Third annual European rheology conference (AERC 2006), Hersonisos, Crete, Greece, 27–29 April 2006

The third annual European rheology conference (AERC 2006) was jointly organized by the Hellenic Society of Rheology (HSR), the Foundation for Research and Technology—Hellas (FORTH), the University of Crete, the University of Cyprus, and the Technical University of Crete, under the auspices of the European Society of Rheology (ESR). The meeting was truly international, attracting 387 participants from 33 countries. The scientific program consisted of 219 oral communications and 172 poster contributions, organized into ten symposia focused on either mainstream or emerging areas of rheology. Plenary lectures were given by John F. Brady (“microvs macro-rheology”), Paulo J. Oliveira (“Progress in computational rheology with the finite volume method”), Tom C. B. McLeish (“Molecular and flow-scale modelling and experiments of controlledarchitecture polymer melts”), Fred C. MacKintosh (“Viscoelasticity of cytoskeletal biopolymer solutions and networks: polymer physics and the cell”), Ralph H. Colby (“Polyelectrolyte solution rheology”), and Jan K. G. Dhont (“Shear banding transitions of suspensions of rods”). Keynote lectures were given by Ralf Everaers (“Microscopic topology and macroscopic rheology of entangled polymer melts and networks”), Seung J. Lee (“Recent progress in computational rheology: high-resolution solutions”), Jan Vermant (“Structure and rheology of weakly aggregated 2D and 3D suspensions”), Francesco Greco (“Nonstandard statistical thermodynamics for entangled polymeric liquids”), Moshe Gottlieb (“Rheology and morphology in thermal gelation”), and François Lequeux (“Jamming and glassy behaviour of concentrated suspensions”). Several sponsors contributed to the success of the meeting with their generous support. We wish to acknowledge IESLFORTH, University of Cyprus, Technical University of Crete, EU-NoE SOFTCOMP, University of Crete, Hellenic Society of Rheology, TA Instruments, Anton-Paar, ThermoElectron GmbH, Malvern Instruments, Xpansion Instruments LLC, and Ergosystems. We are also particularly grateful to a number of individuals who contributed to the success of the conference: R. Karali (AERC 2006 secretary), D. Bleses (ESR web master), G. Papaioannou and V. Kirkinis (technical support), and an enthusiastic team of students from the Universities of Crete, Cyprus, Patras and Athens. This special issue devoted to AERC 2006 reflects the scientific atmosphere in the meeting. It includes peerreviewed articles. We are grateful to the contributors and the reviewers for their diligent efforts. Rheol Acta DOI 10.1007/s00397-007-0191-x