Welcome Address to the 9th Asia-Pacific Rim Conference on Rheology
 
Rheology is the scientific study of the flow and deformation characteristics of materials under external forces. It has evolved since the early 1900s as the materials used by humans have become more complex, shifting from ceramics, glass, and metals to include rubber, plastics, liquid crystals, and dispersions. Today, rheology is an essential academic field not only for understanding natural phenomena but also for evaluating material properties, optimizing manufacturing processes, developing new materials, and ensuring quality control in industries such as polymer processing, paints, inks, cosmetics, and food.
 
The worldwide congress for Rheology researchers began in 1948 with the International Congress on Rheology, ICR, organized by The International Committee on Rheology (ICR). This conference has been held every four years (every five years until the fifth congress). The Pacific Rim Conference on Rheology (PRCR) was proposed by the late Professor Toshio Masuda of Kyoto University to provide a forum for rheology researchers in the Pacific Rim region during the interim years. The first PRCR (correctly PCR) was held in Kyoto in 1994, followed by the second in Melbourne, Australia (PRCR-2, 1997), the third in Vancouver, Canada (PRCR-3, 2001), the fourth in Shanghai, China (PRCR-4, 2005), the fifth in Sapporo, Japan (PRCR-5, 2010), the sixth again in Melbourne, Australia (PRCR-6, 2014), the seventh in Jeju Island, South Korea (PRCR-7, 2018), and the eighth again in Vancouver, Canada (PRCR-8, 2023). This time, for the ninth PRCR, the conference will be held in Japan for the third time. With India joining the conference from this year, the name has been changed to the Asia-Pacific Conference on Rheology.
 
We warmly welcome broad participation from anyone interested in rheology, not limited to those from the Asia-Pacific Rim region.

 

Tadashi INOUE