  Studying heavy flavour physics is driven by multiple motivations: to probe
our theoretical control over QCD; enhance our information on gluon and sea
quark structure functions; use heavy flavour production as signal for the onset
of the quark-gluon plasma; revisit light flavour spectroscopy through the final
states in heavy flavour decays; extract fundamental quantities like CKM and MNS
parameters; search for new Physics. The last two years have witnessed
tremendous amplification in our knowledge of heavy flavour dynamics. We know
the elements of the CKM matrix with significantly improved reliability; a new
door has been opened by the observation of K^+ --> pi^+ nu nu-bar; with direct
CP violation being established in K_L decays and the expected huge CP asymmetry
been observed in B_d(t) --> psi K_S the CKM description has attained the level
of a tested theory of CP violation. Yet more than ever the Standard Model is
viewed as incomplete: apart from the peculiar pattern in mass related
parameters of the fundamental fermions there is more direct evidence in the
signals for neutrino oscillations, the strong CP problem and the baryon number
of the universe. A worldwide, interrelated and comprehensive program has been
developed for heavy quark and lepton physics that will provide essential
impetus towards a deeper understanding of nature's grand design.
