The symposiumwas motivatedby theincreasing need for modelling of material behaviourundervarious mechan icalconditions. This need is driven by the evolut ion ofcomputer capac ityand the resulting ability for engineers and scien tiststo address complexproblems . Reliable models formaterialbehaviour, including accurate numericalvalues of parameters, are necessary for a continued beneficial development ofthe computational side of solid mechanics .High rate plasticity, thermally assisted creep and phasetransformationsare only a fewexamplesof areas where more accurate modelsare needed. Experiments...