The idea for organizing an Advanced Study Institute devoted largely to
neutron star timing arose independently in three places, at Istanbul,
Garching and Amster- dam; when we became aware of each other's ideas we
decided to join forces. The choice of a place for the Institute, in
Turkey, appealed much to us all, and it was then quickly decided that
Qe§me would be an excellent spot. When the preparations for the
Institute started, early in 1987, we could not have guessed how timely
the subject actually was. Of course, the recently dis- covered QPO
phenomena in accreting neutron stars and half a dozen binary and
millisecond radio pulsars known at the time formed one of the basic
motivations for organizing this Institute. But none of us could have
guessed that later in 1987 we were to witness the wonderful discovery of
the binary and millisecond radio pulsars in globular clusters and, -as
if Nature wished to give us a special present for this the discovery in
March 1988 of a millisecond pulsar in an eclipsing binary Institu-
system, the first eclipsing radio pulsar ever found, and the second
fastest in the sky! The discussion of this pulsar, its formation and
fate was one of the highlights of this meeting, especially since its
discoverers were among the participants of the Institute and could
provide us with first-hand information.