This collection of 18 scientific papers sets out developments in the scientific disciplines and endeavours to which Professor P.G. Burke has contributed over the last 40 years, prior to his formal retirement in September 1998. The aim of the volume is to provide a survey of the developments in many areas of atomic and molecular collision physics and applications and also a number of scientific disciplines where supercomputers play a central role. It will be of use to researchers in various scientific areas and especially to those entering new areas of atomic, molecular and optical physics. The book will form a permanent record celebrating the many contributions by Professor P.G. Burke CBE FRS to the advancement of scientific knowledge.

Professor Philip G. Burke, CBE, FRS formally retired on 30 September 1998. To recognise this occasion some of his colleagues, friends, and former students decided to hold a conference in his honour and to present this volume as a dedication to his enormous contribution to the theoretical atomic physics community. The conference and this volume of the invited talks reflect very closely those areas with which he has mostly been asso- ated and his influence internationally on the development of atomic physics coupled with a parallel growth in supercomputing. Phil’s wide range of interests include electron-atom/molecule collisions, scattering of photons and electrons by molecules adsorbed on surfaces, collisions involving oriented and chiral molecules, and the development of non-perturbative methods for studying multiphoton processes. His devel- ment of the theory associated with such processes has enabled important advances to be made in our understanding of the associated physics, the interpretation of experimental data, has been invaluable in application to fusion processes, and the study of astrophysical plasmas (observed by both ground- and space-based telescopes). We therefore offer this volume as our token of affection and respect to Philip G. Burke, with the hope that it may also fill a gap in the literature in these important fields.

This collection of 18 scientific papers sets out developments in the scientific disciplines and endeavours to which Professor P.G. Burke has contributed over the last 40 years, prior to his formal retirement in September 1998. The aim of the volume is to provide a survey of the developments in many areas of atomic and molecular collision physics and applications and also a number of scientific disciplines where supercomputers play a central role. It will be of use to researchers in various scientific areas and especially to those entering new areas of atomic, molecular and optical physics. The book will form a permanent record celebrating the many contributions by Professor P.G. Burke CBE FRS to the advancement of scientific knowledge.

Professor Philip G. Burke, CBE, FRS formally retired on 30 September 1998. To recognise this occasion some of his colleagues, friends, and former students decided to hold a conference in his honour and to present this volume as a dedication to his enormous contribution to the theoretical atomic physics community. The conference and this volume of the invited talks reflect very closely those areas with which he has mostly been asso- ated and his influence internationally on the development of atomic physics coupled with a parallel growth in supercomputing. Phil’s wide range of interests include electron-atom/molecule collisions, scattering of photons and electrons by molecules adsorbed on surfaces, collisions involving oriented and chiral molecules, and the development of non-perturbative methods for studying multiphoton processes. His devel- ment of the theory associated with such processes has enabled important advances to be made in our understanding of the associated physics, the interpretation of experimental data, has been invaluable in application to fusion processes, and the study of astrophysical plasmas (observed by both ground- and space-based telescopes). We therefore offer this volume as our token of affection and respect to Philip G. Burke, with the hope that it may also fill a gap in the literature in these important fields.