edited by G Bruni (INFN-Bologna, Italy), G Iacobucci (INFN-Bologna, Italy), & R Nania (INFN-Bologna, Italy)

The proceedings of DIS 2001 present the most updated status of deep inelastic scattering (DIS) physics. Topics like structure function measurements and phenomenology, QCD studies in DIS and photoproduction, spin physics and diffractive interactions are reviewed in detail, with emphasis on those studies that push the test of QCD and the Standard Model to the limits of their present range of validity, towards both the very high and the very low four-momentum transfers in the lepton–proton scattering. Moreover, this workshop coincided with the transition between the first period of experimentation at the HERA ep collider at DESY and the start of the updated HERA II operation — allowing a review of what has been learned up to now and a discussion on the main future directions of research in this field.

• Gribov Program of Understanding Confinement (Y Dokshitzer)
• Status of Structure Functions and Partons (A D Martin)
• Hadron Structure Functions: The Lattice Approach (R Petronzio)
• Report of the Diffraction Physics Working Group (H Abramowicz & J Bartels)
• Bottom Production in Two-Photon Collisions at LEP (A Böhrer)
• Measurements of Hadronic Structure Functions of the Photon at LEP (R J Taylor)
• Virtual Photon Structure in HERA (D Kcira)
• Future Deep Inelastic Scattering with HERA and THERA (M Klein)
• Isolated High Energy Leptons and Missing Transverse Momentum at ZEUS (T Matsushita)
• Hadron Formation in DIS in a Nuclear Environment (V Muccifora)
• Generalized Parton Distributions (M Diehl)
• Timelike Compton Scattering (E R Berger et al.)
• Odderon in QCD (G P Vacca)
• Unified Approach to Hard Diffraction (R Peschanski)
• Diffractive Hadronic Final States (T Yamashita)
• and other papers