The 3rd International Symposium on Slow Dynamics in Complex Systems, which was hosted by the Institute of Fluid Science, Tohoku University, Japan, was held in Sendai, Japan, from 3 to 8 November 2003. It was very active and successful. There were 130 participants from 26 foreign countries and 253 from Japan. There were 33 invited talks, 76 oral presentations, and 205 poster presentations. The success of the Symposium was guaranteed by the high level of the presentations and also by the enthusiastic participation of 383 persons.

An exciting aspect of the Symposium was the presence of four Nobel Prize Winners, S. Chu, I. Giaever, A. J. Heeger, and R. B. Laughlin, who presented hour long talks and participated actively in the discussions. The Symposium covered five general topics all of which were interrelated and shared the property of Slow Dynamics. The topics were Complex Fluids, Polymer Dynamics, Biological Systems, Complex Systems, and Glass Transitions. The speakers were experimentalists, theorists, and computer scientists and it was impressive how closely these disparate groups worked together.

The systems studied covered almost all states of matter including solids, liquids, complex solutions, polymers, and suspensions. Significant progress was made on a variety of topics. Among these were experimental and theoretical studies of colloidal systems; experiments on glass to glass transitions in micellar systems; theoretical studies of polyelectrolytes and polymer melts and networks; theoretical and computer studies of hydrodynamics in suspensions and Rayleigh-Taylor and Rayleigh-Couette instabilities; theoretical and experimental studies of the glass transition; computer simulations of the glass transition in thin films; vibrational motions in glass forming liquids and glasses; the effects of shear on supercooled liquids; engineering and experimental studies of metallic glasses; mode-coupling studies of complex glass formation; and Lorentz gas studies of the translational and rotational motion of a rigid rod.

The discussions between five different groups were extremely interesting and effective. The success of this Symposium was also due to the efforts of the discussion leaders, P. Harrowell, K. L. Ngai, P. Pincus, and D. A. Weitz, who helped the participants to review and extend their present understanding of Slow Dynamics, giving valuable comments and even suggesting some possible future directions of our research. The Proceedings will be published from American Institute of Physics around this summer.

While organizing this Symposium, we were fortunate to receive abundant help from many people and organizations. On behalf of the organizing committee, we would like to thank them for their support and encouragement. The Symposium was also aided in one form or another by the supporting agencies listed elsewhere in this volume, which are gratefully acknowledged. The organizers would also like to thank members of the international advisory committee for their encouragement and pertinent advice.

Michio Tokuyama
Chairperson of Slow Dynamics 2003