More than 500 scientists took part in the Second International Conference on Quantum Electronics, which was held at the Claremont Hotel in Berkeley, Calif., under the sponsorship of the Office of Naval Research and the University of California. Within the three‐day conference period (March 23–25, 1961), some sixty papers were presented on recent progress in masers of various types (especially those involving the higher‐frequency microwave and optical regions), phonon interactions and relaxation processes in solids and gases, narrow‐line optical spectra of solids and gases, optical pumping, and a number of new ideas and accomplishments having to do with the interaction of matter and electromagnetic waves. In addition to those from the United States who attended the meeting, there were delegates from England, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Switzerland, and the USSR.