Water is recognized as being a critically important determinant of the properties of many foods. It is therefore appropriate to devote a meeting to the topic. The first such meeting was organized by the late Ron Duckworth, and held in 1974 at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland. As a result of this first meeting, the organization known as International Symposium on the Properties of Water (ISOPOW) was born, and since that first ISOPOW meeting there have been five international meetings. At each meeting, participants from academia and from industry have shared state of the science information pertinent to the role of water in foods. Each meeting has served as a review of the current state of knowledge. ISOPOW 6 is the first of these meetings where Ron Duckworth's presence has not been felt, though he clearly attended the meeting in spirit. A lively group of academics and industrial scientists assembled in Santa Rosa, California, to discuss the current state of the science. As meeting chairperson, I must acknowledge the tremendous contributions made by the organizing committee, by the session chairpersons and by the central committee. Without all their help, nothing could have been achieved. Most important to the success of the meeting, however, was the very active participation of all attendees. In all seven sessions, the papers were excellent and their discussion was very spirited.

1 High Moisture Systems.- 1 Supramolecular structures of biopolymer gels.- 2 Water in tissue structures by NMR and MRI.- 2 Intermediate Moisture Systems.- 3 Physical chemical parameters inhibiting the growth of microorganisms.- 4 Protein hydration and glass transitions.- 3 Low Moisture Systems.- 5 Thermodynamic and kinetic features of vitrification and phase transformations of proteins and other constituents of dry and hydrated soybean, a high protein cereal.- 6 NMR dynamics properties of water in relation to thermal characteristics in bread.- 7 Phase and polymorphic transitions of starches at low and intermediate water contents.- 8 Thermal properties of polysaccharides at low moisture: Part 3 - Comparative behaviour of guar gum and dextran.- 4 Drying.- 9 Spray drying of high fat foods.- 10 Spray drying and quality changes.- 11 Mechanical properties of dry brittle cereal products.- 12 Stress development in shrinking slabs during drying.- 5 Freezing.- 13 Freezing - nucleation in foods and antifreeze actions.- 14 Mechanisms and kinetics of recrystallization in ice cream.- 15 Biological ice nucleation.- 16 Formation of ice in frozen foods and its control by physical stimuli.- 6 Water at High Pressures.- 17 Effects of high pressure on food biopolymers with special reference to ?-lactoglobulin.- 18 Inactivation of microorganisms by high pressure.- 19 Advantages, possibilities and challenges of high pressure applications in food processing.- 7 Biological Systems' Response to Water Stress.- 20 Anhydrobiosis: the water replacement hypothesis.- 21 Bacterial responses to osmotic stress: diverse mechanisms to achieve a common goal.- 22 Bacterial spores - resistance, dormancy and water status.