The "Pamir" international conference on "Transfer Phenomena in MagnetoHydroDynamic & Electroconducting Flows" is one of the manifestations associated to "Hydromag". This international organisation aims to coordinate and promote the MHD research in the world. The organiser of this conference is the Pamir group from the French laboratory LEGI (Laboratoire des Ecoulements Geophysiques et Industriels) which has close connections with INPG (lnstitut National Polythechnique de Grenoble), with the Joseph Fourier University of Grenoble and with the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique). In September 26-30, 1997 this conference was organised for the third time at the Paul Langevin centre (Aussois, France) which belongs to the CNRS. Approximately 15 countries were represented by about 120 participants. Papers included in this volume are those presented at the third Pamir conference after selection by the scientific committee and referee's procedure. The formal presentations and invited lectures were focused on four main topics related to: Interfacial heat and mass transfer phenomena, Energetic applications, Dynamo effect, and MEHD Phenomena.
One of the perspectives of the conference was to promote a productive interaction between the MHD and the chemical engineering research communities. The possibility to use an external magnetic field to improve and control the mass transfer processes in electrochemical systems, sometimes called magnetoelectrolysis, was introduced as a new topic of the Pamir conference and is considered as a relatively new and promising branch of MHD research. In particular a wide field of applications in various domains is expected.