“The International workshop on nuclear dynamics in heavy-ion reactions and the symmetry energy (IWND09)” was held on Aug 23-25th, 2009 at the conference hall of CAS-Shanghai Branch, in Shanghai, China. The conference was organized jointly by SINAP (Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)), SJTU (Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai), Beijing Normal University, IMP (Institute of Modern Physics, CAS), Peking University, CCAST (China Center for Advanced Science and Technology) and Chinese Nuclear Physics Society. The IWND09 conference has received substantial financial support from the above organizations. The Chairman is Professor Yu-Gang Ma from Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, CAS and the Co-Chairman is Professor Lie-Wen Chen from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Dr. Xiang-Zhou Cai from Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, CAS is the Scientific Secretary of this conference.

The goal of the workshop is to exchange information with international and domestic experts on heavy ion collision dynamics and to focus on some hot topics, such as symmetry energy, phase transition in strong interacting matter and reaction mechanism for synthesis of superheavy elements etc. In addition, the experimental opportunities in some Chinese facilities, such as CSR-Lanzhou and possible international collaborations in these areas has also been discussed. Over 60 scientists from 10 countries attended the conference.

At the opening session on Aug. 23rd, Professor Wenqing Shen who is the deputy president of the National Natural Science Foundation of China gave an overview of the development of nuclear physics and nuclear technology in China. He highlighted many contributions made by the Chinese nuclear scientists in both theory and experiment. Professor Zhiyuan Zhu, deputy director of the Shanghai Branch of Chinese Academy of Sciences, gave a welcome address to all participants and congratulated them on the opening of the conference. Professor Jun Hu, vice director of SINAP, also gave welcome addresses on behalf of the hosting institutions.

The scientific program of the conference included 12 plenary sessions which covered 47 talks. Most participants including some well-known scientists in nuclear physics community, such as J. Natowitz, W. Lynch, B. Tsang, W. Trautmann, C. M. Ko, B. A. Li, R. Machelidt, B. Borderie, H. Sakurai et al., gave talks on their recent works which covered a broad range of experimental and theoretical progress in nuclear dynamics in heavy-ion reactions and the symmetry energy, which focus on Nuclear Reaction Dynamics and Isospin Effects in Heavy-Ion Collisions, Symmetry Energy in Nuclear Matter and Neutron Stars, Phase Transitions of Nuclear Matter in Strongly Interacting Matter, and Reaction mechanism for synthesis of superheavy elements.

At the closing session, all the participants expressed their special appreciations for the tireless efforts by many local staffs and student volunteers from SINAP. Without their help and dedication this conference could not have been such a success.

The proceeding of IWND2009 conference will be published in International Journal of Modern Physics E. The homepage of the conference is available at http://www.sinap.ac.cn/iwnd09/.