HIS ISSUE dedicated to short wavelength lasers and their applications follows the one published on this same subject by this JOURNAL in 1996. The articles in the present issue, while far from providing complete coverage of this vast field, clearly illustrate the accelerated progress achieved in the development and application of practical sources of short wavelength during the past three years. In the area of soft X-ray lasers, covered by the first set of articles, the progress has been dramatic. Three years ago saturated tabletop soft X-ray lasers did not exist, and only a handful of proof-of-principle applications experiments had been completed, most of them at very large laser facilities. The field is now rapidly approaching the stage at which soft X-ray lasers sufficiently compact to fit on a normal optical table will be routinely utilized in science and technology. The articles in this issue illustrate the impressive increase in efficiency that has resulted from the use of excitation mechanisms that take full advantage of multiple pulse excitation schemes, ultrafast high-power optical laser drivers, and compact capillary discharges. The important advances recently achieved in the generation of coherent soft X-radiation by phase-matched upconversion of high power optical lasers are also described in one of the articles. The last two papers in this area report the realization of new applications of soft X-ray lasers, and include the report of the first application of a high repetition rate soft X-ray laser.The second and third groups of papers relate to Publisher Item Identifier S 1077-260X(99)10431-3. the equally significant progress achieved in the more mature area of sources and applications for the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) and ultraviolet regions of the spectrum, respectively. The latter is an area in which short wavelength lasers are already massively used in important applications, such as the lithography of the most advanced microelectronic circuits, and medical procedures, such as photorefractive keratectomy. The first paper in the vacuum ultraviolet area reports the impressive demonstration of nearly 100% upconversion of radiation into the VUV utilizing electromagnetically induced transparency. This article is followed by reports of new methods to generate VUV and ultraviolet radiation, and their use in particular applications. In conclusion, we wish to thank the authors for their contributions, the IEEE Editorial Office staff, and Mrs. Fran Jetko, in particular, for the excellent support they provided during the preparation of this issue.