This volume represents the refereed proceedings of the "Sixth International Conference on Finite Fields and Applications (Fq6)" held in the city of Oaxaca, Mexico, between 22-26 May 200l. The conference was hosted by the Departmento do Matermiticas of the U niversidad Aut6noma Metropolitana- Iztapalapa, Nlexico. This event continued a series of biennial international conferences on Finite Fields and Applications, following earlier meetings at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas (USA) in August 1991 and August 1993, the University of Glasgow (Scotland) in July 1995, the University of Waterloo (Canada) in August 1997, and at the University of Augsburg (Ger- many) in August 1999. The Organizing Committee of Fq6 consisted of Dieter Jungnickel (University of Augsburg, Germany), Neal Koblitz (University of Washington, USA), Alfred }. lenezes (University of Waterloo, Canada), Gary Mullen (The Pennsylvania State University, USA), Harald Niederreiter (Na- tional University of Singapore, Singapore), Vera Pless (University of Illinois, USA), Carlos Renteria (lPN, Mexico). Henning Stichtenoth (Essen Univer- sity, Germany). and Horacia Tapia-Recillas, Chair (Universidad Aut6noma l'vIetropolitan-Iztapalapa. Mexico). The program of the conference consisted of four full days and one half day of sessions, with 7 invited plenary talks, close to 60 contributed talks, basic courses in finite fields. cryptography and coding theory and a series of lectures at local educational institutions. Finite fields have an inherently fascinating structure and they are im- portant tools in discrete mathematics.

Leading researchers in the field of coding theory and cryptography present their newest findings, published here for the first time following a presentation at the International Conference on Coding Theory, Cryptography and Related Areas. The authors include Tom Hoeholdt, Henning Stichtenoth, and Horacio Tapia-Recillas.