This special symposium has been organized to celebrate the career of Dr. David James Lloyd. Over a distinguished career as a Principal Research Scientist for Alcan International Ltd, Kingston Laboratories, David made many contributions to industry and academia, in particular to 5xxx and 6xxx alloys for automotive applications and the development of Al based metal matrix composites. A dedicated session for David was held at the 2006 ICAA conference in Vancouver, Canada. He was a long-standing member of the ICAA International Scientific Committee. Authors are encouraged to submit papers related to precipitation, deformation, and microstructure control in 5xxx and 6xxx or other topics that would have been of interest to David. Former students, colleagues, and collaborators are especially welcome to share their personal experiences in working with Dr. Lloyd.