Previous international workshops on interfaces were held in Spain in 1990, 1993, 1996, 1999, 2002, and 2005.
The 1990 workshop emphasized the importance of characterization. No topical issue was published.
The 1993 workshop stressed the correlation of processing, properties, and characterization, with an emphasis on ceramic/metal interfaces. The proceedings of this conference were published in Scripta Metallurgica et Materialia, Volume 31, Issue 8, 1994. (http://www.elsevier.com)
The 1996 conference dealt with the role of interfaces. The proceedings of this conference were published in Acta Materialia, Volume 46, Issue 7, 1998.
(http://www.elsevier.com)The 1999 conference took place in Sevilla, Spain, and dealt with the progress on ceramic and biomaterial interfaces. The proceedings were also published in Acta Materialia, Volume 48, Issue 18/19, 2000. (http://www.elsevier.com)
The 2002 conference was held in Oviedo and summarized the progress in the field during the last three years. The proceedings were published in Journal of the European Ceramic Society, Volume 23, Issue 15, 2003. (http://www.elsevier.com)
The 2005 conference took place in Santiago de Compostela with a subtitle: Interfaces by Design. The proceedings were published in Journal of Materials Science, Volume 41, Issue 16, 2006. (www.springerlink.com)
Each meeting summarized the state of the art, defined key outstanding problems, and promoted collaboration and exchanges that helped advance the field during the ensuing years. Another conference scheduled for 2008, will summarize progress of the last three years on materials interfaces, appears worthwhile, and will benchmark accelerating progress in the field of interface science.
We anticipate that this Workshop will again serve to define key problems, promote new collaborations between, and stimulate new research efforts among established scientists and a new generation of materials scientists.
