Foreword

The 34th Winter School on Wave and Quantum Acoustics was held in Ustron, a small town in Beskidy Mountains. For the first time the School was organize in a form of three workshops.

- Workshop on Acoustoelectronics and Optoelectronics,

- Workshop on Molecular and Quantum Acoustics,

- 10th Workshop on Photoacoustics and Photothermics.

Participants might take part either in the whole School or in selected workshop only. Modular character of the School had been suggested by participants, who often have not possibility to participate in an event lasting whole week, but are interested in particular sessions.

The idea of workshops is to give opportunities for direct contacts of scientists working in chosen field. Typically a programme contains review lectures presented by experienced researchers and shorter contributions devoted to new, original results or works being realized. Very important part of each session is a discussion, where specialist can comment presented results, proposed alternative solutions or discuss new ideas. Often problems mentioned during session are discussed during informal meeting.

Papers presented in these proceedings are printed versions of contributions presented during workshops. All papers have been reviewed and accepted for publication by the members of scientific committees of workshops. A few titles are slightly changed according to referee's suggestions. I would like to thank all referees for their valuable comments and suggestions. Their work allowed to avoid many mistakes and improved scientific value of presented papers.

The organizers gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Polish State Committee for Scientific Research received via the Polish Acoustical Society.

I hope that all authors of papers presented in these issue and also new participants will join our 35th Winter School in winter 2006.

Jerzy Bodzenta

Silesian University of Technology - Gliwice, 28th July, 2005