EUROCAM '82 is the first major conference to be organized by the European computer algebra community. The symposia in the field
previously held in Europe (Stockholm, 1974 and Marseilles, 1979)
had for main sponsor and organizer the SIGSAM group of the ACM.
In January of 1981 it was decided that the time for a purely
European conference had come. Indeed the number of researchers active
in the field of computer algebra and the quality of their work had
steadely increased over the recent years in our part of the world.
This meeting has been held in Marseilles which has a long
experience in organizing similar colloquia. In fact EUROCAM '82 can as well
be considered as being the sixth in the "International Colloquium
on Advanced Computing Methods" series initialized in 1970 with A.
Visconti. It was hosted by the newly operating "Centre
International de Rencontres Mathematiques" in the Luminy campus of the
University of Aix-Marseille II which turned out to be a very pleasant
meeting place.