In recent years, the impact of new experimental techniques (e.g., nuclear physics methods, availability of high-intensity light sources) as well as an increasing demand for atomic collision data in other fields of physics (e.g., plasma physics, astrophysics, laser physics, surface physics, etc.) have stimulated a renewed, strong interest in atomic collision research. Due to the explosive development of the various fields, scientists often even have dif­ ficulty in keeping up with their own area of research; as a result, the overlap between different fields tends to remain rather limited. Instead of having access to the full knowledge accumulated in other fields, one uses only the small