The present volume, the fourth one in the "Space Sciences Series of
ISSI" (Inter- national Space Science Institute), contains the
proceedings of a workshop on "Pri- mordial Nuclei and Their Galactic
Evolution", which was held at ISSI in Bern on 6-10 May 1997. This topic
was chosen following some general enquiries with the scientific
community concerning its desirability and timeliness. Five convenors, D.
Duncan, C. Hogan, J. Linsky, N. Prantzos, and H. Reeves (chair)
subsequently set up the workshop, nominated a list of invitees,
structured the workshop into a series of introductory talks and into six
topical working groups (early Universe- extragalactic objects -low-Z
stars - galactic disk and galactic evolution - solar nebula -local
interstellar medium), and described the tasks of the working groups in a
list of keywords. It is the main task of ISSI to bring together space
scientists, ground-based observers, and theorists from different fields
and to give them the opportunity to discuss and compare their results,
thus contributing to the achievement of a deeper understanding, adding
value to those results through multi-disciplinary research in an
atmosphere of international co-operation. In that spirit the convenors
selected participants working in fields ranging from Big Bang theory to
observers oftoday's Solar System, thus spanning the widest possible
range both in time and space.