Overview

The present NATO Advanced Research Workshop held in Cargese (Corsica) from June 3rd to June 7th, 1991, was devoted to Nuclear Shapes and Nuclear Structure at Low Excitation Energies. We tried to organize the Workshop to facilitate the exchange of information in a rapidly moving field, where theorists and experimentalists are continuously developing and implementing new and powerful techniques in order, both to improve our knowledge and understanding of already known areas and to open completely new and fascinating frontier domains, as for example in the case of the recent discovery of Superdeformations. The informal atmosphere of Cargese contributed to easy contacts and scientific exchanges and to relaxed - although fruitful and sometimes passionate - discussions. We would like to express our gratitude to NATO for its financial support which made this Workshop possible. We acknowledge the support of the Institut de Physique Nucleaire et de Physique des Particules (France), the Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique (France), and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Mathematiques et Physique de Base (France). Our special appreciation is due to Frederique Dykstra and Josepha Nsair for their outstanding organizational work throughout the preparation and duration of this conference. We want to acknowledge at this occasion the help of many people from the departments of the Institut de Physique Nucleaire of Orsay. It is also a pleasure to thank the Universite de Nice for making available the facilities of the Cargese Scientific Institute.