This volume is a collection of papers presented at the 14th International Conference on Nucleation and Atmospheric Aerosols, Helsinki, 26 - 30 August 1996. The first conference of this series took place in Dublin (1955); second, Basel and Locarno (1956); third, Cambridge (1958); fourth, Frankfurt am Main and Heidelberg (1961); fifth, Clermont-Ferrand and Tolouse (1963); sixth, Albany and University Park (1966); seventh, Prague and Vienna (1969); eighth, Leningrad (1973); ninth, Galway (1977); tenth, Hamburg (1981); eleventh Budapest (1984); twelfth, Vienna (1988); thirteenth, Salt Lake City (1992). The Atmospheric Aerosol conference has been held jointly with the Nucleation Symposium since 1988 in Vienna in order to stimulate contacts between researchers in these closely related fields. The broad nature of the meeting and the scientific program resulted in 32 countries submitting papers for presentation. Covering both experimental and theoretical studies these papers are divided amongst the chapters on Nucleation, Stratospheric Aerosols and Ice Nucleation, Tropospheric Aerosols and Aerosol-Cloud-Climate Interaction. In addition to these contributed papers invitations to present a plenary lecture on topics of particular current interest were accepted by P.J. Crutzen, J. Gras, J.L. Katz, A.A. Lushnikov, D. Oxtoby, J.E. Penner, Th. Peter, F. Raes, S.E. Schwartz, R. Strey and G. Vali. These plenary papers together with the contributed papers provide a well-balanced perspective of the current research over the entire field and highlight some important issues.
