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The welcome was given by University of Pittsburgh President Wesley Posvar. The conference cochairmen, Stellan Ohlsson and Jeff Bonar, also gave brief welcomes to the participants. The relatively small size of the conference, about 425 participants, was undoubtedly in part responsible for the congenial ambiance of the meeting. In addition to the opportunity to reunite with old friends, it was easy to establish new relationships with nearly everyone at the conference. With so many attendees from abroad (The Netherlands, Japan, Canada, West Germany, England, Sweden, France, and Hong Kong were all represented by speakers), the international flavor of the conference was well established.