Johann Rafelski is a theoretical physicist working at The University of Arizona in Tucson, USA. Born in 1950 in Krakow, Poland, he received his Ph.D. with Walter Greiner in Frankfurt, Germany in 1973.  Rafelski arrived at CERN in 1977, where in a joint effort with Hagedorn he contributed greatly to the establishment of the relativistic heavy ion collision, and quark-gluon plasma research fields. Moving on, with stops in Frankfurt and Cape Town, to Arizona, he invented and developed the strangeness quark flavor as the signature of quark-gluon plasma.

"The book is undoubtedly an ideal companion to all those who wish to recall the birth of one of the main areas of today's concepts in high-energy physics, and it is definitely a well-deserved credit to one of the great pioneers in their development." (Frithjof Karsch, CERN Courier, June, 2016)

• Part I Reminiscences: Rolf Hagedorn and Relativistic Heavy Ion Research.-- Part II The Hagedorn Temperature.- Part III Melting Hadrons, Boiling Quarks Heavy Ion Path to Quark-Gluon Plasma.- Acronyms.

Johann Rafelski is a theoretical physicist working at The University of Arizona in Tucson, USA. Born in 1950 in Krakow, Poland, he received his Ph.D. with Walter Greiner in Frankfurt, Germany in 1973.  Rafelski arrived at CERN in 1977, where in a joint effort with Hagedorn he contributed greatly to the establishment of the relativistic heavy ion collision, and quark-gluon plasma research fields. Moving on, with stops in Frankfurt and Cape Town, to Arizona, he invented and developed the strangeness quark flavor as the signature of quark-gluon plasma.

"The book is undoubtedly an ideal companion to all those who wish to recall the birth of one of the main areas of today's concepts in high-energy physics, and it is definitely a well-deserved credit to one of the great pioneers in their development." (Frithjof Karsch, CERN Courier, June, 2016)

• Part I Reminiscences: Rolf Hagedorn and Relativistic Heavy Ion Research.-- Part II The Hagedorn Temperature.- Part III Melting Hadrons, Boiling Quarks Heavy Ion Path to Quark-Gluon Plasma.- Acronyms.

Johann Rafelski is a theoretical physicist working at The University of Arizona in Tucson, USA. Born in 1950 in Krakow, Poland, he received his Ph.D. with Walter Greiner in Frankfurt, Germany in 1973.  Rafelski arrived at CERN in 1977, where in a joint effort with Hagedorn he contributed greatly to the establishment of the relativistic heavy ion collision, and quark-gluon plasma research fields. Moving on, with stops in Frankfurt and Cape Town, to Arizona, he invented and developed the strangeness quark flavor as the signature of quark-gluon plasma.

"The book is undoubtedly an ideal companion to all those who wish to recall the birth of one of the main areas of today's concepts in high-energy physics, and it is definitely a well-deserved credit to one of the great pioneers in their development." (Frithjof Karsch, CERN Courier, June, 2016)

• Part I Reminiscences: Rolf Hagedorn and Relativistic Heavy Ion Research.-- Part II The Hagedorn Temperature.- Part III Melting Hadrons, Boiling Quarks Heavy Ion Path to Quark-Gluon Plasma.- Acronyms.