Prior to the 3rd International Symposium on Fossil Algae, held in Golden, Colorado in August of 1983, a 3-day fieldtrip concentrating on Recent algal distribution in southern Florida was led by Robert N. Ginsburg and his associates from Miami. A post-symosium fieldtrip to the West Texas-southern New Mexico region was led by Don Toomey and Jack Babcock. This fieldtrip examined Precambrian and Paleozoic algal carbonates in a region characterized by superb outcrop exposures, and included the famous Permian Reef complex. The Toomey-Babcock fieldtrip resulted in a unique fieldguide published by the Colorado School of Mines (1983), and issued to all participants of the symposium. The symposium itself was held from August 15 through Augsut 17 on the campus of the Colorado School of Mines where Professor J. Harlan Johnson, to whose memory this volume is dedicated, spent so much of his career studying fossil algae. The symposium sessions were held for 3 days, and during that time 40 papers were presented and discussed. A I-day fieldtrip, led by John L. Wray, to examine Late Paleozoic phylloid algal carbonates exposed in the nearby Rocky Mountains, concluded the formal meetings.