The first international yeast meeting at Carbondale in 1961 acknowledged the importance of the yeast research community that at that time had already become established. Since then, the yeast community has moved from classical genetics through the molecular age and finally into the post-genomic era. Along the way, the number of researchers using yeast as their model organism has expanded far beyond anyone's expectation and the tools that have been developed have brought yeast to the point where it is arguably the most powerful eukaryotic model system available for studying basic cellular processes. Studies in yeast have made major contributions to the understanding of a wide variety of fundamental processes, including the cell division cycle and protein targeting to name just two. The post-genomic era has enabled both genomewide and focused studies in yeast to advance at an amazing pace; yet the knowledge of yeast is still far from complete. There is still much to learn and the wide varieties of techniques that can be used now add to the power of yeast as an experimental system.