Preface

Abstract

The 24th European Physical Society Conference on Controlled Fusion and Plasma Physics was held in Berchtesgaden, Germany, 9 - 13 June, 1997. It was organized by the Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik, Garching, Germany, under the auspices of the Plasma Physics Division of the European Physical Society. Following the guidelines of the Board of the EPS Plasma Physics Division, the 1997 conference included topics from the areas of: tokamaks; stellarators; alternative magnetic confinement schemes; magnetic confinement theory and modelling; plasma edge physics; plasma heating; current drive and profile control; diagnostics; basic collisionless plasma physics; and highly compressed and non-stationary plasmas. The conference was attended by 541 delegates from 29 countries. The programme of the conference included 8 review lectures, 20 topical lectures and 523 contributed papers (out of 651 submitted abstracts) for presentation as posters in four sessions. The scientific programme and paper selection were the responsibility of the International Programme Committee appointed by the Board of the EPS Plasma Physics Division. Members of the Programme Committee were: R Bartiromo (Chairman) IGI del CNR, Padova, Italy E Ascasibar CIEMAT, Madrid, Spain D Gresillon LPMI/EP, Palaiseau, France R D Hazeltine Texas University, Austin, USA F Hofmann CRPP/EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland A Litvak IAP, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia L Stenflo Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden F Sluijter Eindhoven University, Netherlands D F H Start JET Joint Undertaking, Abingdon, UK U Samm Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany F Serra Universidade Technica, Lisboa, Portugal T Todd UKAEA Fusion, Abingdon, UK F Wagner IPP, Garching, Germany R Weynants ERM, Brussels, Belgium The four-page contributed papers are published in the Europhysics Conference s series (volume 21A, parts I - IV) and distributed to all registered participants by the Local Organizing Committee. These papers are not reviewed. The review and topical Lectures are published in this special issue of Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion which will also be sent to all conference delegates. These papers were reviewed by the members of the Programme Committee and are published from the final version presented by the authors. The Guest Editors are grateful to the Publishers for their co-operation. M Schittenhelm, R Bartiromo and F Wagner Guest Editors