The papers included in this volume were presented at the "Symposium on Advances in the Continuum Mechanics and Thermodynamics of Material Behavior", held as part of the 1999 Joint ASME Applied Mechanics and Materials Summer Conference at Virginia Tech on June 27-30, 1999. The Symposium was held in honour of Professor Roger L. Fosdick on his 60th birthday. The papers are written by prominent researchers in the fields of mechanics, thermodynamics, materials modelling, and applied mathematics. They address open questions and present developments in these and related areas.