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.