It gives me great pleasure to welcome all participants to the BAIL 2006 conference in Goettingen, Germany. This conference is the latest in a long line of international conferences on Boundary and Interior Layers, that have been held in many parts of the world. The first three conferences were held in Dublin, Ireland in 1980, 1982 and 1984. These were followed by conferences in Novosibirsk, USSR (1986), Shanghai, China (1988), Copper Mountain, USA (1992) and Beijing, China (1994).

After a gap of some years, an international steering committee was formed to advise on the creation of a new series of BAIL conferences. This committee made a positive recommendation, which has resulted in three further BAIL conferences being held, specifically: BAIL 2002 in Perth, Australia, BAIL 2004 in Toulouse, France and this year's BAIL 2006 in Goettingen, Germany.

It is heartening to see how well BAIL 2006 is supported. Indeed, the number of participants appears to be growing with each successive conference in the new series. I am delighted to thank the members of the International Steering Committee for their good advice over the years. It is a particular pleasure also to thank the local organizers and their teams for the hard work involved in the organization of each of these conferences. Only someone who has organized such a conference is aware of just how much work is involved! I believe that the success of the BAIL 2006 organizers, especially in making this event attractive to a large number of participants, is an important milestone in the development of this series of conferences. On behalf of all participants I thank the organizers and, in addition, I wish everyone a productive and enjoyable meeting.

John J H Miller

Dublin, Ireland
July 2006