Editorial

Welcome to the inaugural issue of Asia Pacific Physics Newsletter (APPN)!

It is the duty of South East Asia Theoretical Physics Association (SEATPA) to bring out this newsletter in a regular basis because at the moment, there are not enough regular Asia Pacific news reports or newsletters like Physics Today in USA, Physics World or Europhysics News in Europe.

In this issue we have featured articles by Nobel Laureate Professor Chen Ning Yang on Fermi's beta-decay theory, and Quantum Numbers, Chern Class, and a Bodhisattva. To commemorate the birth centennial of the Nobel Laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, we have also included two articles on Chandrasekhar and the History of Astronomy and Chandra's Influence on Indian Astronomy.

We would like to thank the strong support from the Chinese Physical Society where Professor Guo Zhen Yang (former President of Chinese Physical Society) initiated the contribution of articles. These articles included an interview of Professor Klaus von Klitzing, Empower Scientists with More Freedom and Responsibility, by the editors of 物理(Physics) Magazine, and the Introduction to Topological Insulators from Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

In each issue of APPN, we will publish News and Research Highlights from the Asia Pacific region. We will feature Articles, People, History, as well as Research Institutions and Labs. There will also be sections on Book Reviews, Conference Calendar and Jobs. We aspire to have a section on Comments by the readers in future issues.

We hope that the publication of APPN will facilitate interactions, collaboration and cooperation among physicists in the Asia Pacific physics community. We highly welcome readers' comments and feedback about APPN, and I invite you to email us at editor@seatpa.org. I hope all of you can contribute news and progress report of your institute.

Editor in Chief
Kok Khoo Phua
President, South East Asia Theoretical Physics Association
Director, Institute of Advanced Studies, Nanyang Technological University