PREFACEThis is the 13th conference on Beauty, Charm and Hyperon hadrons since the start back in 1995 at Strasbourg. This edition of the series has taken place in the warm and welcoming sea-side of Peniche, Portugal. It was quite a challenge to keep us focused on the scientific agenda given the beauty and excursions associated with the conference surroundings and the graciousness of our local Portuguese hosts who arranged many wonderful activities. The advisory committee would like to take this opportunity to thank the local organizing committee for all its eort, preparations and care they took to make this a very successful conference. We especially thank Paula Bordalo, the Chairperson of this year’s conference for her vision for this edition of the conference and the many well thought out events and their breathtaking venues.About 90 participants from 21 countries representing more than 30 experiments in particle physics participated. The opening talk by Stan Brodsky of SLAC set the reference frame for the discussions which we greatly thank him for performing. The scientific program itself was broad and comprehensive of the recent developments in the field. Intense discussions took place following talks and during the breaks or evenings, fulfilling the vision of Alfred (Fredy) Fridman, our conference founder, which was to bring new upcoming researchers mixed with well established scientists in a conference with only plenary sessions mixing both theory and experimental scientists. This truly does produce an atmosphere of good will and advancement through discussions.The Conference has been possible thanks to generous support of many institutes: Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas (LIP), Câmara Municipal de Peniche, Associação de Física de Interacções Fortes (AFIF Portugal), and Institut Français au Portugal. We would also like to thank the most important part of this conference, the many attendees for their care to present the highest quality material with the latest results; without this the goals, as set forth when the conference was founded, would not have been met. So, to all of them we acknowledge their heroic effort to maintain this great high standard. We wish everyone well in their future endeavors and hope to see many of you back in future editions of the conference.Nick Solomey, Wichita State UniversityChair of the Conference Advisory Committee