(0) President Hyoung Joon Choi reported the presence of 14 council members out of 16 council members. The quorum was met.

(1) President Choi opened the 54th Council Meeting and welcomed the participants. The participants, including chairs of divisions and the working group, introduced themselves. The agenda was adopted as prepared by the president.

(2) Treasurer Keun-Young Kim briefly reported on the financial status of AAPPS. The total balance is $78,589 USD, in addition to the Leo Koguan Foundation’s $37,952.15 USD. The account statements include interest and the dues that 14 societies paid for the 2023 membership. Jun’ichi Yokoyama mentioned that the Physics Society of Iran has joined AAPPS as an associate member, which means that they do not have a duty to pay for their membership. Kadir Gulamov reported that the Council of Uzbekistan Physicists would pay for their membership in a specific way in the next council meeting. Four societies supported the AAPPS Bulletin (AB) with contributions of $5000 USD each and JSAP provided support of $5000 USD to AAPPS. The contribution by APCTP of $652,530 USD and the payment of AAPPS’s domain fee by DACG were acknowledged and greatly appreciated. Gui-Lu Long suggested removing ASEAN in the list of reports but keeping it for historical reasons as a record and Kim agreed. VU Dinh Lam mentioned that the inclusion of the Vietnam Physical Society, instead of listing both the Vietnam Physical Society and Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) could be enough to be shown on the list of reports. Yokoyama requested to add the information that he sent 1 million KRW, which he had received as an honorarium for writing an article in AB, to the representative of the activities for physicists in Myanmar, by the Division of Nuclear Physics.

(3) Rajdeep Singh Rawat reported the statistics of the 2023 C. N. Yang Award based on the evaluated sheets and mentioned that this year’s sub-selection review process was completed with 17 candidates being shortlisted by name, society, and field. He stated that the final meeting of the selection committee would be held at the end of this month and that the finalists would be decided then. Rawat suggested making the whole process simpler and furthermore suggested that we highlight the diversity of the candidates by examining their respective fields, genders, and nationalities at each step of the process. Sang Pyo Kim also emphasized the need to sort out the balance of societies, divisions, and fields. President Choi mentioned that the current rule does not consider diversity during the selection process, and this needed to be discussed further. Rawat added that this year’s process was already going on; however, in the next round of candidates, diversity could be considered as one society, one region, and one division. Gulamov also mentioned that diversity is very important as our goal is to develop our societies. Choi mentioned that while excellence is the most important criterion, diversity is also very important. Mihoko Nojiri mentioned that it is important that the selection committee is knowledgeable about the concept of gender bias and how gender bias relates to the need to encourage the nominations of women in the future. The issue of diversity will be a topic of further discussion in the next council meeting.

(4) Yokoyama explained the background regarding the initiative of the AAPPS and Member Society Joint Award and reported on the AAPPS-JPS Award with the five winners judged by the AAPPS committee of JPS. It was reported that the award ceremony will be held at the 78th JPS Annual Meeting on Monday, September 18, 2023, at Tohoku University. It was reported that medals were made through Tao Xiang. Gulamov mentioned that the joint award is a good example to show how we can work together, with diversity.

(5) Sang Pyo Kim, Chair of DACG, reported that the 2022 DACG workshop and CosPA 2022 went well and that the AP School Workshop was held on May 15-21 this year in Hangzhou. It was also reported that the upcoming CosPA 2023 would be held on November 10-13, 2023, in Hong Kong, and that the DACG EXCO Meeting would also be held at CosPA 2023. Kim requested that AAPPS endorse MG16 with no expectation of financial support and President Choi stated that he would consider it after the meeting. Gui-Lu Long raised the use of the official names of Beijing and Taipei.

(6) Gui-Lu Long, Editor-in-Chief of AB, reported on the current status of AB, and in particular, that AB had been included in Scopus, which was celebrated. It was also reported that an application to be included in the ESCI of Web of Science was submitted. Currently, the publication process is slow and delayed, which emphasizes the fact that more submissions are needed. Long requested for all council members to cite published AB papers if there are any relevant articles, so as to increase the total number of citations, and to invite papers by adding one slice of AB for advertising whenever presenting a ppt file.

(7) Rajdeep Singh Rawat, as the proxy of Chair of DPP, reported on DPP’s current status. DPP has 3096 members and confers several awards including the AAPPS-DPP S. Chandrasekhar Prize. Following the last year’s DPP2022, DPP2023 will be held this year.

Byungsik Hong, the Chair of DNP, gave a status report on DNP, including the current management, and explained that the DNP executive committee members were the same as the ANPhA Board members. DNP had its annual meetings online for the past 3 years, during the COVID-19 pandemic. This year marks a return to face-to-face meetings, with the annual meeting being held from November 10 to 11 2023, in Daejeon, Korea. In addition, the papers and awards of DNP were introduced.

Kwang-Yong Choi reported the current status of DCMP on behalf of Hiroyuki Nojiri, Chair of DCMP. It was reported that the 2nd EXCO members were elected, and its mission was also decided. AC2MP2023 will be held from November 27 to 29, 2023, at National Dong Hwa University in Taipei. DCMP introduced its own newsletter and suggested reprinting AB. DCMP is also planning to establish a DCMP Award, with an evaluation policy similar to the C. N. Yang Award.

Mihoko Nojiri, Chair of Women-in-Physics Working Group (WIPWG), reported on the current status of women in physics, by mentioning the recently updated WIP website and other recent activities, including the 8th IUPAP International Conference of WIP in India.

(8) Jae-Hyung Jeon briefly reported and introduced APCTP, including its mission and activities. The overall support records from APCTP to AAPPS meetings, APPCs, AB, and division activities were reported. Following the support record, the APCTP budget details from 2022 to 2024 were reported. Jeon mentioned that the support from APCTP in 2024 could not be the same as in prior years, due to the reduced financial support from the Korean government in 2024. President Choi additionally explained that the Korean government annoucned that the overall budget for R&D sectors would be reduced.

(9) President Choi suggested a new program, called Asia Pacific Physics Week (APPW), which would be held every year as a single session for one week, 3 hours per day, with about 4 plenary talks per day, fully online and without registration fee. All member societies would participate in organizing APPW by inviting plenary speakers, with approximately one speaker per member society. It was reported that APPW will be held this year, on November 6-10, 2023. Mihoko Nojiri suggested nominating two speakers by each society to consider diversity. In addition, Choi stated that the next face-to-face council meeting will be held on November 4-5, 2023. Kadir Gulamov made a request to receive details regarding the council meeting as soon as possible in order to obtain a visa and to make general travel plans.

(10) Tao Xiang reported on the provisional plans for APPC16. It appears that APPC16 will be held on October 7-11, 2025, at the China National Convention Center (CNCC) located in Beijing. The APPC16 homepage will be open in the summer of 2024.

(11) President Choi explained that AAPPS’s bank account is currently in the name of Treasurer Keun Young Kim; however, the account currently holds a relatively large amount of funds, which could cause complications due to its status as a quasi-personal account. Thus, it was a suggested to change the name of the bank account to “APCTP” based on the article 24 of Bylaws of the AAPPS, (a) each account is held in the name of the Association, or in the name of a Member Society, or in the name of an academic or research institution approved by Council, or jointly in the name of no fewer than three individuals approved by Council. Jeon additionally explained that the Korean government reviewed the APCTP’s entire activities, including its international role as the headquarters of AAPPS, and it was recommended to have the bank account in the name of the institution rather than in a person's name. Choi suggested discussing this matter further in the upcoming face-to-face meeting.

(12) President Choi closed the meeting.