1. Opening remarks; 2. A heavy ion phenomenology primer; 3. Results from lattice QCD at nonzero temperature; 4. Introducing the gauge/string duality; 5. A duality toolbox; 6. Bulk properties of strongly coupled plasma; 7. From hydrodynamics for far-from-equilibrium dynamics; 8. Probing strongly coupled plasma; 9. Quarkonium mesons in strongly coupled plasma; 10. Concluding remarks and outlook; Appendixes; References; Index.