J.C. Dore - Böcker

The study of liquids covers a wide range of scientific disciplines, primarily in physics and chemistry. As a result of this disparate activity the links between new developments in remote fields are seldom co-ordinated into a single conference. The objective of the present meeting was to gather together people with different forms of expertise. Previous ASI meetings on the liquid state have been held over an extended period and have occurred on a three-yearly basis. The first meeting in this series was on 'Structure and Dynamics of Liquids' in 1980 and was held on the island of Corsica. The next meeting on 'Molecular liquids: Dynamics and Interactions' was held in Florence in 1983 and was followed by 'Aqueous Solutions' at the Institut d'Etudes Scientifiques de Cargese in 1986. It therefore seemed a natural choice to select Cargese for the next meeting in 1989 and to choose a topic which emphasised a particular area of liquid state studies. Due to our own involvement in collaborative research we considered that 'Hydrogen-bonded liquids' would be an appropriate topic. One of its attractions, was that there was much new material coming from widely disparate investigations and it would be a convenient time to draw together the different strands. The particular interest in water was clearly central to this topic but it was thought desirable to set this development in the wider context of other systems in which hydrogen-bonding plays a significant role.

The almost universal presence of water in our everyday lives and the very "common" nature of its presence and properties possibly deflects attention from the fact that it has a number of very unusual characteristics which, furthermore, are found to be extremely sensitive to physical parameters, chemical environment and other influences. Hydrogen-bonding effects are also not restricted to water, so it is necessary to investigate other systems as well, in order to understand the characteristics in a wider context. "Hydrogen Bond Networks" aims to reflect the diversity and relevance of water in subjects ranging from the fundamentals of condensed matter physics, through aspects of chemical reactivity to structure and function in biological systems.

The almost universal presence of water in our everyday lives and the very 'common' nature of its presence and properties possibly deflects attention from the fact that it has a number of very unusual characteristics which, furthermore, are found to be extremely sensitive to physical parameters, chemical environment and other influences. Hydrogen-bonding effects, too, are not restricted to water, so it is necessary to investigate other systems as well, in order to understand the characteristics in a wider context. Hydrogen Bond Networks reflects the diversity and relevance of water in subjects ranging from the fundamentals of condensed matter physics, through aspects of chemical reactivity to structure and function in biological systems.