This proceedings volume represents the culmination of nearly three years of planning, organizing and carrying out of a NATO Ad- vanced Study Institute on Biomass Utilization. The effort was initi- ated by Dr. Harry Sobel, then Editor of Biosources Digest, and a steering committee representing the many disciplines that this field brings together. . When the fiscal and logistical details of the original plan could not be worked out, the idea was temporarily suspended. In the spring of 1982, the Renewable Materials Institute of the State University of New York at the College of Environmental...