Substantial progress has been made in the field of fluid mechanics under compensated gravity effects (microgravity). The main task of this disciplinehas evolved tremendously. Starting out with the aim of providing assistance in describing flow problems in other microgravity sciences, microgravityfluid mechanics has itself now become acknowledge as a powerful means of research. The IUTAM Symposium on Microgravity Fluid Mechanics has pro- vided the long-awaited forum for scientists from 15 coun- tries to discuss and concretize the "state-of-the-art" in this discipline. The main themes treated...