This Springer Handbook of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics comprises a comprehensive reference source that unifies the entire fields of atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physics, assembling the principal ideas, techniques and results of the field from atomic spectroscopy to applications in comets. Its 92 chapters are written by over 100 authors, all leaders in their respective disciplines. Carefully edited to ensure uniform coverage and style, with extensive cross references, and acting as a guide to the primary research literature, it is both a source of information and an inspiration for graduate students and other researchers new to the field. Relevant diagrams, graphs, and tables of data are provided throughout the text. Substantially updated and expanded since the 1996 edition and published in conjunction with the 2005 World Year of Physics (commemorating Einsteins 1905 "miracle year"), it contains several entirely new chapters covering current areas of great research interest, such as Bose - Einstein condensation, quantum information, and cosmological variations of the fundamental constants. A fully searchable CD-ROM version of the contents accompanies the handbook.

Gordon W.F. Drake, FRSC, is a University Professor of Physics at the University of Windsor, Canada, and Principal of Canterbury College affiliated with the University of Windsor. He is a past Chair of the APS Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics (DAMOP), the IUPAP Commission C15, and is a past President of the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP). He continued to serve on the Executive of the CAP as Director, International Affairs, and Chair of the Canadian National IUPAP Liaison Committee until 2014. He received his B.Sc. degree from McGill University, 1964, M.Sc. from the University of Western Ontario, 1965, and Ph.D. from York University, 1967, followed by a postdoctoral position at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (1967-69). He has published 230 refereed research papers, and is widely cited for his high precision calculations for two and three-electron atoms, including relativistic and quantum electrodynamic effects. He has received numerous prizes and awards for his work, including a Killam Fellowship (1990-92), the Canadian Association of Physicists Medal for Achievement in Physics (1994), the Windsor Alumnni Teaching Award (2003), and the Peter Kirkby Memorial Medal for Outstanding Service to Canadian Physics (2015).