Preface

Abstract
The International Conference on Martensitic Transformations, ICOMAT'02, was held on 10-14 June 2002 in Dipoli Congress Centre in Otaniemi, Espoo, Finland. It was the 10th conference in the ICOMAT series Totally 282 scientists from 27 countries participated.

The patron of ICOMAT'02 Conference was Mrs Sinikka Mönkäre, the Minister of Trade and Industry.

Due to the 100th anniversary of Academician G.V. Kurdyumov and Professor Nishiyama, and the recent passing away of Professor Christian, the first three conference days started with the honorary lectures for their legacy.

International Advisory Committee had selected seven topics for the Conference and the corresponding sessions were organized for demonstrating the process and the present state of the art of martensitic and other displacive transformations, in general, and applied in specific materials:

1. Martensitic and diffusional displacive transformations, crystallography, mechamsms, thermodynamics and modeling;

2. Martensite and bainite ferrous alloys;

3. Mechanical and other properties of Fe-C and Fe-N martensitic systems Observations and computer simulations;

4. Martensite in ceramic and other non-metallic systems;

5. Shape memory materials;

6. Magnetically controlled shape memory (MSM) materials and actuators;

7. Martensitic transformations and shape memory effect in thin films;

8. Applications of martensitic transformatlons: Smart materials systems, microsystems, machinery, vibration control and biomedical applications.

Martensite and its derivates enjoy large interest all over the world We received 315 abstracts, of which 265 are presented as papers here in the Proceedings. At the Conference, most of the authors chose to present their papers orally; the amount of oral presentations thus being higher than expected. Parallel session were held due to the large number of papers.

I am very grateful to all of our sponsors and funding organizations, which are separately mentioned here in the Proceedings. Their support made possible not only the Conference itself, but also the participation of many young researchers and colleagues. Especially I would like to thank the Academy of Finland and the Ministry of Trade and Industry for their support.

I would like to thank the following members of Helsinki University of Technology for their help during the preparation of the Conference:Professor Kari Heiskanen, the Dean of the Department of Materials Science and Rock Engineering, Professor Veikko Lindroos from the Laboratory or Physical Metallurgy and Materials Science, Ms Outi Söderberg and Mr. Jan Fagerström for pratical arrangements of the Conference. I am also grateful to the members of the Organizing Committee and to our volontary assistance personnel. I am particularly thankful to the following members of our staff: Ms Marjatta Aav, Mrs Arja Teramo, Mr. Matti Aalto-Setälä, Mr. Teppo Fält, Ms. Kaisa Huitu, Mr. Antti Ihalainen, Mr. Sami Kaarlela, Mr. Kari Koho, Ms. Sanni Mustala, Mr. Jami Nieminen, Ms. Linda Pääkkönen, Mr. Tero Ristolainen, Mr. Jukka Seuranen, Dr. Alexei Sozinov, Mr. Sami Vapalahti and Mr. Jarkko Vimpari. Also special thanks to Mr. Wei Zou, Mr. Xuwen Liu and to the members of Metallikerho, who assisted in the practical arrangements of the Conference.

My special thanks to Ms. Outi Soderberg, Ms. Kaisa Huitu and Ms. Sanni Mustala for their enormous work in preparing the Proceedings of the Conference.

I am very grateful to the co-chairmen, Professor Yuri Koval and Dr. Kari Ullakko. Thanks are also due to all the session chairmen for their contribution to the Conference. Their names are given in the session part of the Proceedings.

I also owe my gratitude to the International Advisory Committee for selecting the relevant topics discussed 3t the Conference.

Also thanks are due to TSG-Congress Ltd. for their excellent help in organizing the Conference.

The scientific success of the Conference was the resuit of the high-quality motivation and work of it participants. Therefore I would like to thank all participants for their contributions. Furthermore, the role of the referees has been of utmost importance.

Finally, on behalf of the Organizing Committee, I would like to acknowledge all the help and good advice we got from Professor Manfred Ahlers and Professor Marcos Sade - the organizers of the previous ICOMAT Conference in Bariloche, Argentina in 1998.

Professor Juha Pietikäinen

Chairman of ICOMAT'OZ Conference

    e-mail: juha.pietikainen@hut.fi