This school is the 62nd in the series organized at the Culham Campus in Oxfordshire, a leading site for research in plasma physics and controlled nuclear fusion carried out under the auspices of the UK Atomic Energy Authority. The aim of the Summer School is to provide an introduction to the fundamental principles of plasma physics, together with a broad understanding of its fields of application. We assume no previous knowledge of the subject, but familiarity with electromagnetism and applied mathematics at first degree level will be helpful.