghai from June 28 to July 1, 2004. This is shaping up as a major OCPA activity for this new year. The first circular will be sent out to you shortly. There will be several satellite meetings jointly sponsored by OCPA before and after the Shanghai meeting. We urge you to attend and we look forward to seeing you in Shanghai. We will continue to communicate with you via emails and our website at http://www.ocpaweb.org will be updated to bring you the latest information.
We express our gratitude to those who have made contributions to the OCPA general fund which is used to support the OYRA and AAA awards and other activities. Let us remind you that OCPA is a tax-exempt organization and a donation of $20, $50, $100 or more from our members will go a long way creating a sense of togetherness in an organization worthy of our supports. If you would, please make your check payable to "OCPA" and mail it to our treasurer.
Sun-Ying Fung
P.O. Box 8743
Newport Beach,CA 92658
Our Very best wishes for a Happy and Productive New Year!
Keh-Fei Liu
President, OCPA
Univ. of Kentucky
liu@pa.uky.edu
Jen-Chieh Peng
Vice-President, OCPA
Univ. of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign
jcpeng@uiuc.edu