In 1974, the Societal Institute of the Mathematical Sciences (SIMS) initiated.a series of five-day Research Application Conferences (RAC's) at Alta, Utah, for the purpose of probing in depth societal fields in light of their receptivity to mathematical and statistical analysis. The first 10 conferences addressed ecosys- tems, epidemiology, energy, environmental health, time series and ecological processes, energy and health, energy conversion and fluid mechanics, environ- mental epidemiology: risk assessment, atomic bomb survivor data: utilization and analysis, and modem statistical methods...