This book constitutes the proceedings of the 19th International Symposium on Acoustical Imaging at the Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany during April 3 -5, 1991. It was the first time that the symposium was held in Europe after major political changes happened in that area. The freedom to travel for all people from eastern European countries was an obvious reason for the great numbers of sub mitted abstracts and for numerous conference participants. 193 of 239 submitted contributions from 29 countries were accepted for presentation by authors from USA (13%), Canada (2%), Japan (7%), Peoples Republic of China (7%), United Kingdom (4%), France (7%), Italy (3%), Poland (4%), Soviet Union (7%), Germany (28%) and other countries (18%). 283 scientists from 29 countries attended the conference representing the interdisciplinary field between mathematics, physics, engineering and medicine. 151 papers were available for publication in this proceedings covering the topics 1. Mathematics and Physics of Acoustical Imaging 2. Components and Systems 3. Applications in Medicine and Biology 4. Applications in Nondestructive Testing 5. Remote Sensing Applications 6. Industrial Applications A relative large number of contributions on acoustical microscopy was included in the conference program within topics 3 and 4. Also, papers on "non-traditional" acoustical imaging subjects, e. g. on phonon imaging and on remote sensing in the atmosphere, have broadened the scope of the conference. The success and stimulation of the conference and of the papers presented in this volume is owed, of course to the authors and participants.
