During its meeting in Vienna on the 25th of June 1966 the General
Assembly of the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mecha-
nics (IUTAM) decided to sponsor a seGond international symposium on the
theory of thin shells. It was decided to hold this symposium in
Copenhagen and the scientific organization was left in the hands of a
committee consisting of A. E. GREEN, W. T. KOlTER, F. 1. NIORDSON
(chairman), W. OLSZAK, E. REISSNER, and 1. N. VEKUA. The main topics of
the symposium were announced to be: "Foundations", "Non-linear theory",
"Buckling and post-buckling", and "Inelastic behaviour". The impetus to
the advancement of shell theory from the first IUTAM Symposium on this
subject, held in Delft in 1959, has been widely recogni- zed. The
purpose of this second Symposium was to take stock of the situation and,
by bringing leading scientists in this field together, to open and
encourage new studies in this seemingly inexhaustible disci- pline. It
was felt, in the development following the first Symposium in Delft,
that solid foundations of shell theory had been obtained and that this
second Symposium could be devoted almost entirely to the buckling and
post-buckling behaviour and to the non-linear theory of shells.