The 23rd Sagamore Army Materials Research Conference was held last week in upstate New York. The theme was Nondestructive Characterization of Materials, and the intent of this meeting was to approach the subject with a broad brush treatment, including historical aspects, the assessment of significant advances in each topic area, important new capabilities, and discussion of some exploratory techniques as contrasted with the generally more focused and in-depth studies that have been reported here at Asilomar.