The 6th International SOMATOM CT Scientific User Conference was held in Tiibingen on September 27 and 28, 2002, under the auspices of the Eberhard Karls University Tiibingen, the University Hospital Zurich, the Ludwig Maxi­ milians University, Munich, and the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. Siemens AG Medical Solutions, Forchheim, was again very gracious in spon­ soring the course and the associated events. There have been remarkable achievements in CT technology, workflow management and applications since the last SOMATOM user conference in Zurich in June 2000. The next generation of multidetector-row CT, now capable of acquiring 16 slices during a single rotation has been introduced. The meeting in Tiibingen was the very first conference where research groups from allover the world were presenting their very first results with this new technology in the various fields of CT imaging. It became obvious that these new technical possi­ bilities will again have significant impact on the clinical use of CT. Tiibingen offered a special and inspiring atmosphere for the meeting, an atmosphere which has been preserved throughout time. For more than 500 years the university - one of the oldest in Germany - has been a source for new ideas being pursued by famous philosophers, poets and scientists such as H6lderlin, Morike, Hegel, Schelling, Kepler, Butenandt and many more.