Proceedings of the International Symposium on the Applications of Holography

The field of applications in holography so largely extended in the last few years that it demanded a gathering at large, strictly devoted to this technique. A successful endeavour in Glasgow, Sept. 1968, had shown its great interest at once. It had been suggested then to bring together research workers, engineers and physicists wishing to compare their opinions and various approaches in an event both partaking of a highly specialized colloquium and a conference displaying a choice of subjects even sometimes covering beyond the original frame. Indeed, holography has developed so quickly for the past two years that one might ask how many headings were necessary to scatter the flow of papers submitted to the Symposium at Besancon. Besides, discrimination and limitation of their number would become arbitrary if one only took summaries into account. In the initial announcement, stress had been put on the fact that holography should be considered as a tool: abstracts sent by authors remain faithful to this point and must be published in extenso, though some of them might insist on technological progress and lessen fundamental considerations. In March, some 350 participants had been pre-registred, coming from 21 different countries, 142 titles were kept and classified under 18 headings listed before the abstracts. On the second page of this article, a key to the authors refers to their texts. A few addresses are missing due to grouped invoices: final registrations will certainly allow to fill this gap, by no means a hindrance to fruitful exchanges before and during the Symposium. Yet let's express one wish only, lest augurs should be defied, the temperature this Spring is rather cool, let July bring warmth to our meetings, discussions and contacts.