This volume represents the proceedings of the second international meeting on chiral separations held at the University of Surrey between the 12th and 15th of September 1989. Like the preceding meeting, it was jointly organised by the Chromatographic Society and the Robens Institute of the University of Surrey in response to the continued interest in this area of separation science. Of particular interest to the organisers was the very clear change in the nature of the delegates attending this second symposium as compared with the first. At the previous meeting the majority of the delegates were composed of chromatographers with problems in the area of chiral separations who were keen to learn as much as possible about these techniques from the handful of recognised experts in this area. In this second symposium the divide between expert and novice was much less apparent, with the latter providing many interesting and useful contributions to the scientific programme in termt; of both oral and poster presentations.