This volume is the proceedings of the 3rd European Symposium on Engineering Ceramics, held in London, 28-29 November 1989, under the auspices of IBC Technical Services Ltd. The Symposium sessions were chaired by Eric Briscoe, who also introduced the Symposium with the very appropriate review 'Ceramics in Europe'. The term 'engineering ceramics' is commonly taken to mean a group of special high-strength and heat-resistant ceramic materials developed almost exclusively for the advanced internal combustion engine of the next century. It is not always fully appreciated that high grade fine microstructure ceramics both of the oxide and of the non-oxide classes, whether they be termed engineering, fine, special, advanced, structural or technical, have been supporting a large number of diverse and profitable industries over many decades. Indeed, in some respects these materials can be regarded as natural developments from the long­ established refractories field, and the distinction between an engineering ceramic and a refractory can become blurred, as the contribution in this volume on 'Nitride Bonded Carbide Engineered Ceramics' shows. It is of significance that in Japan, for example, much development work in the engineering ceramics field was initiated by the refractories industries, seeking to diversify possibly but doing so on the basis oflong experience in the refractories area. The main objective of this Symposium was to help engineers and designers to assess the present state of the field of engineering ceramics.