Due to their specific properties, polymers with well-defined structures have been receiving increasing attention over the last several years. Owing to the wide variability of their properties, these specialty polymers have been used in various areas from biomedical engineering to electronics or energy applications. The synthesis of such polymers necessi tates the use of new methods of polymerization which derived from an insight into the mechanism of polymerization reactions. A NATO Advanced Research Workshop on "Frontiers in Polymerization Catalysis and Polymer Synthesis" was held in BANDOl (FRANCE) in February 1987. Its aim was to assess the new polymerization methods, as well as the latest advances in the mechanisms of conventional polymerization reactions together with their applications to the synthesis of new macromolecular structures. The financial support from the NATO Scientific Affairs Division which covered the "lecturers' accomodation and travel expenses as well as the organization charges of this event gave it international scope. Several industrial companies participate at the meeting and contributed to it success. The organizors who are also editors of these proceedings, want to express their thanks to both NATO Scientific Affairs Division and the companies present at the meeting.

With an enormous velocity, olefin polymerization has expanded to one of the most significant fields in polymers since the first industrial use about 50 years ago. In 2005, 100 million tons of polyolefins were produced - the biggest part was catalyzed by metallorganic compounds. The Hamburg Macromolecular Symposium 2005 with the title "Olefin Polymerization" involved topics such as new catalysts and cocatalysts, kinetics, mechanism and polymer reaction engineering, synthesis of special polymers, and characterization of polyolefins. The conference combined scientists from different disciplines to discuss latest research results of polymers and to offer each other the possibility of cooperation. This is reflected in this volume, which contains invited lectures and selected posters presented at the symposium.

Stereoregular Polymers and Stereospecific Polymerizations: The Contributions of Guilio Natta and his School to Polymer Chemistry, Volume 1 covers the developments in understanding the reactions, nomenclature, and physico-chemical properties of polymers. This volume is composed of 82 chapters, and starts with surveys of the synthesis and crystal structure of polymers. Significant chapters are devoted to the characterization of crystalline polymers, with emphasis on the determination of their viscosity and molecular weight. Other chapters deal with stereospecific polymers of olefins, mechanism of stereospecific catalysis, reaction kinetics. This volume also considers the polymerization of synthetic elastomers and the copolymerization of olefins, as well as their reaction kinetics. The remaining chapters describe the X-ray characterization of isotactic polymers. This book is directed toward polymer chemists.