In August 2003, the 1st International Conference "Physics and Control" was held in St. Petersburg, Russia. The conference was a success with about 240 participants from 32 countries. The conference had demonstrated the existence of a broad scientific community working in the interdisciplinary field on the borderland between Physics and Control and a strong desire to enhance information exchange among its members. The program of the 2nd International Conference "Physics and Control 2005" included 215 papers representing 33 countries and further confirmed the existence of stable interests in the common areas and a strong desire for continuing information exchange among active researchers. To promote such an information exchange several experts suggested to establish a new international society under the tentative name "The International Physics And Control Society" (acronym: IPACS), uniting experts in such areas as nonlinear dynamics and control; quantum information and control; control of oscillations, chaos and bifurcations; control in thermodynamics; modeling and identification of physical systems; complexity and self-organization; analysis and control of complex networks; network and system synchronizations; control of plasma, beams, lasers, mechanical systems and nanotechnologies as well as other related applications in science and technology.
In connection with the Physcon 2005 conference, the Foundation meeting took place on August 26, 2005 in St.Petersburg , attended by more than 100 conference participants. It was decided to establish the IPACS Society and to approve the proposed IPACS Regulations. The proposed principles of IPACS activities are contained in Regulations and are briefing as follows.
The primary objectives of IPACS are:
(i) To promote interactions among researchers interested in fields related to both physics and control;
(ii) To facilitate dissemination of information on current activities and results in areas of common interests;
(iii) To enhance the visibility and worldwide recognition of physics and control related research and its vast potential applications.
The Society will achieve these objectives by organizing or co-organizing conferences, seminars, workshops on various topics related to physics and control, by establishing a website containing current information and archive of the Society proceedings, and forums for information exchange, and by possibly launching a new academic journal. It will also reward researchers and educators who made outstanding contributions in the concerned research areas.
The Society will be governed by the Board, the decision making body of the Society. Major Board decisions shall be approved by the Society meetings to be held at least once in every two years.
It was decided that the Society Secretariat will be located at the Institute for Problems of Mechanical Engineering, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, RUSSIA. It will maintain the website www.physcon.ru including registration and the conference management system (CoMS) at coms.physcon.ru and Society Archive. Secretariat can be reached via e-mail at ipacs_at_physcon.ru. At the Foundation meeting Professor Alexander Fradkov was elected as the first IPACS President.
Comments and suggestions related to the new Society and its activities are welcome.