Preface, Electromagnetic and light scattering by nonspherical particles XVIII

The 18th Electromagnetic and Light Scattering Conference (ELS- XVIII) was held at the Zhejiang University, Hangzhou city, Zhejiang province, China during the week of 10–14 June 2019. This confer- ence followed the previous highly successful meetings held in Am- sterdam (1995) [1] , Helsinki (1997) [2] , New York (1998) [3] , Vigo (1999), Halifax (20 0 0) [4] , Gainesville (20 02) [5] , Bremen (20 03) [6] , Salobreña (2005) [7] , St.Petersburg (2006) [8] , Bodrum (2007) [9] , Hatfield (2008) [10] , Helsinki (2010) [11] , Taormina (2011) [12] , Lille (2013) [13] , Leipzig (2015) [14] , College Park (2017) [15] , and College Station (2018) [16] , as well as three closely re- lated workshops held in Bremen (1996, 1998) and Moscow (1997). As with the other conferences, the main objective of the ELS- XVIII was to bring together scientists, engineers, postdocs, and PhD students studying diverse aspects of light scattering by par- ticles and particle groups and thereby provide a stimulating at- mosphere for thorough and comprehensive discussions of scatter- ing theory, measurements, and practical applications. The program and abstracts of conference presentations are available at the offi- cial conference web sites http://www.els- xviii- 2019.org/home.html and https://www.giss.nasa.gov/staff/mmishchenko/ELS-XVIII.