The Alfred Benzon Foundation was established in 1952 by Bøje Benzon, (1891-1976) D.Sc. and director of the pharmaceutical company A/S Alfred Benzon, established in 1863 by his grandfather, Alfred Nicolai Benzon, as the first pharmaceutical company in Denmark. Bøje Benzon donated his entire shareholding in the company to the Foundation, the aim of which is to support the medical and pharmaceutical sciences and relevant basic natural sciences. The Board of Trustees of the Foundation determines how to apply the annual income. At present the Foundation mainly supports the following activities: international symposia and fellowships with emphasis on international exchange. Applications for symposia and fellowships can only be made in collaboration with Danish scientists. The purpose of the symposia is to bring together leading experts within a given field to present and discuss their research. During the years 1968-1998 the Foundation arranged 45 international symposia as listed below. They all took place in Copenhagen, and proceedings, including the discussions, were published by Munksgaard International Publishers Ltd.  From 1999 the format of the symposia was changed to a combination of state of the art lectures by invited speakers as well as short oral presentations and poster presentations selected from abstracts. The maximum number of participants is about 150 including approx. 25 invited speakers. Trustees of the Foundation: Arne Svejgaard, professor, dr.med., chairman Povl Krogsgaard-Larsen, professor, dr.pharm., vice-chairman  Mads Bryde Andersen, professor, dr.jur. Niels Borregaard, professor, dr.med. Sven Frøkjær, professor, ph.d. Address and secretariat of the Foundation: The Alfred Benzon Foundation Jette Buur, Ph.d. pharm.,administrative manager Dantes Plads 3, II.t.v, DK-1556 Copenhagen V, Denmark Telephone +45 3962 0937; telefax +45 3962 0933; email: benzon@post1.tele.dk