It is known that nuclear shells play a particularly important role in the collective motion of nuclear matter and, as a consequence, determine the structure of nuclei, nuclear dynamics, nuclear decay models, etc.In 1999 the nuclear shell model turned fifty, and the 49th meeting on Nuclear Spectroscopy and Nuclear Structure was devoted to nuclear shells in their various manifestations. The talks presented at the conference covered a wide range of experimental and theoretical studies.

It is known that nuclear shells play a particularly important role in the collective motion of nuclear matter and, as a consequence, determine the structure of nuclei, nuclear dynamics, nuclear decay models, etc. In 1999 the nuclear shell model turned fifty, and the 49th meeting on Nuclear Spectroscopy and Nuclear Structure was devoted to nuclear shells in their various manifestations. The talks presented at the conference covered a wide range of experimental and theoretical studies.

This volume contains two major articles, one providing a historical retrosp- tive of one of the great triumphs of nuclear physics in the twentieth century and the other providing a didactic introduction to one of the quantitative tools for understanding strong interactions in the twenty-first century. The article by Igal Talmi on “Fifty Years of the Shell Model – the Quest for the Effective Interaction”, pertains to a model that has dominated nuclear physics since its infancy and that developed with astonishing results over the next five decades. Talmi is uniquely positioned to trace the history of the Shell Model. He was active in developing the ideas at the shell model’s inception, he has been central in most of the subsequent initiatives which expanded, cl- ified and applied the shell model and he has remained active in the field to the present time. Wisely, he has chosen to restrict his review to the domin- ing issue: the choice of the effective interactions among valence nucleons that determine the properties of low lying nuclear energy levels. The treatment of the subject is both bold and novel for our series. The ideas pertaining to the effective interaction for the shell model are elucidated in a historical sequence.

This symposium was held in honour of Yuri Oganessian for his laurea honoris causa conferred by the University of Messina, and to celebrate Giorgio Giardina's 60th birthday.The aim of the symposium was to focus on the new projects and new lines of research in nuclear physics that will be developed in the main laboratories and research centres during the next 10-20 years.The main emphasis was on the discussion (from both the experimental and theoretical viewpoints) of properties of nuclei under extreme conditions (at large mass numbers, at large isospin, at high temperature, and at nuclear densities far from equilibrium), by investigating nuclear collisions from low to relativistic energies.This proceedings volume is a collection of all the invited talks of the plenary sessions and oral contributions given by the speakers at the parallel sessions.

The aim of the DANF conference was to present and discuss new theoretical and experimental results in the field of nuclear fission dynamics. The conference program was designed to cover a wide range of physical phenomena including spontaneous and induced fission at low and intermediate energies and fragmentation of hot nuclei. Among the topics discussed at the conference were: the development of various theories, experiments on the synthesis of superheavy elements, fusion-fission processes and the decay of complex nuclear systems, binary and ternary fission, nuclear structure of neutron-rich nuclei and the peculiarities of exotic nuclear reactions. Attention was also paid to the recent progress in developing radioactive ion beam facilities. The development of new methods was also on the conference agenda. Contents:Production and Decay of Superheavy Elements (M G Itkis et al.)Nuclear Structure in the Superheavy Region (J A Maruhn)Fission Time Distributions in Fusion-Fission Reactions (V A Rubchenya et al.)Excitation of Fragment Rotational States in Cold Fission (⇔ Misicu & D S Delion)Gamma Ray Emission in Fission and Quasifission of Heavy and Superheavy Elements (L' Krupa et al.)On Fission Fragment De-Excitation at Scission Point (V A Kalinin et al.)Uncommon Modes of Particle-Accompanied Fission (M Mutterer et al.)On Particle Stability of Very Neutron-Rich O Isotopes (Š Gmuca & J Leja)Studies of Reaction Dynamics in the Fermi Energy Domain (M Veselsky et al.)DRIBS II: A Source of Radioactive Nuclei (O Szöllös et al.)Advanced Analysis of Multidimensional Experimental Nuclear Data (M Morhác et al.)and other papers Readership: Graduate students and researchers in nuclear physics. Keywords:

The aim of the DANF conference was to present and discuss new theoretical and experimental results in the field of nuclear fission dynamics. The conference program was designed to cover a wide range of physical phenomena including spontaneous and induced fission at low and intermediate energies and fragmentation of hot nuclei. Among the topics discussed at the conference were: the development of various theories, experiments on the synthesis of superheavy elements, fusion-fission processes and the decay of complex nuclear systems, binary and ternary fission, nuclear structure of neutron-rich nuclei and the peculiarities of exotic nuclear reactions. Attention was also paid to the recent progress in developing radioactive ion beam facilities. The development of new methods was also on the conference agenda.

This volume is devoted to recent achievements and new challenges in the field of nuclear structure. Both experimental and theoretical issues in the forefront of current research on the subject are covered by leading physicists.