Overview

Electroweak Phase Transition and the Early Universe, a NATO Advanced Re- search Workshop, was held March 23-25, 1994, at the Hotel Tivoli in Sintra, Portugal. The meeting was co-sponsored by three other Lisbon-based institutions: the Fundac;ao Gulbenkian, J. N.!. C. T. (Junta Nacional para Investigac;ao Cientifica e Tecnologica) and G. T. A. E. (Grupo Teorico de Alta Energias). The workshop brought together a large number of theoretical physicists who are actively researching topics relevant to the understanding of the standard model of electroweak interactions in the early universe. We were pleased and overwhelmed by the positive, and sometimes instan- taneous response that our enterprise raised right from its inception. The old town of Sintra provided a serene and pleasant environment for the par- ticipants. Some heated and controversial discussions on many unanswered questions in the standard model took place throughout the three days of the workshop. If one consensus emerged from the meeting, it was the imperative need for non-perturbative techniques for the understanding of the electroweak phase transition.