In early 2003, Powder Diffraction and the Denver X-ray Conference agreed to collaborate on publishing the advance program of upcoming Denver X-ray Conferences and selected articles from the proceedings of the Denver X-ray Conference, Advances in X-ray Analysis, in Powder Diffraction. So far, the collaboration has led to the advance publication of the 2003 and 2004 programs of the Denver X-ray Conference in the June 2003 and 2004 issues of Powder Diffraction. In addition, twenty high-quality articles from Volume 47 of Advances in X-ray Analysis were published in the March 2004 issue of Powder Diffraction. The CD-ROM of Volume 47 of Advances in X-ray Analysis has also been distributed to each institutional print or print∕online subscriber of Powder Diffraction. This collaboration has significantly increased services and the number of technical articles available to Powder Diffraction subscribers, as well as circulation for the authors of Advances in X-ray Analysis.

Since this collaboration has received many positive responses from our X-ray analysis community, Powder Diffraction will continue to publish annually both the advance program and selected articles from the proceedings of the Denver X-ray Conference in the June issue of Powder Diffraction.

This special June 2005 issue of Powder Diffraction is dedicated to the high-quality articles from the 2004 Denver X-ray Conference and the advance program for the upcoming 2005 Denver X-ray Conference to be held 1–5 August 2005 at Colorado Springs, Colorado. The 2004 Denver X-ray Conference attracted more than 500 attendees and exhibit personnel from around the world. Over forty of the nearly 200 X-ray diffraction and fluorescence papers presented at the conference have been accepted for publication in Volume 48 of Advances in X-ray Analysis. Twenty of the proceedings papers have been selected by the editors of Advances in X-ray Analysis for publication in this special June 2005 issue of Powder Diffraction. The CD-ROM of Volume 48 of Advances in X-ray Analysis will be ready for distribution soon.

It is our hope that our readers will enjoy these articles and learn more about X-ray diffraction and fluorescence activities conducted by our colleagues around the world. Finally I want to thank Drs. Victor Buhrke, John Gilfrich, George Havrilla, James Kaduk, Cev Noyan, and Robert Snyder of the Denver X-ray Conference Organizing committee for their selections and editing of the articles that appear in this issue. I also thank my assistant Allen Huang and Cathyann Colaiezzi, Managing Editor, for making sure everything was in place for this June publication. And a special thanks to the authors for their outstanding contributions to this issue.