Message

Preface

Welcome to the 15th International Symposium on Carotenoids which will be held at the Hotel Moonbeach in Okinawa, Japan on June 22 - 27, 2008. This Symposium is open to the public and scientific communities in the world.

In the past 10 years, numbers of the scientific papers on carotenoids have been markedly increased. In 2006, over two thousand papers on the compounds were published in the world.

The International Symposium was founded at Trondheim of Norway in 1966 chaired by Prof. S. Liaaen-Jensen, followed by 13 times at the attractive places of all over the world for every three years intervals. Fourteen times-gatherings of the scientists for critical presentations and discussions have been contributed on the various fields of carotenoid science and technology, such as organic and biological chemistry, physics, function and rolls, medical science, biology, food science, industrial application and others, for over forty years.

Recently, real inter-disciplinal studies and advanced technologies have been remarkably developed and achieved a number of novel findings in the field. The symposium will be addressed for focusing the aims in the fields of key and advanced science and technology, including wide-area collaborations.

This Symposium will be back to Japan for the first time in 18 years, since the ninth one held in Kyoto. Okinawa has entirely different history and culture compared to Kyoto. I hope all of you will participate in the next Symposium for enjoying both science and sight-seeing.

With best regards,

Symposium Chair
Prof. Dr. Wataru MIKI