Laser ablation of solid materials has become an important technique in several scientific disciplines including physics, materials, science, chemistry, and biology. Reflecting this diversity, session topics include desorption mechanisms and laser surface interactions, spectroscopy and analysis, mechanisms of pulsed laser deposition, modelling and fundamental measurements, plume diagnostics, biomedical ablation, x-ray generation and lithography and film growth of novel materials. Nicolas Bloembergen gives the plenary paper on laser-material interactions. This work should be of interest to researchers in condensed matter and materials science and also to research libraries and laboratories.