The International Science Lecture Series (ISLS) operates as a special project of the National Research Council's Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and Applications. The series was established in 1990 at the request of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and joined in 1992 by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR). The purpose of the series is to advance communication and cooperation within the international scientific community. A search committee established by the National Research Council (NRC) selects prominent U.S. scientists to lecture in three areas of basic scientific inquiry: ocean and meteorological sciences, materials science, and information science. The countries in which the lectures are to be given are selected on the basis of consultations with the international scientific community, with the science attache in U.S. embassies, with senior representatives of ONR-Asia and ONR-Europe, and with both ONR and AFOSR representatives in Washington, D.C. When appropriate, each lecture in a host country is followed by formal and informal discussions with senior governmental, industrial, and academic representatives to expand the dialogue on research progress, problems, and areas of common interest and thereby identify opportunities for greater cooperation and collaborative efforts in research. Following each tour, the formal lecture is published for wider international distribution.

Implementation Challenges for High-Temperature Composites by Anthony G. Evans, Gordon McKay Professor of Materials Engineering at Harvard University, is the fifth lecture in the International Science Lecture Series. The first lecture in the series, The Heard Island Experiment, was presented by Walter H. Munk, holder of the Secretary of the Navy Research Chair at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego, and the second lecture, New Materials: Fountainhead for New Technologies and New Science, was presented by Rustum Roy, Evan Pugh Professor of the Solid State and professor of geochemistry, Pennsylvania State University. John E. Hopcroft, who is the Joseph C. Ford Professor of Computer Science at Cornell University, gave the third lecture, Computing, Communication, and the Information Age; the fourth lecture, Traffic Management for High-Speed Networks, was delivered by H.T. Kung, Gordon McKay Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Harvard University.

Professor Evans' lecture tour consisted of two separate trips in the Far East; each lecture was

followed by a small group discussion that addressed potential areas of mutual interest in structural materials. In the 1995 trip, his first presentation was given on September 4 in Beijing, China, at Tsinghua University. Following the lecture, a tour of the Materials Department of Tsinghua University was given to the ISLS group. On September 5, the ISLS delegation toured the Beijing Institute of Aeronautical Materials, a facility that focuses on a broad range of structural and functional aerospace materials and is affiliated with Tsinghua University. On the following day the delegation met with members of the Institute of Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. At Shanghai on September 7, Professor Evans presented his lecture at the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, which has a longstanding reputation for manufacturing world-class oxide single crystals. On the following day the ISLS group toured the Institute of Composite Materials at Shanghai Jiao Tung University. Shanghai Jiao Tung University has devised some interesting fiber coating approaches and manufacturing methods, as well as a substantial capability for interface analysis.

In Osaka, Japan, on September 11, Professor Evans presented his lecture at Jurin Hall in the Senri Hankyu Hotel; in its September 12 tour of the Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research, Osaka University, the delegation heard about some of the research being conducted there on advanced materials. The ISLS delegation traveled to Nagoya for the lecture on September 13 and toured the Japan Fine Ceramic Center, a facility that features the latest equipment dedicated to the processing, testing, analyzing, and modeling of ceramic materials. The final 1995 lecture presentation was in Toyko on September 14 at the International House of Japan. Professor Evans and the ISLS representatives visited the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology at Tokyo University, which is doing some basic research on composite materials.

The second Asian lecture tour was in 1996; the group first visited the workshops of Baoji Nonferrous Metal Works and Research Center, China. They then returned to Xi'an where Professor Evans gave his first lecture, on September 24, at the Northwest Institute for Nonferrous Metal Research (NIN), which is working to create a world-class institute in titanium metallurgy. Since the work for NIN is performed at Xi 'an and Baoji, the group discussions were held in both places. The ISLS delegation visited the Beijing Institute of Aeronautical Materials again on September 25; the group discussed several technical areas, such as high cycle fatigue, coatings, intermetallics, corrosion fatigue, and cast silicon carbon aluminum. On September 27, more group discussions were held at the Research Institute of Geology for Mineral Resources (CNNC) and at the Superhard Materials Center in Guilin. CNNC specializes in methods for ore and oil discovery and for ore extraction. Group discussions were held October 1 with the director of the Precious Metals Research Institute in Kunming, which focuses on many aspects of precious metals for the electronics industry. In Hong Kong from October 2 though 5, the ISLS delegation first visited at the University of Hong Kong, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology on October 3 and 4. Professor Evans gave his final lecture at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Attended by the materials science faculty members from the three Hong Kong universities, the lecture was followed by a three-hour discussion of collaborative opportunities.

The National Research Council, the Office of Naval Research, and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research express their appreciation to their gracious hosts in China and Japan: Professor Shi Changxu, director, Division of Technology and Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Professor Yan Dongsheng, president of the Chinese Chemical Society; Professor Shigeyuki Somiya, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Nishi Tokyo University; Professor Teruo Kishi, director general, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Tokyo; Dr. Zhou Lian, vice president, Northwest Institute for Nonferrous Metal Research and the Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering; Dr. Leroy L. Chang, dean of science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; Professor Xue-Ren Wu, technical director, Beijing Institute of Aeronautical Materials; and Professor Koichi Niihara, Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research, Osaka University.