A recommendation to hold a symposium on contact problems in mechanics, sponsored by the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (IUTAM), was made by the Engineering Mechanics Group of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Delft University of Technology. In order to outline the scope of the Symposium and select the place and date IUTAM appointed a Study-group of seven members in 1971. Following an interchange of views between these members the Study-group proposed to IUTAM to organise an International Symposium on the Mechanics of the Contact between Deformable Bodies on August 20-23, 1974, at Twente University of Technology, Netherlands, with a number of participants restricted to about 60, the outline of scope being as follows: Theoretical and fundamental experimental studies on the mechanical aspects of the contact between solid bodies: solid surfaces, area of contact, mechanics of friction in the broadest sense. Mathematical analysis of the normal contact and tangential contact (pure sliding, steady and unsteady rolling) between two (elastically, plastically and viscoelastically) deformable solid bodies on the basis of simplified models of the contact mechanism. Problems involving hydrodynamic lubrication as the main phenomenon should be excluded. IUTAM accepted this proposal and appointed in December, 1972, a scientific committee consisting of the following members: N. H. Arutjunjan (USSR), H. Buffer (BRD), L. E. Goodman (USA), A. Ju. ISIinskij (USSR), K. L. Johnson (UK), W. Nowacki (Poland), A. D. de Pater (Chairman, Netherlands) and D. Tabor (UK). Their main duty was the selection of lecturers and other participants.
