This article is the introduction to the volume of proceedings of the "InternationalSymposium Atomic Cluster Collisions: fission, fusion, electron, ion and photon impact" (a Europhysics Conference) held in St. Petersburg, Russia, July 18-21, 2003 (ISACC 2003) as a satellite meeting of the XXIII International Conference on Photonic, Electronic, and Atomic Collisions (ICPEAC 2003, Stockholm, Sweden, July 23-29, 2003). A brief introduction to atomic cluster physics, the interdisciplinary field, which developed rather successfully during recent years, is presented. A review of recent achievements in the detailed ab initio description of structure and properties of atomic clusters and complex molecules as well as the methods of their study is given. The main trends of development in the field are discussed and some of its new focuses are outlined.
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