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 conference followed the previous highly successful meetings held in Amsterdam (1995) [1], Helsinki (1997) [2], New York (1998) [3], Vigo (1999), Halifax (2000) [4], Gainesville (2002) [5], Bremen (2003) [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 related 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 particles and particle groups and thereby provide a stimulating at- mosphere for thorough and comprehensive discussions of scattering theory, measurements, and practical applications. The program and abstracts of conference presentations are available at the official conference web sites http://www.els-xviii-2019.org/home.html and https://www.giss.nasa.gov/staff/mmishchenko/ELS-XVIII.