The volume illustrates the State of the art and new directions in plasma physics, space physics, and astrophysics. It covers several hot topics of interdisciplinary interest where progress is made by the use of joint expertise. It summarizes an unusually lively symposium that has gathered world experts with a broad spectrum of research interests.

Interdisciplinary meetings at the border between plasma physics and astrophysics are becoming increasingly important. In the recent past, several proceedings volumes have been devoted to astrophysical plasmas. This volume has the unique feature of being professional but not specialized, because it covers an unusually broad spectrum of topics under the common theme of the study of complex and collective phenomena in macroscopic systems, from the scale of laboratory plasma experiments to the scale of the universe. Included are:

- basic plasma processes

- space plasmas, planetary plasmas, and the heliosphere

- solar and stellar plasmas

- plasmas around compact objects

- plasmas in galaxies

- plasmas in clusters of galaxies

- cosmological plasmas

- testing plasma astrophysics in the laboratory