Editorial Board Seishi Kikuta ( Chief Editor ) SPring-8 / JASRI Yorinao Inoue SPring-8 / RIKEN Osamu Shimomura SPring-8 / JAERI • JASRI Tatzuo Ueki SPring-8 / JASRI SPring-8 Research Frontiers describes the remarkable scientific achievements made at all beamlines (BL’s ) at SPring-8: public BL ’ s including R & D BL ’ s, contract BL ’ s, JAERI/RIKEN BL ’ s and an accelerator diagnosis beamline. Developments in the accelerators and beamlines themselves are also reported. This third volume “ 1999/2000 ” covers advances made during the research period spanning from the second half of 1999 to the first half of 2000. To properly classify all the synchrotron radiation research fields within this volume, we have added a new field, “ Industrial Applications ” to the former five categories. Highlights in this field were selected from the viewpoint of impacts on industrial development. We have invited six specialists from the Proposal Review Committee to be the Editing Coordinators for their respective research fields: Life Science: Professor Isao Tanaka ( Hokkaido University ) Diffraction & Scattering: Professor Makoto Sakata ( Nagoya University ) XAFS: Professor Masaharu Nomura ( High Energy Accelerator Research Organization ) Spectroscopy: Professor Atsushi Fujimori ( The University of Tokyo ) Instrumentation & Techniques: Professor Tsuneaki Miyahara ( Tokyo Metropolitan University ) Industrial Applications: Professor Junji Matsui ( Himeji Institute of Technology ) We would like to express our most sincere appreciation to these Editing Coordinators for their efforts in preparing the introductory overviews and providing comments on each research field. We would also like to express our gratitude to the users and facility members of SPring-8 for contributing their reports. The SPring-8 Research Frontiers publication will be sent on request. Its full text is also available by accessing SPring-8 ’ s Web site (http://www.spring8.or.jp/).