The 1984 International Conference on Plasma Physics (1984 ICPP) was the third in a series of the biennial joint session of the Kiev International Conference on Plasma Theory and the International Congress on Waves and Instabilities in Plasmas. As was the case for the previous two conferences (Nagoya, 1980, and Göteborg, 1982), the scope of and the participation at the Lausanne conference were very broad. Its scientific programme included more than 450 papers, 50 of which were presented as invited talks. More than 400 participants from 35 countries attended the conference.