Provides an introduction to the chemistry of the solid-water interface, progressing from the simple to more complex and applied. Discusses the important interfaces in natural systems, especially geochemistry, in natural waters, soils and sediments. The processes occurring at mineral-water, particle-water and organism-water interfaces play critical roles in regulating the composition and ecology of oceans and fresh waters, the development of soils and plant nutrient's supply, preserving the integrity of water repositories and in such applications as water technology and corrosion science.

WERNER STUMM is Professor and Head of the Institute for Water Resources and Water Pollution Control associated with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland. He received the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, the Albert Einstein World Award of Science, the Monsanto Prize for Pollution Control, and has been awarded numerous international honorary degrees. He is the author of Aquatic Chemistry and Gewasser als Okosysteme, and has edited four other books. Dr. Stumm received his PhD in chemistry from the University of Zurich; he was a professor of applied chemistry at Harvard University until 1970.