The present collection of papers, presented at the 5th Symposium on Photo-Electronic Image Devices, is the last to be edited by Professor James D. McGee, OBE, FRS. I learned with great regret that he
decided to give up this phase of his activities. It was about 15 years ago that we first discussed his plans to organize the first of his famous symposia and we both came to the conclusion that Advances in Electronics and Electron Physics would be the right medium for making the results of these gatherings available to the technical community. The success of the first symposium in 1958 demonstrated amply that, together with the following ones, these symposia filled a need and the proceedings, published in our volumes 12, 26, 22 and 28, became the best source of up-to-date information in the rapidly progressing field of photo-electronics.