Notes from the Editor-in-Chief

July 30, 2011


Welcome to the August 2011 issue of the AAPPS Bulletin. After a long hiatus we are delighted to bring the Bulletin back to a regular bi-monthly publication schedule. You can also expect to see a website in the next few months that will complement our print issues.

During the last decade, the Asia-Pacific region has continued to industrialize and rapidly improve its economic and living standards.  Investment in science and technology has also increased dramatically.  But the fundamental strength of this region is rooted in its human resources.  Today Asian researchers are found in all the major international physics journals, and the prospects for advances in scientific research are brighter than ever.  Now is the time to promote even better understanding and closer cooperation among member societies.

In the summer of 2000, I had the chance to discuss the publication of the AAPPS Bulletin with Professor Pauchy Hwang who was about to succeed Professor S. C. Lim as the second Editor-in-Chief of the Bulletin.  He explained his plan to publish the Bulletin quarterly in 2001, then bi-monthly and finally monthly in following years.  It was certainly a desirable plan but also a very ambitious one and I was not sure that it could be accomplished. 

Prof. Hwang was able to quickly establish a bi-monthly publishing schedule despite many obstacles, including his poor health in 2004. While maintaining this regular publication schedule, the quality of the articles also improved so significantly that I would venture to say that the quality of the Bulletin came to rival that of other major publications; in this regard, I would especially note the five-part series, Astrophysics in the Asia-Pacific Region, which was published in the Bulletin in 2009.

Prof. Pauchy Hwang often spoke of his dream to make the AAPPS Bulletin “the Physics Today of Asia.” We believe that by building on our past successes we will ultimately bring the quality of the Bulletin to the same level as Physics Today. The only question is how long it will take. Thanks to the foundation laid by Prof. Hwang over the last decade, we are confident that we can achieve this goal within the next ten years.  Let me share with you an old and, I believe, apt Korean proverb: “By starting, we are halfway toward accomplishing our goals.”  I believe that the publication of this issue puts the AAPPS Bulletin back on track toward realizing Prof. Hwang’s vision.

As the new Editor-in-Chief, I look forward to seeing the Bulletin become a forum for a new era of cooperation and collaboration with colleagues across the Asia-Pacific region.


Won Namkung
Editor-in-Chief