Welcome: On behalf or IIT Bombay, the Local Organizing Committee, and the city of Mumbai, a very pleasant welcome to all participants of the EMSI-2002 Conference and the pre-conference Beginner's Workshop. We hope you had a good journey and will have a pleasant stay here. Our apologies in advance if there is any shortcoming in anything, as there undoubtedly might be in a venture of this sort. We hope you will enjoy the campus, which is rich in its bio-diversity, ranging from trees and birds to the occasional nocturnal panther!

Conference Inauguration: You are cordially invited to the Inauguration of EMSI-2002 at 9:00 am on Wednesday 20 February 2002 at the P. C. Saxena Auditorium (LT). Registration begins before that at 8:00 am. The Inaugural will be graced by: Chief Guest: Dr. Firuza Parikh, Founder - Director Reliance Life Science Pvt. Ltd. (recently in the news for their stem cell work); Keynote Speaker: Dr. M. S. Rao, Chief Forensic Scientist, Bureau of Police Research & Development; President, EMSI: Prof. G. N. Mathur, Director, DMSRDE; and Patron: Prof. Ashok Misra, Director, I.I.T. Bombay.

Accommodation: Out of town guests for EMSI_2002 have been accommodated at the IIT Guest House, which has two wings. One is the New Guest House, known as Vanavihar Guest House (V-GH), and the other the Old Guest House. Additional rooms are in the Director's Old bungalow. Still more rooms are in the student hostels, Hostel-1 (H-1) for males and Hostel-11 (H-11) for females. All rooms are double seated. Due to shortage of rooms, please bear with us in case of any inconvenience. If you are willing to share with one more person, please inform the guest house or hostel manager. Likewise, if you are willing to stay in the student hostels, please let us know. Prof. Anil Kumar (7153) can be contacted in an emergency through the manager.

Conference locations: All conference locations are within 10 minutes walk from the Guest Houses and Student Hostels. Therefore, no local transport will be provided. The Inauguration session will be in the P.C. Saxena Auditorium (previously known as Lecture Theater or LT). The joint sessions will be at the Institute Auditorium (IA) in the IRCC/SOM building next to the LT. The technical Exhibition site is in the SOM building foyer, and the Posters are in the IRCC "well."

Conference Registration: The Registration Desk will operate on the morning of 20-Feb-2002 from 8 am to 12 noon in the vicinity of the LT and then move to the Exhibition area. Please register there and collect your badges and kits well before the Inaugural session that starts at 9:00 am..

Beginners workshop: Those registered for the Beginners workshop must report at the RSIC (Regional Sophisticated Instrumentation Center) building by 8:30 am on Tuesday 19-Feb-2002. Tea and lunch will be provided there for those registered for the beginner's workshop only.

Posters Desk and Micrograph Competition Desk: These will be in the Registration/Exhibition Area. The Poster Desk will supply card sheets, adhesive tape, and gum. Posters are to be mounted on the card sheets, and then card sheets onto the poster partition boards that will be in the "well" of the IRCC building near the LT. Posters must be up before 4:00 pm. A formal Inaugural of the poster session will take place at 5:00 pm on 20-Feb-2002. All presenting authors are expected to be at the posters during the poster session from 5:00 to 5:30 pm on 20-Feb-2002.

Meals provided by EMSI-2002: Conference sponsored meals are lunches on 20, 21, 22 Feb and dinner on 21 Feb. Please be sure to bring your badges and coupons to all sponsored meals as entry will be restricted. These will be served on the 3rd floor banquet room of the Gulmohar building, which is located next to the Vanavihar Guest House. Tea will be served at the Conference site. The dinner on 21 Feb is special: it is on a "Moonlight Boat Cruise" at Apollo Bunder at the Gateway of India in south Mumbai. Transport by bus has been arranged from the IIT Guest House. All registered delegates are invited to this outing. Registered accompanying persons and Local Organizing Committee members are also invited. Please bring your badges and coupons as entry will be restricted.

Other meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner on payment basis is available at the Tastebuds Cafeteria on the 2^nd floor of the Gulmohar building which is located next to the Vanavihar Guest House. For those staying in the Student Hostels, all meals are available in the Hostel Messes on payment basis. Several eating places are there just outside campus near the IIT main gate and IIT market gate. Among them are Lakshmi, Radha-Krishna, Harish, and Sujata. These are about 10 to 15 minutes walk from the Guest Houses and about 20 minutes walk from the Student Hostels. Other shops and stores are also just outside the gates, and a mall, supermarket and more restaurants are a short ride.

E-SEM demo: A special feature at EMSI-2002 is the live demonstration of the latest, state-of-art Forensic Electron Microscope and E-SEM (environmental SEM or high-pressure SEM) with EDAX analysis. This E-SEM will be the basis of the hands-on advanced workshops.

Advanced Workshops: There are two advanced workshops: one on E-SEM and the other on Forensic microscopy, both conducted by experts from Europe. There is no charge for the advanced workshops: it is free for all EMSI-2002 delegates. Those interested in the Advanced Workshops are requested to sign-up at the Icon stall in the Exhibits area. Students, in particular, are encouraged to see this state-of-the art system.