Shock wave research covers important inderdisciplinary areas which range from basic topics on gasdynamics, combustion and detonation, physico-chemistry of high temperature gases, plasma physics, astro and geophysics, materials science, astronautics and space technology to medical and industrial applications. This book includes 202 papers presented at the 18th the International Symposium on Shock Waves which describe the research frontier of shock wave phenopmena and 14 plenary lectures which show the state of the art of various fields of shock wave research. This proceedings is a unique collection of most important and updated shock wave research.