Introduction

The 8^th Journées de la Diffusion Neutronique (JDN8) arranged by the Société Française de la Neutronique (SFN) were held at La Grande Motte on May 19 to 21. This beautiful seaside resort located on the Mediterranean coast near Montpellier was a perfect site for the annual retreat of the french neutron beam users. The active meeting was locally organised by François Fillaux from the Laboratoire de Dynamique, Interactions et Réactivité (CNRS, Thiais) and preceded by a very successful school on Quasi-elastic Neutron Scattering organised by Marc Bée from the University of Grenoble. The organisers made a noticeable effort to encourage the participation of young scientists and most of the "students" of the thematic school could attend the meeting.

About 60 participants eager to learn more about Quasi-elastic Neutron Scattering attended the 12 invited lectures of the fifth SFN thematic school. On the first day, theoretical aspects were introduced by M. Bée and followed by the technical details: Time of Flight by H. Casalta (ILL), High-resolution spectrometers by M. Johnson (ILL), Spin-Echo by S. Pouget (ILL) and Zero-field Spin-Echo by S. Longeville (LLB). In the evening, a special oral session gave the younger participants an opportunity to present their work. The next day, various applications of the QENS were presented by H. Jobic (CNRS, Lyon), P. Damay (CNRS, Lille), B. Rufflé (HMI), G. Coddens (LLB) and F. Guillaume (CNRS, Bordeaux) and followed by long discussions. We shall publish the courses through EDP Sciences early next year, in a format similar to that of the last year's school on SANS (J. de Physique IV, Vol. 9, Pr 1 - 1999).

J.-P. Gaspard and P. Chieux enjoy the latest version of the CD-Rom on Neutron Scattering prepared by A. Filhol (ILL).
Photo 1 (bientôt disponible...)

The scientific programme of the JDN8 was determined by the chairmen F. Fillaux and M. Bée, C.-H. de Novion and the SFN administration board. It consisted of 9 invited talks and 61 contributed posters covering a very broad scope in physics, chemistry and biology. The oral contributions were given by M. Ferrand (CEA, Grenoble) in Biology, G.J. Kearley and B. Nicolaï (ILL) in Modelisation, L.-P. Regnault (CEA, Grenoble), J.-M. Mignot (LLB) and A.M. Murani (ILL) in Magnetism, J.-P. Gaspard (University of Liège) and M. Bienfait (CNRS, Marseille) in Disordered systems, S. Klotz (University P. & M. Curie, Paris) in Phase transformations, J.-L. Sauvajol and J. Rozières (both from University of Montpellier II) in Materials and F. Tasset (ILL) in Instrumentation. As usual, the contributed posters were also presented as 'clips', giving the possibility for the younger participants to speak in front of their older peers. We wish to acknowledge C. Pfister, P. Pfeuty, A.J. Dianoux, P. Damay and C. Vettier, chairpersons of the sessions, for managing the whole of the presentations and the lively and fruitful discussions.

During the meeting, members of the SFN had their General Assembly. After a presentation of the activities of the past year, they discussed the French candidature to the ECNS'2003 conference. R. Vacher was commissioned to prepare the proposal to hold this event in Montpellier, in order to submit it to ENSA next September at ECNS'99. The Administration Board was partially renewed. F. Guillaume (CNRS, Bordeaux), S. Pouget (ILL) and J.-M. Mignot (LLB) were elected as new members. Among the departures were P. Chieux (ILL), secretary since the founding of the society and B. Hennion (LLB), also a founding member. Both of them were warmly acknowledged for their prominent contribution to the birth and life of the Société Française de la Neutronique. The third replaced was J.-L. Soubeyroux (CNRS, Grenoble), organiser of the JDN4 at Port d'Albret in 1995. Françoise Leclercq (CNRS, Lille) was re-elected and chosen as the new President.

A. Furrer discovers the Mediterranean coast with J. Dianoux and H. Mutka.
Photo #2

Traditionally, general debates on the present and future of neutron sources and on development policies are organised in the evenings. This year, the first evening was dedicated to the international matters. The SFN had the pleasure to welcome the president of ENSA, A. Furrer (PSI, Villigen) to give an overview on the european activities. He also explained the present status on the SINQ source. W. Petry (Munich) reported on the progress of the FRM-II project. To finish the evening F. Tasset introduced the Fifth Framework Programme of the European commission. The second evening, a long and animated discussion took place on the communication of large facilities. We could compare the budgets and methods used at the LLB (A. Menelle) and at the ILL (H. Mutka, representing H. Büttner), and admire with some envy, thanks to the enthousiastic contribution of Dominique Cornuejols, the efforts and means put in the communication at the ESRF. This evening ended with overviews of the LLB projects (C.H. de Novion) and of the ILL Millennium programme (A. Heidemann).

Next year, the JDN9 will be organised by Charles Simon (Laboratoire CRISMAT) at Caen. Further information will be available in due time on the Web site of the SFN (http://www.sfn.asso.fr/).