After about three decades of experimental and theoretical efforts, the structure of the nucleon (proton and neutron) is now fairly well understood based on quantum chromodynamics, but only if averaged over its spin. As the recent “proton spin crisis” revealed, we do not understand much about the nucleon structure when its spin is polarized to a specific orientation. We expect that our understanding on this challenging problem will soon be significantly improved by the RHIC-Spin and other experiments in the near future, as well as by the lattice- and perturbative-QCD theoretical calculations. The purpose of this symposium was to summarize the current understanding and discuss the future perspective of this problem with experimental and theoretical physicists from both high-energy and nuclear physics communities.The symposium covered the overview of the structure studies, updates on the experimental results from CERN, SLAC, DESY, FNAL, and KEK, future experiments at RHIC, and recent theoretical developments (18 presentations, 113 participants).

The topic of the internal spin structure of the nucleon has become an unusually active subfield of particle and nuclear physics, together with the relevant technologies. This volume presents up-to-date coverage.All the talks given at the symposium can be found in the volume. In addition, selected articles are reprinted, including two early papers which record initial thinking about the topic, all experimental papers giving data on nucleon spin structure functions determined from polarized lepton-nucleon scattering, and two valuable previously unpublished papers.

This comprehensive volume covers the most recent advances in the field of spin physics, including the latest research in high energy and nuclear physics and the study of nuclear spin structure. The comprehensive coverage also includes polarized proton and electron acceleration and storage as well as polarized ion sources and targets. Many significant new results and achievements on the different topics considered at the symposium are presented in this book for the first time.

The volume presents an up-to-date survey of spin physics at the very high energies of present and future colliders. Topics discussed include the theory of high-energy spin physics, deep-inelastic scattering, polarization experiments at colliders, the production of high-energy polarized electron and proton beams, the construction of intense polarized sources and high-energy polarimeters. It will represent a significant reference in the field and an informative text for non-specialists as well, with rather complete keynote overview reports by some physicists who have contributed most to the subject. In addition, it will document the character of frontier research symposium of the Conference, with specialized reports of leading experts in the various items of the field.