further confirmation of the theoretical framework. However there has been continuing controversy over the astrophysical interpre­ tation of radio recombination line observations, especially regarding the role of stimulated emission. A workshop was held in Ottawa on 24-25 August, 1979, bringing together many of the active scientists to review the field and discuss these questions of interpretation. A broad concensus has emerged: the subtleties of the line-formation process are understood, and the conditions under which reliable in­ formation can easily be extracted from the line measurements are known. It thus appears likely that the emphasis will shift increasingly from the study of the line phenomenon itself to further application in other areas of astrophysics, ranging from physical processes in plasmas (temperatures, densities, ionization structure), to the large-scale properties of our galaxy (abundances, kinematics, structure), and studies of extragalactic systems.