This issue of Classical and Quantum Gravity is devoted to the Proceedings of the Second Gürsey Memorial Conference held at Bogaziçi University, Istanbul from 19–23 June 2000.

Throughout his career, Feza Gürsey strove to lay the foundations of a school of Theoretical Physics in Turkey and bring it into the international mainstream. After his untimely death in 1992, the Turkish Scientific and Technical Research Council (TUBITAK) decided to inaugurate a series of international Physics conferences to remember him and to contribute to his uncompleted lifelong mission. The first conference, held at Bogaziçi in 1994, varied in the topics discussed, whilst the second conference, in contrast, focused primarily on M/String Theory with particular emphasis on AdS/CFT dualities. Nevertheless, there were significant contributions pertaining to cosmology, ordinary and non-commutative geometry and algebraic methods.

The conference would not have been possible without the financial and logistical support of TUBITAK, TAEK (the Turkish Atomic Energy Commission), Bogaziçi University, the Bogaziçi Foundation, the Feza Gürsey Institute, the Bogaziçi–Balkans Physics Project and the Physics Department. We must also thank our (mostly) volunteer staff for their enthusiastic help, which allowed the conference to proceed smoothly. Finally, we must single out Murat Günaydin's vital contributions to every stage of the conference - the success of the conference owes everything to his efforts.

Guest Editors
Gülen Aktas
Ufuk Kayserilioglu
Cihan Saçlioglu
Meral Serdaroglu

for the Local Organizing Committee