PREFACE

``Quarks-2002'' was the twelfth in the series of International Seminars devoted mostly to problems of quantum field theory, theoretical and experimental particle physics and cosmology. This Seminar was organized by the Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences together with Novgorod State University and Georgian Academy of Sciences. It was held from June 1 to 7, 2002, in the town of Novgorod. The Seminar gathered about 120 phisicists both from Eurasia and America.

The topics discussed included:

• Perturbative and nonperturbative QCD
• High energy and high temperature phenomena
• Vacuum structure in gauge theories
• Grand Unified Theories and physics beyond the Standard Model
• Supersymmetric and superstring dynamics and phenomenology
• Astrophysics and cosmology as related to particle physics
• Selected experimental results

The Editors are grateful to the contributors and all participants of the Seminar for their cooperation.

The Seminar was supported in part by the Physical Sciences Department of RAS, Ministry of Industry, Science and Technology of Russian Federation, INTAS foundation and Russian Foundation for Basic Research.

The Editors:
V.A.Matveev
V.A.Rubakov
S.M.Sibiryakov
A.N.Tavkhelidze