Richard Fox Chairman, Scientific Programme Committee Between 25th and 29th September, 1988, 243 people who either apply or research the use of computers in fermentation gathered together at Robinson College, Cambridge, UK. They came from 30 countries. The conference brought together two traditions. Firstly, it continued the series on Computer Applications in Fermentation Technology (ICCAFT) inaugurated by Henri Blanchere in Dijon in 1973 and carried forward in Philadelphia and Manchester. Secondly, it brought the expertise of the many members of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC), who focused their attention on biotechnology at Noordwijkerhout in the Netherlands in December, 1985. I am happy to say that the tradition carries on and a successor meeting will hopefully take place in the USA in 1991. If you find these proceedings useful or stimulating, then we hope to see you there. We set out to make ICCAFT4 a close-knit friendly conference. We housed all who cared to in Robinson College itself and organised no parallel sessions. Because we, the organisers, experience difficulty with the jargon of our colleagues from other disciplines, we asked Bruce Beck to present a breakfast tutorial on modern control and modelling techniques, and we set up informal panel discussions after dinner on two evenings. Neville Fish chaired a forum on the microbiological principles behind models, while Professors Derek Linkens and Ron Leigh led a discussion on expert systems in control.

Richard Fox Chairman, Scientific Programme Committee Between 25th and 29th September, 1988, 243 people who either apply or research the use of computers in fermentation gathered together at Robinson College, Cambridge, UK. They came from 30 countries. The conference brought together two traditions. Firstly, it continued the series on Computer Applications in Fermentation Technology (ICCAFT) inaugurated by Henri Blanchere in Dijon in 1973 and carried forward in Philadelphia and Manchester. Secondly, it brought the expertise of the many members of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC), who focused their attention on biotechnology at Noordwijkerhout in the Netherlands in December, 1985. I am happy to say that the tradition carries on and a successor meeting will hopefully take place in the USA in 1991. If you find these proceedings useful or stimulating, then we hope to see you there. We set out to make ICCAFT4 a close-knit friendly conference. We housed all who cared to in Robinson College itself and organised no parallel sessions. Because we, the organisers, experience difficulty with the jargon of our colleagues from other disciplines, we asked Bruce Beck to present a breakfast tutorial on modern control and modelling techniques, and we set up informal panel discussions after dinner on two evenings. Neville Fish chaired a forum on the microbiological principles behind models, while Professors Derek Linkens and Ron Leigh led a discussion on expert systems in control.

The 6th Computer Applications in Biotechnology (CAB6) conference was a continuation of 2 series of events: the IFAC symposia on Modelling and Control of Biotechnical Processes and the International Conferences on Computer Applications in Fermentation Technology. This conference provided the opportunity for both sides, leading researchers and industrial practitioners, in this interdisciplinary field to exchange new ideas and technology; concepts and solutions. This postprint volume contains all those papers which were presented at the conference.

The 8th International Conference on Computer Applications in Biotechnology (CAB8) was held in Quebec city, Canada, 24 - 27 June, 2001. The conference on Computer Applications in Biotechnology is organized every three years and aims to stimulate contacts between specialists active in academic research and industrial development in all major areas of biotechnology where computers are used to aid bioprocess design, supervision, diagnosis, operation, optimization and control. Essential bioprocess systems engineering aspects ranging from metabolic engineering to the control of bio-production plants are covered. CAB8 was supported by IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) and EFB (European Federation of Biotechnology). This conference series results from the merger of EFB (European Federation of Biotechnology), ICCAFT (International Conference on Computer Applications in Fermentation Technology) and IFAC Modelling and Control of Biotechnical Processes Symposia. The scientific program was arranged in several sessions as listed in this volume. Two poster sessions were held in which excellent papers were presented. In addition, three plenary lectures given by Prof. George Bastin (UCL, Belgium), Prof. Douglas Kilburn (UBC, Canada), and Prof. Benhard O. Palsson (UCSD, USA) reviewed the state of art in metabolic engineering modelling, interaction between molecular biology and bioprocess engineering, and influence of bioinformatics on metabolic engineering. In total, 79 papers of very high quality were presented with 76 papers appearing in this Proceedings volume.

The purpose of this volume is to describe the components, assembly, and implementation of computer-based process control systems. Presented in two sections, it illustrates how such systems have been used to monitor and control industrial fermentation processes as a means to improve our understanding of product biosynthesis. This book covers the fields of indirect parameter estimation and fermentation-specific control algorithms. It also includes chapters which describe system architecture and process application, process control, on-line liquid sampling and computer system architecture. This is an ideal source for anyone involved with biotechnology, bioengineering, microbial technology, chemical engineering, and computer control.