On behalf of the organising committee, we are delighted to welcome you to the 14th International Conference on the Mechanical Behaviour of Materials, ICM-14, which will take place for the first time in Latin America, in the city of Santiago, capital of Chile, from 12 to 14 July 2023. This quadrennial scientific event is expected to be one of the largest conferences on Mechanics of Materials, with expected participation from different fields of engineering and science, including academia and industry. We extend an invitation to attend ICM-14 to all of you who investigate and work on any scientific or professional area related to the mechanical behaviour of materials.

The proposed venue chosen for ICM-14 is the business district of Santiago, one of the most modern places in Chile, close to nice restaurants, beautiful parks, hotels, shopping centres and city subway. Santiago is surrounded by mountains that offer near-attractive panoramas, such as ski resorts located in the Andes Mountains, which are less than an hour away from the conference venue. Because of its central location, Santiago also allows you to be at the beach in one hour and a half, so in one day you can see Valparaíso or Viña del Mar, and other spectacular locations along the coastline of the Pacific Ocean. In Santiago you can also find some of the most important wineries in the country, where you can visit vineyards and taste different wines accompanied by Chilean cuisine.

The scientific quality of our technical program is guaranteed by the participation of prominent figures of great scientific reputation in the field of mechanics of materials. These are Prof. Markus J. Buehler from MIT, USA; Prof. Norman A. Fleck from Cambridge University, UK; Prof. Gerhard A. Holzapfel from Graz University of Technology, Austria; and Prof. Stelios Kyriakides from University of Texas, USA.

Several prestigious international journals support ICM-14 conference. For instance, the journal Mechanics of Materials supports the ICM-14 International Student Competition. Furthermore, selected high-quality full-length papers submitted to the conference will be published in one of the special issues of Applied Mathematical Modelling (WOS) or Materials Today Communications (WOS). Alternatively, full papers can also be chosen for publication in the book of the conference proceedings which will be part of the Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering (SCOPUS) published by the editorial Springer Nature.

We know that the success of the ICM-14 conference will ultimately depend on the attendees. Hence, our main attention will be devoted to our invited delegates, accompanying guests, and all ICM-14 participants. We are absolutely sure that all of you will like and enjoy every bit of time that you will spend with us.