*** 9714608 The International Conference on Durability of Composite Systems has enjoyed widely recognized success in bringing together scientists and engineers in a technical area of mechanics and materials that is important to the economy and critical to the defense of our country. This third Conference is the first ever to be held in the U.S., the result of a successful proposal to the International organizing board. This Conference also focuses on joint activities between the U.S., Europe, and Japan, especially in technical areas of great current importance to those countries. Special attention will be given to high performance composites, especially polymeric and ceramic composites, and to the time-dependent behavior of all materials as identified by the recent U.S.-EC Commission on materials research in Brussels. A unique feature of the Conference is the fact that conceptual progress is compiled at the end of each Conference, and the next Conference builds on the progress that was made in previous ones. Concepts were chosen in that way for the primary focus of the current Conference. The timeliness of this Conference is of special importance. Europe has initiated several major national programs in high performance materials for severe environments, and the first results of those programs are just becoming available. A major reason for requesting support for this Conference is to provide a means of inviting and bringing to the Conference the major U.S. and European players in those technical areas to bring important information about those activities and the associated directions of research to the U.S. technical community, and especially to make it possible to bring young researchers to the Conference who could not otherwise afford to come. Conference organization Conference organization is being handled by Virginia Tech with limited financial backing from that Institute. Cooperating U.S. organizations include the Virginia Institute for Material Systems, and Georgia Tech; others are being contacted. The scope of the Conference includes all types of high performance polymer and composite systems, interfaces and interphases, high-temperature materials, smart materials and structures, fatigue, fracture, and damage analysis. Some 16 invited speakers have committed to the Conference, and 40 contributed abstracts have been received. Contributed papers will be chosen in February of 1997.***
