Remember to book your tickets for the optional Gala Dinner. Taking place at a beautiful beachside location this evening will offer delegates and their guests a memorable evening of Greek hospitality. Tickets can be booked via the online registration form.

The following two tutorial sessions will take place on the Sunday before the conference: CVD diamond growth and reactor modelling (by Francois Silva, University Paris 13, France) and Nano-structured diamond surfaces for bio-sensing applications (by Christoph Nebel, Fraunhofer Institut für Angewandt Festkörperphysik (IAF), Germany).

The programme for Diamond 2009 is now available for download. More than 20 invited speakers are supplemented by 90 contributed presentations arranged within 15 conference tracks in both plenary and parallel sessions.

Delegates are reminded to register by 19 July 2009 to take advantage of reduced delegate rates and save 75 Euros.

Please note that the online abstract submission system for Diamond 2009 will remain open until 12.00 noon GMT on Monday 16 March 2009 for late submissions. After this time contributions may only be accepted for poster presentations at the discretion of the organizers.

Online registration is now open for Diamond 2009. Reduced delegate rates are available for registrations received prior to 19 July 2009.

Four new focused sessions are to feature in the 2009 programme each containing one or more invited talks and a number of contributed talks, and organized by leading workers in the following respective fields: Devices (M Koide); Single Defects in Diamond and Quantum Computing (J Wrachtrup); Superconductivity in Diamond (E Bustarret); Graphene (L Ley)

Steven Prawer of the University of Melbourne and Xavier Blasé and Pierre Mallet of the Néel Institute at the University of Joseph Fourier in France join the existing speakers at Diamond 2009. View the speaker page for details of their presentations.

Online submission is now open for abstracts for oral and poster contributions at Diamond 2009. Papers are invited which cover new developments in all aspects of vapour growth diamond, natural and synthetic diamond, nano-diamond, and related materials such as carbon nanotubes, diamond-like carbon and wide gap nitrides particularly cubic boron nitride. The deadline for submission is 6 March 2009.

The 20th European Conference on Diamond, Diamond- Like Materials, Carbon Nanotubes, and Nitrides will take place at the Athens Ledra Marriott® Hotel in Athens, Greece, 6-10 September 2009. This special 20th anniversary meeting will bring together internationally renowned researchers for a comprehensive programme covering the latest developments in diamond and related materials - from the fundamental science to industrial applications.