Preface from the CHEP '95 Co-chairpersons

The Computing in High Energy Physics Conference (CHEP '95) was held for the first time in the Southern Hemisphere, under the banner "Computing for the Next Millennium". The conference, organized jointly by LAFEX (Laboratório de Cosmologia e Física das Altas Energias), a laboratory of the Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas, and Fermilab (Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory) took place in the Hotel Glória, in the city of Rio de Janeiro.

The conference brought together more than 400 participants from all over the world to discuss the latest progress in the field and to help to lay the pathways for the future of computing in High Energy Physics.

Organizing the conference jointly by two institutions ten thousand kilometers apart, was surprisingly smooth. Almost all aspects of the conference were organized "online" including registration, bulletins, submission of papers, abstracts and transparencies, making extensive use of the World Wide Web.

This conference followed the format of morning plenary sessions with up to six parallel sessions each afternoon. This was augmented by poster sessions, vendor talks and presentaitons, virtual reality demonstrations and videoteleconference sessions. For the plenary talks speakers were invited both from within the field of High Energy Physics and from other scientific and computing fields. There was a session dedicated to vendors where they presented the development of this field from their perspective. The scientific program was broken into six themes, reflected in the arrangement of proceedings, and a group of convenors associated to each one. We would like to express our thanks to them for their work, which was essential to the scientific success of CHEP '95.

The conference was carried live via MBone to the rest of the world, and we thank Rede Rio, the academic network of Rio de Janeiro and the Fermilab Computing Division Networking experts for their support. Many companies were instrumental in their help with equipment, in particular IBM, Digital Equipment, Silicon Graphics and Bay Networks; and others gave valuable financial support. A complete list of sponsors of the conference appears in the following section. The City of Rio de Janeiro welcomed the participants during a reception at the Hotel Glória. To all of them our sincere appreciation.

This conference was made possible by the continuous support of the Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Fíisicas and Fermi National Laboratory and we thank both its Directors, Dr. Amos Troper and Dr. John Peoples, for their generosity.

A special word of thanks to all the staff who patiently helped in the organization of this conference and who took care of all the details of the organization and the setting up of facilities, with a diligence well beyond the normal sense of duty.