Book excerpt: In the past few years it has become apparent that Fourier Trans form infrared spectroscopy is developing into an excellent technique for solving some of the very difficult problems encountered in analytical chemistry. The applications of FT-IR include the detec tion and identification of chemical components separated by gas chromatography techniques, determination of low concentration com ponents in a mixture, and problems which have energy limitations such as water samples, opaque samples and biological systems. The lectures presented in this volume will be utilized at the NATO Advanced Study Institute in Florence, Italy from August 31 to September 12, 1980. These lectures are divided into three main sections: Instrumentation and Theory, Techniques, and Applications. The first section includes a basic introduction to interferometry and the operating parameters. The Techniques section consists of several lectures on accessories used in FT-IR, software and data systems, and special handling techniqucs. The third section con tains an abundance of information on the applications of the FT-IR technique to inorganic and organic molecules, polymers, biological systems, solids and to the determination of molecular structures and conformational analyses. The contents of this volume should provide the reader with the present applications in this field as well as an indication of possible future trends. In gcneral the lectures are of a pedagogical nature and are not to be considered as review articles.