The 21st International Symposium on Spin Physics (SPIN2014) was held on the campus of Peking University, Beijing, China, during October 20-24, 2014. The symposium was hosted by Peking University, and supported by many renowned research institutions and universities both inside and outside of China. Prof. Bo-Qiang Ma from Peking University (China) and Haiyan Gao from Duke University (the United States of America) and Tsinghua University (China) co-chaired this conference.

The International Symposium on Spin Physics is one of the most influential international conferences in the field of spin physics. It started in 1974, and since then was held biennially. The International Spin Physics Symposium series combined together the High Energy Spin Symposia and the Nuclear Polarization Conferences since 2000. SPIN2014 is the first time that China hosted this series of symposiums after 40 years since its first symposium in 1974.

The scientific program of this symposium includes topics related to spin phenomena in particle and nuclear physics as well as those in related fields. It incudes recent developments in the researches on hadron structure, spin phenomena in hadron reactions, spin physics with photons and leptons, spin phenomena in nuclei and nuclear reactions, and new physics beyond the Standard Model. New technologies related to accelerators, storage rings, polarized targets, polarized beams, and spin physics in medicine are also included. In addition, SPIN2014 extends topics to spins in condensed matters, quantum communications and their related applications as well.

SPIN2014 had nearly 300 participants from more than 20 countries. The program constituted 28 plenary talks and 177 parallel talks. The excellent performance of Chinese scholars was well observed by all participants during the conference. New developments in spin physics in China also impressed all international participants of the symposium. SPIN2014 provided a platform to communicate new results in the field of spin physics, and reinforced academic collaborations with colleagues. It was also an important platform to advertise academic achievements of Chinese researchers, and to strengthen the importance of Chinese involvements in spin physics.

Besides the communications of recent researches in the physics frontiers, SPIN2014 also held a unit of lecture on popular science in Tsinghua University, to audience of undergraduate students and the general public. The talk was given by Prof. Qi-Kun Xue from Tsinghua University, on the topic of “Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect and Information Technology”. More than one hundred people from Peking University, Tsinghua University, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beihang University, and others attended the public lecture.

SPIN2014 also arranged a post session for presenting new research results. The symposium received 14 posts from domestic and international researchers. It also set up Outstanding Poster Awards to excellent posters with excellent research results, sponsored by the Hanscom endowment from Duke University. Three young researchers from China Institute of Atomic Energy, Tsinghua University and Institute of Modern Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences received the awards. The poster session and the award will inspire young researchers to work with passion in the area of spin physics.

This symposium is supported by Peking University (China), Duke University (USA), Brookhaven National Laboratory (USA), Central China Normal University (China), European Physical Journal A (Europe), Jefferson Lab (USA), Huangshan University (China), Huazhong University of Science and Technology (China), Institute of High-Energy Physics (China), Institute of Theoretical Physics (China), Lanzhou University (China), Shandong University (China), Tsinghua University (China), University of Science and Technology of China (China), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (China).

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