The first international conference devoted to Picosecond Phenomena was held 1ay 24-26,1978 in Hilton Head, South Carolina. After more than a decade of active research, this conference brought together scientists from widely varying disciplines who shared a common interest in studying 'ultrafast processes. It was organized as a Topical Meeting of the Optical Society of America and attracted 187 registered participants. The conference reviewed current progress in experimental and theoreti cal understanding of phenomena that occur on a picosecond timescale. A recent upsurge of interest has...