Foreword - It has been some time between the time of the first Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) workshop, Towards a Next Generation High-Energy Gamma-Ray Telescope, in late August 1994, and the publication of a partial proceedings of that meeting. Since then there has been considerable progress in both the technical and project development of GLAST. From its origins at SLAG/Stanford in early 1992, the collaboration has currently grown to more than 20 institutions from France,

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... , Italy, Japan, and the United States, and is still growing. About. half of these are astrophysics/astronomy institutions; the other half are high-energy physics institutions. About 100 astronomers, astrophysicists, and particle physicists are currently spending some fraction of their time on the GLAST R&D program. The late publication date of this proceedings has resulted in some additions to the original content of the meeting. The first paper is actually a brochure prepared for NASA by Peter Michelson in early 1996. We have decided to present it in its entirety and in its original color format as one demonstration of how the NASA style is being integrated with the particle physics style in the GLAST project. Peter actually did give a talk on this subject at the meeting, but we deemed the brochure more up-to-date. Except for the appendix, the other papers in the proceedings were presented at the conference, and written up over the following two years. Some presentations were never written up. These speakers shall go nameless in these proceedings, though we greatly appreciate their contributions to the workshop. The appendix originates from the 1995 NASA Supporting Research and Technology Program (SR&T) and DOE detector R&D proposals, both of which were approved after a very competitive peer review in 1996: SR&T by NASA headquarters, and DOE-HEP after consideration by the Scientific Assessment Group for Experiments in Non-Accelerator Physics (SAGENAP) advisory panel. These approvals have led to a greatly expanded GLAST R&D in FY 1997 as compared to previous years. At this writing, the DOE-HEP has yet to make a decision as to whether or not to fund the GLAST experiment. The SLAC management is enthusiastic about the GLAST program, and has been from the very beginning of the GLAST development. However, the HEPAP Subpanel on Planning for the Future of U.S. High Energy Physics, popularly known as the Gilman Committee, after chairman Fred Gilman, will have much influence in the decision of the DOE to fund GLAST. Indeed, the Gilman Committee is considering the entire effort of nonaccelerator physics (NAP) in the context of the future DOE-HEP program, and GLAST would be a major element of the NAP program. The results of the deliberation of the Gilman Committee will be publicly available in early 1998.