Brief history and scope

The effects of ionizing radiation on polymers are extremely important for a wide variety of fields ranging from medicine and biotechnology to nuclear power production and even nanotechnology and space technology. Polymers can be submitted to ionizing radiations in various situations, either on purpose or in the course of their normal use. Ionizing radiation of polymers have been used for more than sixty years for industrial applications. As a consequence, the radiation chemistry of polymers has been intensely studied.

Despite the growing scientific and technical interest of radiation-induced modifications on polymers, there was no dedicated meeting where scientists dealing with the effects of ionizing radiation on polymers would exchange and disseminate their knowledge before the early 1990ths. To fill this gap, Dr. N. Betz, Dr. A. Le Moël, from the French Atomic commission (CEA) and their coworkers from Germany decided to organize an international conference addressing this subject.

The IRaP meetings were initiated with the threefold aim to

• 1) bring together scientists from research centers, universities and industry,
• 2) to provide a forum to exchange knowledge and information in this field, and
• 3) to promote innovative applications.

The IRaP meetings started in 1994, in France, and since then have been organized in various countries on three continents, including France (1996, 2000, 2016), Germany (1998), Canada (2002), Belgium (2004), Turkey (2006), Brazil (2008), USA (2010), Poland (2012), South Korea (2014) and Russia (2018). Although relatively young, the IRaP conference has established itself as an important forum for discussing the effects of ionizing radiation on polymers. During these biannual meetings, chemists, physicists, biologists, nuclear and material engineers and industrials working with gamma rays, electrons, ion beams and plasmas discuss new development in basic and applied radiation chemistry and physics of polymer systems, new trend in radiation processing of polymers, and emerging technologies.

The upcoming meeting was supposed to be held in Japan at Nara in 2020. However, the meeting was postponed and rescheduled due to the pandemic situation of COVID-19. The symposium was rescheduled as an online meeting, and the IRaP program comprises keynote lectures, invited lectures on the most innovative studies, oral and poster presentations. Young investigators' presentation is also encouraged.