Dear Colleagues and Friends of "Diffusion Fundamentals",

with this, we present you the second volume of our Online Journal. It is dedicated to our first Diffusion-Fundamentals Conference, Leipzig, 2005, and contains the electronic versions of the contributions to the Conference Volume. The volume was scheduled to become a textbook on diffusion, containing both surveys and accounts on the hot topics of current research. Since it was simultaneously thought to serve as a souvenir, the book is graced with views of Leipzig painted by the Japanese physicist and artist, Taro Ito, and includes short presentations on the historical background of both diffusion and Leipzig, as the host of the conference. Though the scientific contributions is electronically available by this volume of our Online Journal, clearly, you are welcome to order a hard copy of the conference volume (ISBN 3-86583-073-0, bargain price of € 36), e.g. via info@univerlag-leipzig.de.

The subsequent volume of our Online Journal will contain all those conference papers, which have been submitted after the deadline for contributions to the conference volume. Eventually, and still before Christmas, in volume 4 the most recent regular contributions to our Online Journal will appear.

Due to the overwhelming positive response of the 280 participants, the Scientific Committee of Diffusion Fundamentals decided to start a conference series devoted to the basic principles of theory, experiments and application of Diffusion. Diffusion Fundamentals II will be organized by Prof. S. Brandani, Univ. College London, and will take place in mid-August 2007 in the city of L'Aquila in central Italy.

Jörg Kärger, Paul Heitjans, Farida Grinberg, Gunter Schütz
Editors