A symposium was organised by D.E. Evans at the Mathematics Institute, University of Warwick, between 1st October 1986 and 29th October 1987, with support from the Science and Engineering Research Council, on operator algebras and applications and connections with topology and geometry (K–theory, index theory, foliations, differentiable structures, braids, links) with mathematical physics (statistical mechanics and quantum field theory) and topological dynamics.

As part of that programme, a UK-US Joint Seminar on Operator Algebras was held during 20–25 July 1987 at Warwick, with support from SERC and NSF and organised by D.E. Evans and M. Takesaki. These two volumes contains papers, both research and expository articles, from members of that special week, together with some articles by D.B. Abraham, A.L. Carey, and A. Wassermann on work discussed earlier in the year.