Content (Phys. Status Solidi B 10/2012)

The articles in this Special Issue of physica status solidi (b) represent the latest progress in the field of science of phase‐change materials, in particular amorphous chalcogenides. The status of their current commercial as well as forthcoming applications in digital memory, including re‐writable optical discs, such as digital versatile discs, and flash memory is described. The contributions are dedicated to Stanford R. Ovshinsky, a pioneer of science and applications of disordered materials and the inventor of phase‐change memory. They have been written by many of his admirers and followers (see the Preface by A. V. Kolobov and M. Popescu on pp. 1824–1826 ).