XX Brazilian National Meeting on
Partilesand Fields
Foreword
TheXX th
BrazilianNationalMeetingonPartilesandFieldstookplaeinS~aoLoureno,MinasGerais,Brazil,
during theperiod Otober25-29, 1999. The Meetingonsisted of six plenaryand twelve parallel sessions,about
140shortoraltalks, mostlybyyoungphysiists presentingresultsof theirurrentwork,andapostersession with
132posters.
OntherstnightoftheMeetingwehaveorganizedaeremonytohonorthephysiistGlebWataghin,whowas
bornintheUkraine100agoandwhoseimportanetothedevelopmentofphysisinBrazilisenormousandhardly
forgotten. His disovery of themultiple partile prodution inspiredthe logoof our Meeting. During aboutone
hour Prof.E. Predazzi,fromtheUniversityofTurin(Italy), andProf. C.DobrigkeitChinellato, fromUNICAMP
(Brazil),sharedwithustheirexperieneswithProf. Wataghin,bothin Italyandin Brazil.
Toommemoratethetwentiethanniversaryofourmeetingswehaveorganizedaroundtableentitled\20years
of BrazilianNationalMeetingonPartilesandFields: aretrospetiveandprospetivelook". Thedebate hadthe
partiipation oftheorganizersofthe rstmeeting : Prof. A.Santoro(CBPF),Prof. C.O.Esobar(UNICAMP),
Prof.E.M.Ferreira(UFRJ),Prof.G.daCostaMarques(USP),Prof.R.Koberle(USP),Prof.R.Shellard(CBPF)
andProf. Z.D. Thome(UFRJ).
Forthersttimewehavehad inourmeeting aspeial sessiondevotedtosientidiusion ofoureld. This
wasomposedbytwotalksofaboutonehoureah,whihaimedtoexplaininasimplewaytotheloalommunity
something about the status of our eld of researh. This event was an enormoussuess, morethan 250 young
people of agebetween12 and 20 years old listenedto the exellentreviews: \A Brief History of theUniverse "
givenbyR. Rosenfeld (IFT/UNESP)and \Blakholes: A journeyto theDepths of theUniverse"givenbyD. A.
T.Vanzella(IFT/UNESP).
Yet wehad another reason to feliitate ourselvesafter these 20 years. The Meetingwhih washeld at Hotel
Primus in S~ao Loureno, was thebiggest one in the historyof our meetings, it wasattended by morethan 300
partiipants.
Theplenaryandparallel talks weregivenbyinvitedspeakerssummarizing thesientiahievementsin their
eldsofspeialization. Thosespeakerswereinvitedtoprovideuswithawrittenontributionoftheirpresentation,
whihwehaveompiledinthepresentvolume. Itinludes allthe12paralleltalks and5ofthe6plenarytalks.
WeowemanythankstoallofthosewhoontributedtothesuessofthisMeeting: thehairpersons,theplenary
andparallel speakers,thepartiipantsthatturnedupandtheSBF'sseretaries.
Wealsowouldliketothankthefollowinginstitutionsthat naniallysupportedourmeeting: CAPES,CLAF,
CNPq, FAPERJ,FAPESP andFINEP. Thekind support of AMR/COMPAQand thesta of Hotel Primus was
also verymuh appreiated. Finally we would like to express ourgratitude to SBF, and speially to Prof. S. R.
Salinaseditor oftheBrazilianJournalofPhysis(BJP),foraeptingtopublish forthersttimein theBJPthe
proeedingsof ourMeeting.
RenataZukanovih Funhal
