Preface

8 IC0T0M19 (2021) It is our great pleasure to welcome all of you to the 19th International Conference on Textures of Materials (ICOTOM-19), which is held in Japan from March 1 to 4, 2021. First and foremost, we would like to thank all of participants for understanding that the conference was postponed by six months and held virtually, in consideration of COVID-19 pandemic. ICOTOM19 should have been held at Osaka Prefecture University (OPU), Sakai, Japan from September 6-11,2020. The organizing committee decided in April, 2020 to postpone holding the conference by six months, as better situation would be expected. Further, the committee selected a virtual format as the most appropriate plan when holding actual conference at OPU became unrealistic in consideration of the current situation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. The first Virtual conference belongs to the series of ICOTOM meetings with a history of 52 years. The conference started in Clausthal in 1969 and it has been held about every 3 years as follows: Cracow-1971, Pont-à-Mousson-1973, Cambridge-1975, Aachen-1978, Tokyo-1981, Noordwijkerhout-1984, Santa Fe-1987, Avignon-1990, Clausthal-1993, Xian-1996, Montreal-1999, Seoul-2002, Leuven-2005, Pittsburgh-2008, Mumbai-2011, Dresden-2014 and St. George-2017. It is indeed our great honor to hold an ICOTOM conference in Japan or organized by Japanese colleagues again after 40 years. Following the tradition of ICOTOM conferences, ICOTOM-19 focuses on the fundamental understanding of the basic processes underlying the formation of texture and its relation to the properties. ICOTOM-19 thus provides a forum for the presentation and discussion on recent progress in crystallographic texture and related mechanical and functional properties of all kinds of polycrystalline materials. We invite all the scientists and engineers from many different areas working under the common theme of crystallographic orientation and texture to exchange ideas with the aim of linking basic research with an application. The proceedings contain 49 papers, including the precious Plenary Lectures by Prof. Rollett and Prof. Kestens, with a significant knowledge in the research field on the crystallographic orientation, texture and related properties. We hope that these papers will be attractive and useful for all researchers in this field. We would like to thank the many colleagues who helped in organizing the conference and especially Virtual Conference Team members, Prof. Makoto Hasegawa, Dr. Yusuke Onuki, Dr. Natsuko Sugiura, Dr. Shigehiro Takajo, Dr. Yasuaki Tanaka and Prof. Hiroshi Utsunomiya. Prof. Masakazu Kobayashi, Mr. Toshiaki Takasaki, G.T. Center and reviewers also made substantial contributions to the editing of the proceedings. We should also thank Prof. Yasuyuki Kaneno, Prof. Shigeo Sato and Mr. Seiichi Suzuki for their devoted contributions to the realistic conference preparation. Finally, we would like to express our thanks to The Light Metal Educational Foundation, Inc., The Amada Foundation, The Iron and Steel Institute of Japan, The Japan Institute of Metals and Materials for their financial supports and many companies and organizations for their encouragements. List of ICOTOM19 committees, Local organizing committee, Local advisory committee, are available in the pdf