The `International Topical Conference on Plasma Physics: Complex Plasmas in the New Millennium'; was held at the Petros M Nomikos Conference Centre, Santorini Island, Greece, during the period 8–12 September 2003. The conference was organized by P K Shukla, R Bingham, J T Mendonça and L Stenflo with the help of an international advisory board and a program committee that included well-known scientists from all over the world. The conference enters into a series of previous activities that we have held at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste (Italy) since 1989 and at the University of Algarve, Faro (Portugal) since 1999.
The dominant theme of ITCPP03 was the unity of plasma physics, including all aspects from low-temperature plasmas
to fusion plasmas and from industrial applications to space physics/astrophysics, and through all approaches, namely
experiments, observations, and theory/simulations. We covered a broad and cross-disciplinary spectrum of subjects,
including some new and interesting subfields (viz. dusty plasmas and nonlinear neutrino-plasmas) of plasma physics. The purpose of this conference was threefold: (i) to provide a forum for participants from both the developing and the industrial nations, (ii) to train young European researchers and students working in different EU Networks, and (iii) to promote contacts and collaborations at an international level.
The conference was attended by approximately one hundred and forty participants from Europe, USA, Japan, and
developing countries. The participants were an admixture of young and senior researchers. This helped to disseminate
knowledge between these two generations of plasma physicists.
The scientific program was structured into four review talks (45 minutes) and forty invited topical lectures (30 minutes) covering key topics in the frontiers of plasma physics. In addition, there were about eighty poster papers in two sessions. The latter gave opportunities to younger physicists for displaying the results of their most recent works and to obtain comments from the other participants. During the five days at the Santorini Island, we focused on fundamental and applied aspects of: (i) solitons, shocks, and vortices in optics, plasmas and fluid, (ii) numerous collective interactions in dusty plasmas, (iii) laser and beam plasma interactions relevant for high-energy charged particle acceleration, (iv) waves, instabilities, and coherent nonlinear structures in geospace plasmas/astrophysics, and (v) some exotic topics including neutrino-plasma and photon–photon interactions, as well as applications of complex plasmas in microbiology, etc.
The discussions were held in a friendly environment and the conference turned out to be successful. Most of the invited talks as well as a few poster papers from the Santorini conference appear in this Topical Issue of Physica Scripta. It is expected that the papers of the present proceedings shall be useful for updating our understanding of the many collective phenomena that are occurring in laboratory and space plasmas as well as in optical fibers and fluids.
The editors express sincere gratitude to their colleagues and co-organizers Professors R Bingham and J T Mendonça for their constant and wholehearted support in our endeavours. We appreciate the excellent work of the scientific secretary Dr Ingmar Sandberg. Thanks are also due to the European Commission for supporting our activity through the Research Training Networks entitled `Complex Plasmas: The Science of Colloidal Plasmas and Mesospheric Charged Aerosols', as well as `Turbulent Boundary Layers in Geospace Plasmas'. In addition, the organizers cordial thanks are extended to the speakers and the attendees for their contributions which resulted in the success of the Santorini conference. Specifically, we appreciate the speakers for delivering excellent talks, supplying well-prepared manuscripts for publication, and for enhancing our ITCPP activities.