The Conference organisation would not have been possible without the great support we received from our sponsors. Special thanks are due to our main sponsors, the Swedish Steel Producers´ Association ("Jernkontoret"), the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm and the Helsinki University of Technology (HUT). Apart from this, a number of leading Swedish and Finnish industries contributed generously to the conference. It was thanks to this that we could arrange the conference lunches, social events like the reception at the Vasa museum and the banquet in the city hall in Stockholm as well as the reception and dinner in Helsinki without extra costs to the participants. In addition, a number of industries sponsored limited events. This meant a lot in reducing the costs for the conference.

The local organising committees under the leadership of Dr. R. E. Aune as well as the editorial committee put great effort into bringing this conference to this level of success. The Finnish part was taken care of by Ms. H. Hankiniemi. The chairman and co-chairman express their deep gratitude to this enthusiastic organisation. Special thanks should also be extended to the organisers of the workshops, Professor. K. C. Mills and Professor B. Welch. Kobolde put in a hard counter-current struggle to get the exhibition functioning.

We had entrusted CONGREX with the responsibility of the conference. Their experience in organising conferences proved to be a great asset for us. Every situation had been anticipated and the solutions were at hand. Our thanks to the CONGREX team under the leadership of Anna Johansson and Ove L. Ljungsäter.

S. SEETHARAMAN
Conference Chairman

L. HOLAPPA
Conference Co-chairman