Recently Professor Alex Rubinov stepped down from the Chairman of the POP Working Committee because of his health problem. Unexpectedly I have taken over Alex's role on the recommendation by the POP Working Committee and the POP Board. Although I have not been prepared well since it was so sudden, I will do my best to contribute to further development of the optimization community in the Pacific region. If you have any opinion or suggestion about POP, please do not hesitate to let me know.

To take this opportunity, I would like to thank Alex for his enormous contribution to the development of POP.
In June 2005, he succeeded Liqun Qi as the Chairman of the POP Working Committee. Although he has been in this position only for nine months, Alex, as one of the founding members of POP, has been playing a leading role since the start of POP, as a POP Board member, a POP Working Committee member, and the ORB Editor-in-Chief during 2001-2004. He also organized one of the official conference series of POP, the 6th ICOTA which was held at Ballarat in December 2004. Moreover, he serves as Co-Editor of Pacific Journal of Optimization, which is one of the official journals of POP. Without Alex's devotion, POP would not have become such a convenient forum for the optimization community of our region.

As you know, Alex has been very active in conducting his own research as well as promoting the research activities of his group in Ballarat. He has been very successful in his work, but at the same time, he might have been somewhat overloaded.

Alex, you need a little rest from your work. I wish you a speedy recovery.

Masao Fukushima