Eighth NEC Symposium summary

NEC symposia are world-renowned for bringing together speakers who are at the forefront of fundamental new work in functional materials. The Eighth Symposium on Spin-related Quantum Transport in Mesoscopic Systems was no exception. In this summary, I shall pick out some topics that recurred several times during the Symposium. One such topic — new aspects of the Kondo effect observed in quantum dots — was summarized by Professor Yoshimori.