This volume has grown from a conference entitled Harmonic Maps, Minimal Sur- faces and Geometric Flows which was held at the Universite de Bretagne Occi- dentale from July 7th-12th, 2002, in the town of Brest in Brittany, France. We welcomed many distinguished mathematicians from around the world and a dy- namic meeting took place, with many fruitful exchanges of ideas. In order to produce a work that would have lasting value to the mathematical community, the organisers decided to invite a small number of participants to write in-depth articles around a common theme. These articles provide a...