International Conference on High Pressure Science and Technology, Joint AIRAPT-22 & HPCJ-50

The International Joint AIRAPT-22 & HPCJ-50 Conference was held in Odaiba, Tokyo, on 26–31 July 2009. About 480 scientists from 24 countries attended the conference and 464 papers, including 3 plenary lectures, 39 invited talks, and 156 oral presentations, were presented. It is my great pleasure to present this proceedings volume, which is based on the high quality scientific works presented at the conference. The International AIRAPT conference has been held every two years in various countries around the world since 1965, while High Pressure Conference of Japan (HPCJ) has been held annually since 1959 in various Japanese cities. Pressure is a fundamental parameter to control the property of matter. As a result, both AIRAPT and HPCJ have become highly multidisciplinary, and cover Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Biosciences, Food Science, and Technology. Although each discipline has a unique target, they all have high-pressure research in common. This proceedings volume includes about 200 papers of state-of-the-art studies from numerous fields. I hope this proceedings volume provides excellent pieces of information in various fields to further advance high-pressure research. Takehiko Yagi Conference Chairman Institute for Solid State Physics The University of Tokyo 7 December 2009 Participants at the conference venue, Tokyo International Exchange Center, Odaiba, Tokyo, Japan. Editor in Chief TAKEMURA Kenichi National Institute for Materials Science, Japan Editorial board Tadashi KONDO Osaka University, Japan Hitoshi MATSUKI The University of Tokushima, Japan Nobuyuki MATUBAYASI Kyoto University, Japan Yoshihisa MORI Okayama University of Science, Japan Osamu OHTAKA Osaka University, Japan Chihiro SEKINE Muroran Institute of Technology, Japan