Synthesis of defined polymer architectures

'Synthesis of Defined Polymer Architectures' was the topic of the 8th Dresden Polymer Discussion held in Meissen, near Dresden, in April 2001. At the conference new and interesting results concerning synthetic strategies (ionic, cationic, radical, metallocene, catalyzed), specific polymer architectures (block, graft, stars, dendritic) and supramolecular structures were presented by many of the world's leading researchers in this field. A selection of oral papers from the discussion has been collected for this volume of Macromolecular Symposia.