The Symposium on Atomic Spectroscopy and Highly-Ionized Atoms brings together two important international conferences. The first-the Symposium on Atomic Spectroscopy-has been held quadriennally for some decades. It focusses on the well-defined field of atomic energy levels. The second-the more recently organized Conference on Highly-Ionized Atoms-deals with the new topic of the properties of atoms with most of their orbital electrons removed so they are isoelectronic with the simplest atoms. The merging of these two conferences promises to provide a meeting ground for the exchange of new ideas in a broad range of atomic physics.