The recent worldwide explosion of interest in enzymes as cata lysts in industrial processes has arisen primarily because of the potential of major innovative advances which have taken place over the last two decades, foremost among these being novel methods of enzyme immobilization and affinity chromatography for rapid enzyme purification. This interest is now being further stimulated by the remarkable commercial success of several enzyme-based industrial processes, particularly the production of high-fructose syrup in the U. S. and amino acid production in Japan. With the initiation of these and other processes, together with the readying for commercial ization of several other enzyme-based operations, interest has ex panded in other areas in which enzymes may playa useful role, particularly in medicine and analytical chemistry. The development of this technology has required the cooperative efforts of practi tioners of several disciplines, primarily chemical engineers, bio chemists and other life scientists. Indeed, from this cooperation is arising the new interdisciplinary field of Enzyme Engineering. To stimulate communication, information exchange and advance ment of knowledge in this new field on an international level the Engineering Foundation, through the efforts of Lemuel B. Wingard, Jr., initiated in 1971 a series of international conferences on Enzyme Engineering to be held biannually. The first two conferences were held in Henniker, New Hampshire, in the summers of 1971 and 1973, respectively, while the third conference, from which these proceedings derived, was held in August 1975 in Portland, Oregon."

Considerable worldwide interest has arisen in recent years in the controlled use of enzymes as catalysts in industrial processing, analytical chemistry and medical therapy. This interest has genera ted the new interdisciplinary field of Enzyme Engineering, which includes both the scientific and technologic aspects of the produc tion, purification, immobilization, and application of enzymes in a variety of situations and reactor configurations. A series of Engineering Foundation conferences on Enzyme Engineering was initia ted to provide an international forum for the exchange of ideas and information over the entire range of this new field. The outstanding success of the first two conferences attests to the vigor and poten tial of this field to contribute significantly to a better under standing and resolution of some of the major problems faced by man kind. The first conference, which was held August 9-13, 1971, at Henniker, New Hampshire, U. S. A., aided significantly in molding the several traditional disciplines that interact to form the field of Enzyme Engineering. The conference was highly successful mainly because many of the key scientists and engineers from the several facets of Enzyme Engineering were brought together for the first time at a single residential meeting. The result was an exchange of ideas and "education" of one another in the pertinent principles of the diverse disciplines which contribute to this field. The second conference, held August 5-10, 1973, at Henniker, New Hampshire, U. S. A."