PREFACE

A. Alemany¹ - J. Freiberg² - J.- P. Chopart²

¹ Chairmen of 7th PAMIR International Conference
² Co-chairmen 7th PAMIR International Conference

Abstract
The present special issue of the Magnetohydrodynamics journal is a selection of papers presented at the 7^th ``PAMIR'' International Conference. The manifestation was attained by more than 200 scientists; most of 200 communications was presented in the form of orals or posters, revealing the vitality of the Magneto science community. The conference was organised in the south of France at the centre La Badine in Giens near the city of Hyeres, from September 8 to September 12, 2008 in collaboration with the Latvian scientists, who are partners of this event since a long time. To concretise this close collaboration between France and Latvia, the organisation is shared between the two countries. These two countries have a common program that is called Ampere supervised by their respective ministries for Education and Science. French partners involved are the CNRS and the CEA. The Ampere Initiative consists in creating in Latvia a structure of research on the magneto sciences. To help in the definition of this program, the CNRS ( French National Centre for Scientific Research) has created a GDRE (European Group of Research), which has the acronym GAMAS (Group for the Application of the MAgneto Sciences). The aim of this group is double. On the one hand, it is aimed at the development of the Magneto sciences in a large field of applications. On the second hand, it could help the Ampere program in the definition of its structure and scientific program in collaboration with the specialists in many countries. At present, GAMAS is composed of 27 laboratories from 7 countries as Latvia, Germany, Italy, Poland, Israel, Slovakia and France. It is an open structure that could host other contributions in the future. The information about GAMAS can be found on the web site at the following address: www.magnetoscience.org. The organisation of this new PAMIR conference has tacked advantage of the impulsion given by the GDRE GAMAS that has contributed to the financial support, at the audience and participation. Many scientists, who were participating at ``PAMIR 2008'', are partners of GAMAS and most of the papers published in the present special issue are from researchers of GAMAS. The conference was hosting the Management Committee Meeting of the COST P17 action, which has also contributed largely to its financial support. It is important to underline the role of COST P17 under the direction of its Chairman, Sergei Molokov from the Coventry University. Two conferences (PAMIR 2005 and PAMIR 2008) were supported by COST P17 additively with two summer schools organised in Algeria (June 2007) and in Latvia (May 2009). A frequency of two years seems to be a good option for the organisation o f such training school that corresponds to the next one in the spring of 2011. This date, 2011, will coincide with the 12th anniversary of the first ``PAMIR'' conference organised in 1991 in the CADARACHE Castle, south of France, in close collaboration with the CEA. Beatrice Collovati was one of the principal actors of the organisation of this first manifestation. The Latvian scientists were, for the most, participating in an international conference in Europe for the first time. We expect to celebrate this event by a particular new organisation of ``PAMIR'' in 2011 manifesting also the role played by this conference in the promotion and development of the Magneto sciences.