During its meeting in Vienna on the 25th of June 1966 the General Assembly of the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mecha- nics (IUTAM) decided to sponsor a seGond international symposium on the theory of thin shells. It was decided to hold this symposium in Copenhagen and the scientific organization was left in the hands of a committee consisting of A. E. GREEN, W. T. KOlTER, F. 1. NIORDSON (chairman), W. OLSZAK, E. REISSNER, and 1. N. VEKUA. The main topics of the symposium were announced to be: "Foundations", "Non-linear theory", "Buckling and post-buckling", and "Inelastic behaviour". The impetus to the advancement of shell theory from the first IUTAM Symposium on this subject, held in Delft in 1959, has been widely recogni- zed. The purpose of this second Symposium was to take stock of the situation and, by bringing leading scientists in this field together, to open and encourage new studies in this seemingly inexhaustible disci- pline. It was felt, in the development following the first Symposium in Delft, that solid foundations of shell theory had been obtained and that this second Symposium could be devoted almost entirely to the buckling and post-buckling behaviour and to the non-linear theory of shells.