The 3rd World Congress on Oxidation Catalysis has its roots in the European Workshop on Selective Oxidation held in Louvain, Belgium in 1985. Out of this workshop grew the 1st World Congress held in Rimini, Italy in 1989. the 2nd in Benalmadena, Spain in 1992, and the 3rd being held now in 1997 in San Diego, California, USA. Out of the small core of dedicated and enthusiastic scientists assembled in Louvain in 1985, grew now a broad base of scientists and technologists from academia, industry and government laboratories who are fervently pursuing the subject of oxidation catalysis and are eager and willing to exchange their findings at the current meeting. The overall theme of the 3rd World Congress is "Atom Efficient Catalytic Oxidations for Global Technologies". We chose this theme to stimulate the participants to report their findings with an emphasis on conserving valuable material in their catalytic transformations, as well as conserving energy, and that in an environmentally responsible manner. Progress towards this stated goal is substantial as evidenced by the tremendous response of our community in their participation of quality publications compiled in these Proceedings of the Congress.