This volume contains the proceedings of the conference, Symbolic Dynamics and its Applications, held at Yale University in the summer of 1991 in honor of Roy L. Adler on his sixtieth birthday. The conference focused on symbolic dynamics and its applications to other fields, including ergodic theory, smooth dynamical systems, information theory, automata theory, and statistical mechanics. One hundred thirty-nine participants attended from thirteen countries, representing mathematics, applied mathematics, electrical engineering, and physics departments in universities and in industry. Featuring a range of contributions from some of the leaders in the field, this volume presents an excellent overview of the subject.