NOTICE TO ALL PARTICIPANTS IN THE FOLLOWING MST SYMPOSIA

FOURTH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON POLYMER SURFACE MODIFICATION To be held at the NOVOTEL, Toronto Centre, Toronto, CANADA June 9-11, 2003

FOURTH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON SILANES AND OTHER COUPLING AGENTS To be held at the NOVOTEL, Toronto Centre, Toronto, CANADA June 11-13, 2003

As nearly everyone must be aware the current SARS epidemic has become a worldwide problem but has particularly affected Toronto, Canada which the World Health Organization (WHO) has effectively declared a major epicenter of the outbreak following only Hong Kong and Beijing, China. The situation has become so severe that it is now major headline news on all the major televison networks, radio and newspapers. Although we feel that the situation in Toronto has been blown out of proportion, nevertheless a great amount of psychological damage has been done making it very difficult or impossible for many to travel to Toronto. One particularly insidious effect is the fact that many companies and institutions have placed a blanket ban on travel to Toronto along with the Asian countries making travel impossible for many even though they may personally discount the current danger as exaggerated.

The above situation leaves us with the following options:

1. Proceed with the meetings as if nothing happened

2. Cancel the meetings

3. Postpone the meetings till a later date

4. Move the meetings to a different venue

At the present time we feel that moving to a different venue is the least bad of a number of bad options. This will at least preserve what at present are two very strong programs with nearly 100 papers scheduled for the week of June 9. We therefore have made arrangements to hold the meetings at the Grosvenor Resort Hotel in Orlando, Florida on the exact same dates as listed above. Details of registering at the Grosvenor are attached to the end of this note. We therefore ask all current participants to modify their travel plans accordingly and register at the Grosvenor as soon as possible.

Finally, we would like to apologize to all our good friends in Canada and the Toronto area for this sudden change in plans. Dr. Mittal and I had been looking forward to very successful meetings at the Novotel which would have been most enjoyable and productive. However, I'm sure you realize that under the current circumstances a successful meeting in Toronto would be impossible. We do, however, plan to return to Toronto in the future for we feel it is an excellent venue for the type of symposia we organize. At present we can only reiterate the words of the ancient philosopher who said "...and this too shall pass".

Best regards

Dr. Robert H. Lacombe

Chairman

Materials Science and Technology

CONFERENCES, LLC

3 Hammer Drive

Hopewell Junction, NY 12533-6124

Tel. 845-226-1393

FAX 212-656-1016

E-mail: rhlacombe@compuserve.com

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Please make room reservations directly with the Grosvenor Resort Hotel. A block of rooms has been set aside for conference registrants at a special conference rate of $79 single/ double per day. Make your reservations early and be sure to mention that you are attending one of the MST symposia in order to receive the reduced conference hotel rate. Details of the Grosvenor are as follows:

Grosvenor Resort Hotel

1850 Hotel Plaza Blvd.

P.O. Box 22202

Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-2202

Tel: Reservations (USA, Toll free): 1-800-624-4109

Tel: (Overseas): 1-407-828-4109

FAX: 1-407-828-8129

E-mail: averill@grosvenorresort.com

Web Site: www.grosvenorresort.com