The role of high pressure experiments in the discovery of supercon ducting materials with a T. above liquid nitrogen temperature has demon strated the importance of such experiments. The same role holds true in the tailoring of materials for optoelectronic devices. In addition, much progress has been made recently in the search for metallic hydro gen, and the application of high pressure in polymer research has brought forth interesting results. These facts together with the suc cess of previous small size meetings (such as the "First International Conference on the Physics of Solids at High Pressure", held in 1965 in Tucson, Arizona, U. S. A. ; "High Pressure and Low Temperature Physics", held in 1977 in Cleveland, Ohio, U. S. A. ; and "Physics of Solids Under High Pressure", held in 1981 in bad Honnef, Germany), motivated us to organize a workshop with emphasis on the newest results and trends in these fields of high pressure research. Furthermore, it was intended to mix experienced and young scien tists to realize an idea best expressed in a letter by Prof. Weinstein: "I think it is an excellent idea. I have often felt that the number of excellent young researchers in the high pressure field need an opportu nity to put forward their work with due recognition. " Thanks to the support of the key speakers, we were able to achieve this goal and had more than 50\ young participants.

In recent interactions with industrial companies it became quite obvious, that the search for new materials with strong anisotropic properties are of paramount importance for the development of new advanced electronic and magnetic devices. The questions concerning the tailoring of materials with large anisotropic electrical and thermal conductivity were asked over and over again. It became also quite clear that the chance to answer these questions and to find new materials which have these desired properties would demand close collaborations between scientists from different fields. Modem techniques ofcontrolled materials synthesis and advances in measurement and modeling have made clear that multiscale complexity is intrinsic to complex electronic materials, both organic and inorganic. A unified approach to classes of these materials is urgently needed, requiring interdisciplinary input from chemistry, materials science, and solid state physics. Only in this way can they be controlled and exploited for increasingly stringent demands oftechnology. The spatial and temporal complexity is driven by strong, often competing couplings between spin, charge and lattice degrees offreedom, which determine structure-function relationships. The nature of these couplings is a sensitive function of electron-electron, electron-lattice, and spin-lattice interactions; noise and disorder, external fields (magnetic, optical, pressure, etc. ), and dimensionality. In particular, these physical influences control broken-symmetry ground states (charge and spin ordered, ferroelectric, superconducting), metal-insulator transitions, and excitations with respect to broken-symmetries created by chemical- or photo-doping, especially in the form of polaronic or excitonic self-trapping.

The role of high pressure experiments in the discovery of supercon ducting materials with a T. above liquid nitrogen temperature has demon strated the importance of such experiments. The same role holds true in the tailoring of materials for optoelectronic devices. In addition, much progress has been made recently in the search for metallic hydro gen, and the application of high pressure in polymer research has brought forth interesting results. These facts together with the suc cess of previous small size meetings (such as the "First International Conference on the Physics of Solids at High Pressure", held in 1965 in Tucson, Arizona, U. S. A. ; "High Pressure and Low Temperature Physics", held in 1977 in Cleveland, Ohio, U. S. A. ; and "Physics of Solids Under High Pressure", held in 1981 in bad Honnef, Germany), motivated us to organize a workshop with emphasis on the newest results and trends in these fields of high pressure research. Furthermore, it was intended to mix experienced and young scien tists to realize an idea best expressed in a letter by Prof. Weinstein: "I think it is an excellent idea. I have often felt that the number of excellent young researchers in the high pressure field need an opportu nity to put forward their work with due recognition. " Thanks to the support of the key speakers, we were able to achieve this goal and had more than 50\ young participants.

In recent interactions with industrial companies it became quite obvious, that the search for new materials with strong anisotropic properties are of paramount importance for the development of new advanced electronic and magnetic devices. The questions concerning the tailoring of materials with large anisotropic electrical and thermal conductivity were asked over and over again. It became also quite clear that the chance to answer these questions and to find new materials which have these desired properties would demand close collaborations between scientists from different fields. Modem techniques ofcontrolled materials synthesis and advances in measurement and modeling have made clear that multiscale complexity is intrinsic to complex electronic materials, both organic and inorganic. A unified approach to classes of these materials is urgently needed, requiring interdisciplinary input from chemistry, materials science, and solid state physics. Only in this way can they be controlled and exploited for increasingly stringent demands oftechnology. The spatial and temporal complexity is driven by strong, often competing couplings between spin, charge and lattice degrees offreedom, which determine structure-function relationships. The nature of these couplings is a sensitive function of electron-electron, electron-lattice, and spin-lattice interactions; noise and disorder, external fields (magnetic, optical, pressure, etc. ), and dimensionality. In particular, these physical influences control broken-symmetry ground states (charge and spin ordered, ferroelectric, superconducting), metal-insulator transitions, and excitations with respect to broken-symmetries created by chemical- or photo-doping, especially in the form of polaronic or excitonic self-trapping.