Editorial

Abstract

The third yearly conference of the European Research and Training Network on the Quantum Structure of Spacetime and the Geometric Nature of Fundamental Interactions was held in Leuven, 13-19 September 2002. As in previous conferences, each day started with an extended introductory lecture on a current topic relevant to the research of the Network. We would like to thank G Gibbons, R Myers, A Uranga and P van Nieuwenhuizen for their effort in providing extensive lecture notes, which are included in these proceedings. In this way their lectures, which were very much appreciated by the participants of the conference, will become available to a wider audience. The workshop also included a lecture by J Figueroa-O'Farrill on 'Penrose limits across the AdS/CFT correspondence' and a lecture by C Hull on 'de Sitter space in supergravity, string and M-theory'.The shorter contributions are based on talks which represented the research carried out within the Network. We also invited a number of outside speakers whose work was relevant to the topics covered by the conference. Their contributions are also included.Special mention goes to the contribution by C Bachas. We are very gratefulto him for delivering a special seminar commemorating the scientific life of Sonia Stanciu, who was a member of the Network and who, sadly, had passed away a few months before the conference.This workshop took place in the context of the European CommunityResearch and Training Networks activities, for which it was the mid-termreview meeting. We thank Stephen Davis, project officer for physics inthe European Community, for chairing this meeting and for his positivefeedback. The financial support came from the Fonds voorWetenschappelijk Onderzoek Vlaanderen. The practical work was done byChristine Detroije, and PhD students from the Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven, Vrije Universiteit, Brussel,and Université Libre, Bruxelles, to whom we are very grateful. Last, but not least, wewould like to thank Andrew Wray from IOP for his editorial help.