1. Overview
The Conference started with a full-day tutorial on the 9th of July and comprised tutorial lectures of Prof. Susan Trolier-McKinstry (Penn State University, USA), Prof. Alexei Gruverman (University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA), Dr. Sergei Magonov (NT-MDT, USA), Dr. Sergei Kalinin (ORNL, USA), and Dr. Antony Marin (Virginia Tech, USA).
The reception party was then held in the canteen and was accompanied by a concert of traditional Portuguese music “Fado” (performed by Daniela Runa: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=vzZUmz59ifs).

The Conference took 4 full days, starting every morning with plenary presentations, and continuing with 5 parallel sessions and 2 poster sessions. The plenary lectures were given by Shining Zhu (Nanjing University, China), Yoshihiro Kuroiwa (Hiroshima University, Japan), Paul Muralt (EPFL, Switzerland), Dwight Viehland (Virginia Tech, USA), Alexander Sigov (MIREA, Russia) and Sergei Kalinin (ORNL, USA).

On Tuesday, 10th of July, the conference attendees were invited to a concert of classical music (conductor A. Tomescu and Filarmonic Orchestra of Beiras with a unique Stradivarius violin dated to 1702). At the end of the day, the plenary and invited speakers, as well as the Society volunteers gathered at the reception party given by the UFFC president, Dr. Jacqueline Hines.

The banquet dinner took place in the famous winery “Caves de Aliança” (http://www.alianca.pt/) some 40 km from Aveiro with its unique collection of pictures, sculptures, minerals, and archaeological items and original brands of sparkling, red and white wines. The dinner offered a choice of Portuguese traditional meals and local fine wines produced in the nearby region “Bairrada”. The dinner was followed by the award ceremony.

The conference social program included several events: a publication seminar given by the Editor-in-Chief of the Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, Dr. Marjorie Juhas, a Women in Engineering Meeting, and a tour to Porto with its historic heritage and famous porto wine caves.

The poster session counted more than 230 presentations divided in 2 sessions. The best poster award judging was conducted during the conference, and 3 prizes for the best posters were given to:
(i) F. Henrot, F. Bassignot, E. Courjon, B. Guichardaz, J-Y Rauch, G. Ulliac, S. Ballandras (FEMTO-ST Institute, Besançon, France);
(ii) Faxin Li, Yingwei Li (LTCS and College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China); and
(iii) J. L. Wang, A. Pancotti, M. Alaaeddine, L. Tortech, B. Vilquin, N. Barrett (CEA and University of Lion, France).

The exhibition sessions took place during the entire conference. Each exhibitor gave an industrial presentation for the entire audience after the plenary talk. The hands-on PFM session was organized by the Russian company NT-MDT.

The conference was a significant step forward in the understanding of the underlying mechanisms and technology of ferroelectric materials, and the attendees enjoyed the high level of presentations and the rich social program in the “Portuguese Venice”.

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