The first international symposium on rarefied gas dynamics was held from the 2nd to the 5th of July under the chairmanship of J. Pe´re`s, dean of the Paris Faculty of Science. This symposium took place in Nice, a town of whose charm it is hardly necessary to boast, and the participants enjoyed magnificent weather. Fourteen countries were represented. The American delegation was particularly important for it included not only representatives from the Berkeley and Moffett Field groups but also numerous American university professors who have worked both experimentally and theoretically in the field of rarefied gases.