A NATO Advanced Study Institute held in Portugal in 1968 on cellular biology directed our attention to the important role that biological membranes played in the fundamental life processes, e.g. the transportation of cellular nutrients into cells and into subcellular par- ticles coupled with energy use/or generation. A consi- deration of biomembranes and their structure led us to organize a self-supporting course in 1972 under the gen- eral sponsorship of the American Oil Chemists' Society on "Fundamentals of Lipid Chemistry." This course con- cluded with important papers on lipoproteins, membrane structure and membrane models. The papers presented at the short course were published under the same title. With the background of the lipid course, a third program was developed entitled "Biomembranes - Lipids, Proteins and Receptors" and held as a NATO Advanced Study Insti- tute in 1974. This ASI explored the structure of bio- membranes and the relationship of non-lipid components to membrane function. This ASI was also published to provide the conference proceedings to interested scien- tists who could not attend.
