The International Glaciological Society's Symposium on Sea Ice and its Interactions with the Ocean, Atmosphere and Biosphere was held at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska, U.S.A., from 19-23 June 2000. Local arrangements were handled by a committee composed of Martin Jeffries (Chairman), Hajo Eicken (co- Chairman), Steve Ackley Nancy Bachner, Jan Dalrymple, Jerry Johnson, Kim Morris, Don Perovich and Matthew Sturm. Graduate students Aaron Stierle, Karoline Frey Nick Kozlenko, Ted Maksym, Tina Tin and Xiaobing Zhou assisted during the symposium.

Financial support for the symposium was provided by the following contributing cosponsors: Arctic Research Consortium of the United States; Frontier Research System for Global Change, Japan; Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks; International Arctic Research Center and Cooperative Institute for Arctic Research, University of Alaska Fairbanks; U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration; U.S. National Science Foundation; U.S. Office of Naval Research. We are most grateful for their generous support. We also acknowledge the following co-sponsors: American Geophysical Union; International Arctic Science Committee; International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Ocean, Sea Ice Commission; International Commission on Snow and Ice; Japanese Society of Snow and Ice; and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research.

The symposium was attended by 209 people from 17 countries and 186 papers were presented: 95 as oral presentations and 91 as poster presentations. Of the papers presented at the symposium, 89 were accepted for publication in this volume of the Annals of Glaciology, after being peer-reviewed and edited according to the normal standards of the International Glaciological Society. The Chief Editor and co-Chief Editor, Martin O. Jeffries and Hajo Eicken, respectively, were assisted by a team of specialist Associate Editors covering the broad range of topics included in the symposium: Dave Barber, Joey Comiso, Chris Fritsen, Cathy Geiger, Christian Haas, Toshiyuki Kawamura, Matti Lepparanta, Pat Langhorne, Amanda Lynch, Vicki Lytle, Rob Massom, Gary Maykut, Stephanie Pfirman, Jackie Richter-Menge, Michael Spindler, Vernon Squire, Terry Tucker, John Turner and Mike Van Woert. We are most grateful for the vital contribution they made that is reflected in the breadth and quality of the papers in this volume.

And last, but by no means least, overall organization of the symposium was the responsibility of the International Glaciological Society in Cambridge, U.K., under the direction of Simon Ommanney. We thank him and the IGS staff for their role in the success of the Sea Ice Symposium and the production of this issue of the Annals of Glaciology.