The 5th International Conference on Smart Materials and Nanotechnology (SmartMat@2020) was held in Nongnooch Pattaya Garden and Resort, Thailand, from December 1 to 4, 2020 and organized by the AcerS-Thailand Chapter and i-STEM. SmartMat@2020 is part of a series of international conferences on the named theme. The SmartMat series takes place every four years and is a leading professional conference. The previous four events of SmartMat were held in Chiang Mai, Thailand (2004), (2008), Pattaya, Thailand (2012), and Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand (2016). The aim of SmartMat@2020 was to bring together leading scientists, researchers, and research scholars to exchange and share their experiences and research results in the field of functional materials and nanotechnology. Participants walked away with new perspectives, concrete ways to shape a better future and a brand-new group of collaborators.
Due to a difficult travel situation in this uncertain COVID-19, SmartMat@2020 was then organized in a hybrid format, in which international participants (with travel difficulties) presented and attended the Conference via an online platform, and the domestic participants attended the Conference on-site. This way, both groups of participants could still enjoy the benefits of attending an international conference during COVID-19. Amidst COVID-19, SmartMat@2020 still attracted more than 550 on-site participants and 50 online participants. More than 30 plenary, keynote, and invited speakers presented their work via the online system. There were also more than 250 contributed talks and 259 poster presentations at SmartMat@2020. At the Smartmat@2020 Conference, we had received over 239 paper submissions. After strict peer review, 56 of them were accepted and published in this issue of Integrated Ferroelectrics.
The organizing committee of the Smartmat@2020 International Conference expresses its deep gratitude to all colleagues who contribute their time, knowledge and expertise as academic committee members, session chairs and presenters for the SmartMat@2020 Conference.
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Naratip Vittayakorn
Jakrapong Kaewkhao