The second international conference on the subject of Picosecond Phenomena was held June 18-20, 1980, in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Scientists from a broad range of disciplines were brought together to discuss their common interest in ultrafast processes. This meeting was organized as a Topical Meeting of the Optical Society of America and was attended by 250 partici­ pants. The conference reviewed the latest advances in the experimental and theo­ retical understanding of phenomena that occur on a picosecond timescale. New discoveries in electronics, chemical dynamics, solid state physics, and pico­ second optics highlighted the interactions between chemists, physicists, biologists,and engineers who attended the conference. The enthusia~m