The physics of highly charged ions has become an essential ingredient of many modern research fields, such as x-ray astronomy and astrophysics, con- trolled thermonuclear fusion, heavy ion nuclear physics, charged particle ac- celerator physics, beam-foil spectroscopy, creation of xuv and x-ray lasers, etc. A broad spectrum of phenomena in high-temperature laboratory and astrophysical plasmas, as well as many aspects of their global physical state...