EHPRG

The European High Pressure Research Group originated in the initiative taken by the High Pressure Section of Standard Telecommunications Laboratories (now Bell Northern Research Laboratories), Harlow (UK), in 1963, to bring together scientists active in field of high pressure research for informal discussion of common problems.

The success of the First EHPRG Meeting (Harlow, UK, 1963) led to further developments and prompted the organization of successive "High Pressure Meetings" under the chairmanship of C. Goodman. In 1966, the Meeting moved to Eindhoven (The Netherlands), and the following year the group became the more formal organization of the European High Pressure Research Group (EHPRG). From that time, the development of EHPRG was rapid, as can be inferred from the number of participants attending the subsequent Meetings: 65 in Eindhoven (1966), 84 in Caradache (France, 1968), 130 in Bonn (Germany, 1969), 157 in Umea (Sweden, 1971), 163 in Strasbourg (France, 1972), 176 in London (UK, 1973).

As stated in its rules, the EHPRG has as its main objectives to promote research at high pressure and to hold an annual Meeting od scientists, engineers and others interested in high pressure. The Committee consists of a Chairman, a Secretary, a Treasurer, and members who reflect the various research areas in the representative European countries.

The EHPRG has close relations with other scientific organizations such as the AIRAPT and the Condensed Matter Division of the European Physical Society.

One of the original objectives of the Committee is to bring more high pressure scientists from the Eastern European countries to the EHPRG. This was reflected by the location chosen for some earlier EHPRG Meetings (25th EHPRG Meeting, 1987, in Potsdam, East Germany; 26th EHPRG Meeting, 1988, in Mrongowo, Poland, among the others).

The logo was originally designed by H. D. Hochheimer, and later digitized by K. Heremans. In 2014, the logo was re-designed by S. Klotz and I. Loa, following the original shape. The shape of the diamond was suggested by the fact that the five letters of the acronym "EHPRG" could be fit exactly on its visible facets. Remarkably, a logo proved necessary in order to provide the Group with an official letterhead, to be used in reliable visa requests at the time of the Cold War.

The reasonable size of the group, the selection of the topics, the quality of the meetings, the low conference fees and the friendly relationships between the attendants have made the EHPRG meetings attractive. High pressure research is a fast growing discipline, yielding interesting and exciting results in many fields of science, technology and biotechnology. EHPRG contributes to this development by bringing people together. To that purpose, since 1989 the EHPRG decided to attribute a yearly award to young scientists, for their contributions to high pressure reasrch. The EHPRG Awards are destinated to encourage your researchers in high pressure science.

In 2015, under the chairmanship of Stefan Klotz, the EHPRG constituted itself as a non-profitable association, registered in France. The new Statutes and Governing Rules superseded the (informal) old Statutes, dating back to 1984.

• 1965 — 67 : C. H. L. Goodman (UK)
• 1967 — 70 : C. Rooymans (NL)
• 1970 — 73 : D. François (FR)
• 1973 — 76 : K. Seifert (DE)
• 1976 — 79 : G. Bäckström (SE)
• 1979 — 82 : W. Holzapfel (DE)
• 1982 — 85 : R. G. Ross (UK)
• 1985 — 88 : H. D. Hochheimer (DE)
• 1988 — 91 : G. Jenner (FR)
• 1991 — 94 : H. Vollstädt (DE)
• 1994 — 97 : K. Heremans (BE)
• 1997 — 00 : B. Sundqvist (SE)
• 2000 — 03 : K. Heremans (BE)
• 2003 — 06 : F. Rodriguez (ES)
• 2006 — 09 : R. Winter (DE)
• 2009 — 12 : G. G. N. Angilella (IT)
• 2012 — 15 : S. Klotz (FR)
• 2015 — 18 : K. V. Kamenev (UK)
• 2018 — 19 : S. Klotz (FR)
• 2019 — 22 : A. Muñoz Gonzalez (ES)
• 2022 — ** : J. Contreras-García (FR)

The EHPRG Chairwoman can be reached at:

Dr J. Contreras-García, EHPRG Chairwoman

Laboratoire de Chimie Théorique (UPMC)

Tour 12-13, Bureau 420

Université P&M Curie

CC137 - 4 place Jussieu

F-75252 Paris cedex 05, France

E-mail: chair@ehprg.org

The EHPRG Secretary can be reached at:

Dr M. Ceppatelli, EHPRG Secretary

European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy (LENS)

Via Nello Carrara 1

I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino (Firenze), Italy

E-mail: secretary@ehprg.org

The EHPRG website is maintained by Prof. G. G. N. Angilella (webmaster@ehprg.org) of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Catania, Italy.

Until 2002, the EHPRG website used to be hosted by the University of Leuven, Belgium, and maintained by Prof. K. Heremans.