Overview

As is often the case, the preface is the last task to be finished during the preparation of a large volume such as you are now holding. The first task, obtaining approval for a symposium on the industrial applications, now seems a long time ago. The idea orginated with John Stevens, probably in 1982, from his observation of papers dealing with industrial applications of the Mossbauer effect appearing in the Mossbauer Effect Reference and Data Journal. His initial suggestion for a symposium entitled "Industrial Applications of the Mossbauer Effect" to be held at a national meeting of the American Chemical Society eventually led to the symposium at the International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies which met in Honolulu, Hawaii in December 1984. This volume is the result of the symposium at the above mentioned Congress, but is not actually the 'proceedings' of the symposium because this volume does not contain all of the over one hundred Mossbauer effect papers that were pre- sented at the symposium. Rather it contains a selection of papers that the or- ganizing committee for the symposium deemed most appropriate for a volume devoted to industrial applications of the Mossbauer effect. The final volume also contains six chapters that were not a part of the symposium but which are closely related to the topic. There is another difference from many proceedings.