We are glad to present this special issue of Heat Transfer Engineering with a selection of papers presented at the 19th National & 8th ISHMT-ASME Heat and Mass Transfer Conference, held January 3-5, 2008. The conference was jointly sponsored by the Indian Society of Heat and Mass Transfer (ISHMT) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and was held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU), College of Engineering Kukatpally in Hyderabad, India.