Preface

_ The most easterly point of North America was the setting for the 11th International Symposium on Novel Aromatic Compounds (ISNA-11), which took place on 14-18 August 2005 in the picturesque harbor city of St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. An atypically small, but nevertheless enthusiastic, group of 135 delegates representing 17 countries and 64 academic and industrial institutions participated in ISNA-11. The scientific program consisted of 107 posters (two sessions), 26 plenary lectures, and the Nozoe lecture, which was presented by Prof. Koichi Komatsu of Kyoto University.The inaugural ISNA meeting was held in Sendai, Japan in 1970. Since then, ISNA meetings have been held at three- to four-year intervals at locations that cycle between Asia, North America, and Europe. In its infancy, the ISNA community was focused primarily on the definition and quantification of aromaticity, as well as the synthesis and study of compounds that exhibited the phenomenon, whatever it may be. Nourished by advances in synthetic methodology, analytical techniques, separation capabilities, and computational power, ISNA has blossomed over the intervening 35 years to embody a much broader and deeper set of interests. In particular, the twin issues of function and applications have emerged as integral components of ISNA's collective being.The scientific topics of ISNA-11 were selected with an eye toward balancing the traditional areas of interest with its expansion in new directions. The 15 articles that appear in this issue embody these themes, which include:the synthesis of aromatic compoundstheoretically interesting aromatic moleculesstructural aspects of aromaticityaromatic compounds for devicesfullerenes and nanotubesmolecular switches and machinesmacrocyclic aromatic compoundsDebate about the status and future direction of ISNA was actively encouraged, and the overwhelming response was that ISNA is more vibrant and relevant than ever before. It is healthy and growing in many ways. It was therefore decided to move subsequent ISNA meetings to a two-year cycle. This will commence with ISNA-12, which will be held on Awaji Island (located near Kobe) in Japan on 22-27 July 2007. Professor Yoshito Tobe (Osaka University) will serve as conference chair. The responsibility for ISNA-13 was also awarded. It will be organized by Prof. François Diederich (ETH Zürich) and will be held at a yet to be determined European location in 2009.Graham BodwellRik TykwinskiConference Editors