Preface for SLAFES XVI proceedings

The Latin American Symposium on Solid State Physics (SLAFES) has become one of the most traditional meetings in this geographical region. It brings together students and research leaders dedicated to a large variety of topics in solid state physics. The recent previous meetings were held in Mexico (January of 1998) and Colombia (November 1999). The program consists in plenary, invited, oral and poster presentations. The plenary and invited speakers are carefully selected from the Latin American countries, USA and Europe. The 16th Latin American Symposium on Solid State Physics (SLAFES XVI) was held in the beautiful and friendly city of Mérida in Venezuela, December 25, 2002, and was hosted by the University of Los Andes, with more than 200 years of academic tradition. This is the third time that this meeting is celebrated in Venezuela, the previous were the start of the series, SLAFES I in 1969 and then SLAFES XI in 1990. In recognition to his contribution to the development of theoretical physics in Latin America, SLAFES XVI was dedicated to Prof. Federico Garcı́a-Moliner. He was born in Borriana (Spain) in1930. He obtained his Ph.D. in Physics at Cambridge University (U.K.) and at Universidad Complutense (Spain). Later on he was appointed as Professor of Physics at the University of Illinois (USA). Afterwards he was called to the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). However, the main part of his research career was developed at the Consejo Superior de