This volume contains 102 papers from the IAG Scientific Assembly, held on the premises of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest from 2nd to 7th September, 2001. These assemblies are designed to give an integrated view of geodetic activities to a broad spectrum of researchers and practitioners in geodesy and geophysics. At this meeting, which emphasized new vistas, a total of 380 papers were presented; 100 were selected for review and publication in this volume. They are representative of this meeting in the sense that they present current research areas in geodesy to the interested geophysicist and new research challenges to the geodetic specialist.