The world production of primary and recycled aluminum continues to increase and, over the past twenty years, has risen from 1̃5 Mt/y in 1985 to 3̃2 Mt/y in 2005. The main consumers are transportation, beverage and other packaging, and building construction. The global primary aluminum production has been growing by about 2-3% per year. However, growth rates over the last decade have been much higher. In particular, during the past five years, China has played a critical role in aluminum production and has gone through a dramatic period of growth. The specific topics considered include: Alloys and Phase Transformations, Corrosion and Surface Modification, Deformation and Formability, Fatigue, Fracture and Creep, Joining Technologies, New Directions, Novel Experimental Techniques, Processing and Process Modelling, Recovery, Recrystallization and Texture, Solidification and Casting. Overall, this collection of papers represents a seminal history of the state of knowledge in the aluminum industry, related to the processing and properties of aluminum alloys and, as such, will further contribute to this basic field of knowledge.