Since the inception of these meetings in 1982, they have always been a satellite of the International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism meeting. At our 1992 meeting in Dublin we learned that the next ISBRA meeting would be held in Brisbane, of all our previous meetings, I was very concerned Australia. As the scientific organizer about holding a meeting in the Southern Hemisphere for fear that many of our potential participants would not travel that far. I am pleased to say that I was proven to be incorrect. Nearly 90 scientists from a dozen countries participated at our seventh conference. At this meeting, like at all our previous ones, much new information about the three enzyme systems was presented. Of equal importance was, like at all our previous meetings, the extreme openness of the participants to discuss ideas, future directions and unpublished data. On behalf of all the participants I wish to express our sincere thanks to our Massey University colleagues for the excellent organization of this Palmerston North, New Zealand meeting. These included Kathryn Kitson, Michael Hardman, Paul Buckley, Trevor Kitson and Len Blackwell. At this meeting a few new innovations were introduced. Though posters are common at many meetings, bush walks and visits to nature preserves to see kiwi birds Our hosts were able to secure support from the International Union of Biochemistry are not.

The Fifth International Workshop on the Enzymology and Molecular Biology of Carbonyl Metabolism was held at Purdue University in June, 1990. This represents the fifth time that I had the privilege of organizing the scientific program. It was the first time that I actually hosted the meeting. I wish to salute my four previous co-organizers and the thousands of scientists who have hosted other meetings. It is much easier to arrange the scientific program and edit the proceedings. No local organization could occur without the help of ones research group and, in this case, my wife. I sincerely thank Esther and my research group for their advise and help. At this Workshop, similar to the preceeding ones, much new information was presented. It was apparent how molecular biological techniques were influencing the direction of the research on the three families of enzymes discussed. It also was apparent that not all biochemical problems could be solved by using these techniques. Many of the presentations showed how important advances still could be made using more traditional biochemical approaches.