The field of nuclear magnetic resonance has experienced a number of spectacular developments during the last decade. Fourier transform methodology revolutionized signal acquisition capabilities. Superconducting magnets enhanced sensitivity and produced considerable improvement in spectral dispersion. In areas of new applicat ions, the life sciences particularly bene fited from these developments and probably saw the largest increase in usage. NMR imaging promises to offer a noninvasive alternative to X rays. High resolution is now achievable with solids, through magic angle spinning and cross polarization, so that the powers of NMR are applicable to previously intractable materials such as polymers, coal, and other geochemicals. The ease of obtaining relaxation times brought an important fourth variable, after the chemical shift, the coupling constant, and the rate constant, to the examination of structural and kinetic problems i~ all fields. Software development, particularly in the area of pulse sequences, created a host of useful tech niques, including difference decoupling and difference nuclear Overhauser effect spectra, multidimensional displays, signal enhancement (INEPT), coupling constant analysis for connectivity (INADEQUATE), and observation of specific structural classes such as only quaternary carbons. Finally, hardware development gave us access to the entire Periodic Table, to the particular advan tage of the inorganic and organometallic chemist. At the NATO Advanced Study Institute at Stirling, Scotland, the participants endeavored to examine all these advances, except imaging, from a multidisciplinary point of view.

The field of nuclear magnetic resonance has experienced a number of spectacular developments during the last decade. Fourier transform methodology revolutionized signal acquisition capabilities. Superconducting magnets enhanced sensitivity and produced considerable improvement in spectral dispersion. In areas of new applicat ions, the life sciences particularly bene fited from these developments and probably saw the largest increase in usage. NMR imaging promises to offer a noninvasive alternative to X rays. High resolution is now achievable with solids, through magic angle spinning and cross polarization, so that the powers of NMR are applicable to previously intractable materials such as polymers, coal, and other geochemicals. The ease of obtaining relaxation times brought an important fourth variable, after the chemical shift, the coupling constant, and the rate constant, to the examination of structural and kinetic problems i~ all fields. Software development, particularly in the area of pulse sequences, created a host of useful tech niques, including difference decoupling and difference nuclear Overhauser effect spectra, multidimensional displays, signal enhancement (INEPT), coupling constant analysis for connectivity (INADEQUATE), and observation of specific structural classes such as only quaternary carbons. Finally, hardware development gave us access to the entire Periodic Table, to the particular advan tage of the inorganic and organometallic chemist. At the NATO Advanced Study Institute at Stirling, Scotland, the participants endeavored to examine all these advances, except imaging, from a multidisciplinary point of view.

The idea of this NATO school was born during philosophical discussions with Dr Brevard on the present and future of NMR during a night walk under the palm trees in Biskra during a seminar held in this oasis. It was clear for us that the recent progress in the field of NMR, especially inverse spectroscopy and the development of MAS, was opening new perspectives for chemists. We realised also that organometallic and inorganic chemists were not clearly informed about the potentialities of all the new methods. NA TO, with its summer schools, was offering a good opportunity to propose to the chemical community a session where those problems would be largely developped. This School is then the prolongation of the two previous ones: Palermo in 1976 on "the less receptive nuclei" and Stirling in 1982 on "the multinuclear approach to NMR spectroscopy" . It was divided into two sub-sessions: NMR in the liquid state and NMR in the solid state. This is reflected in the book organization. As indicated by the title of this School, we were mainly concerned with the methodological aspects of multinuclear NMR. If many examples are given, they appear only as a support for the understanding of the theory or in explanation of some practical aspects of the different experiments. Each domain is introduced by a lecture which presents selected examples.