It is my very pleasant duty to welcome participants to this Conference organized by the Metals Society, The Royal Society and the National Physical Laboratory. The National Physical Laboratory has of course been the moving spirit in bringing it about. It has turned out to be a truly international conference with one-third of the papers coming from overseas and those from 11 countries. I think that the importance and significance of the Conference, and the energy of the principal organizer, can be judged from that fact and also from the help that has been received, which we acknowledge, from the U. S. Army and U. S. Air Force Office in Europe, the British Gas Corporation, G. K. N., Tube Investments, the U. K. A. E. A. and Alcan, besides the Royal Society who provided the travel funds and the lecture theatre. We are very glad to acknowledge all this help and are very grateful for it. The provenance of the papers is interesting: 40% come from industrial concerns, 30% from universities and 30% from Government laboratories. It is with some pride as Chairman of the Engineering Materials Requirements Board of the Department of Industry that I note that most of the N. P. L. papers are in fact financed by that Board. The principal organizing group, as I have said, comes from one of our great national laboratories, the National Physical Laboratory, and one can see there one function of that Laboratory, which is forming a nexus between the activities in Industry and the Universities; this is an important role of our national laboratories.