The Eighty-Second National Meeting of the American Institute of Chemical
Engineers, held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, from August 29 through
September 1, 1976, had as one of its themes the topic of transport
processes. One of the sessions related to this theme was "Transport
Processes in the Oceans" chaired by R. P. Shaw and R. J. Gibbs. This
session was devoted to the study of transport processes and their
hydrodynamic modeling in large water bodies such as oceans and lakes;
transport of both dissolved and solid material was con- sidered. The
interest developed at the session led to the conclu- sion that the
papers presented there should be published as a set rather than
dispersed among the various technical journals that rep- resent the wide
variety of technical affiliations of the authors. This variety, in fact,
is typical of this particular field with con- tributors identified as
chemical engineers, civil engineers, environ mental engineers,
mechanical engineers, oceanographers and applied mechanicians to name
just a few. Such an interdisciplinary area re- quires more effort in
keeping abreast of developments than do the traditional areas, since new
material may be developed and presented in a wide range of technical
journals and professional meetings.