On September 1-7, 1996 a conference on Groups and Geometries took place in lovely Siena, Italy. It brought together experts and interested mathematicians from numerous countries. The scientific program centered around invited exposi tory lectures; there also were shorter research announcements, including talks by younger researchers. The conference concerned a broad range of topics in group theory and geometry, with emphasis on recent results and open problems. Special attention was drawn to the interplay between group-theoretic methods and geometric and combinatorial ones. Expanded versions...