It is over a quarter of a century since the discovery of out?ows from young stars. The intervening years have led to remarkable advances in our understanding of this phenomenon. Much of the progress can be attributed to advances in facilities and technologies, including not only larger telescopes but also improved instrument and detector performance. In addition protostellar out?ows have now been imaged from the ground and space at high spatial resolution, e. g. with HST, and at a wide - riety of wavelengths from X-rays to radio waves, revealing more and more about their physics. This veritable revolution in observation has been accompanied by an exponential growth in our ability to numerically simulate the launching and pro- gation of jets. Codes continue to improve: they now incorporate more physics and are increasingly ef?cient through, for example, techniques such as adaptive mesh re?nement and the use of parallel processing in cluster environments. Simulating the launching and propagation of a jet all the way from the vicinity of the star up to 4 several thousand AU (a size range of10 ) is now much closer. In more recent times, developments in observation, theory and numerical s- ulation have been joined by laboratory jet experiments reproducing, on centimetre scales, that which is seen in astrophysics to stretch for several parsecs.

The revolutionary discovery of thousands of confirmed and candidate planets beyond the solar system brings forth the most fundamental question: How do planets and their host stars form and evolve? Protostars and Planets VI brings together more than 250 contributing authors at the forefront of their field, conveying the latest results in this research area and establishing a new foundation for advancing our understanding of stellar and planetary formation. Continuing the tradition of the Protostars and Planets series, this latest volume uniquely integrates the cross-disciplinary aspects of this broad field. Covering an extremely wide range of scales, from the formation of large clouds in our Milky Way galaxy down to small chondrules in our solar system, Protostars and Planets VI takes an encompassing view with the goal of not only highlighting what we know but, most importantly, emphasizing the frontiers of what we do not know. As a vehicle for propelling forward new discoveries on stars, planets, and their origins, this latest volume in the Space Science Series is an indispensable resource for both current scientists and new students in astronomy, astrophysics, planetary science, and the study of meteorites.

A JENAM 2002 Workshop, Porto, Portugal, 3-5 September 2002

'Protostars and Planets V' builds on the latest results from recent advances in ground and space-based astronomy and in numerical computing techniques to offer the most detailed and up-to-date picture of star and planet formation - including the formation and early evolution of our own solar system.

The book begins with a historical introduction, "Star Formation: The Early History", that presents new material of interest for students and historians of science. This is followed by two long articles on "Pre-Main-Sequence Evolution of Stars and Young Clusters" and "Observations of Young Stellar Objects". These articles on the fascinating problem of star formation from interstellar matter give a thorough overview of present-day theories and observations. The articles contain material so far unpublished in the astronomical literature. The book addresses graduate students and can be used as a textbook for advanced courses in stellar astrophysics.

It was with pleasure that CAUP became for three days the core to the cloud of star formation experts all over the world. Close to the celebration of its 15th anniversary – therefore still in the early stages of institutional evolution – we are proud of our multiple activities in Astronomy: a productive research centre, classi?ed as “Institution of excellence” within the Portuguese research units, but also an “Institution of Public Utility” as recognised by the Government. Fifteen years ago we choose to play a role not only in research, as expected from any research centre but also in the training of the future astronomers and the promotion of science and scienti?c culture. This choice is clearly stated in our by-laws and also in the multiple activities we have carried out since. Along the years we have organized on a regular basis international Workshops similar to “Cores to Clusters”. Sometimes we have chosen to organize int- national conferences of a larger size. On other occasions the choice has been for smaller and more informal discussion meetings. Or even doctoral schools with very different objectives. In common all those meetings have always had, besides the formal registered participants, a group of informal participants, our undergraduate students of Astronomy, so eager to be in touch with the real world.