This book is exceptional in providing an up-to-date, but compact, introduction to the field of hydrodynamics and fluid dynamics that is both sufficiently comprehensive and easy to read. It covers all the elements of compressible and incompressible fluid dynamics, from the basic concepts through to the constituent equations and their applications. Fluid flows in different environments are thoroughly discussed, and specific aspects such as dissipation, turbulence, shock waves, and blast waves receive detailed attention. The book contains many exercises and draws attention to numerical solutions to specific problems. The book is ideal for undergraduate and graduate students and young researchers in physics, astrophysics, mathematics (pure and applied), and engineering. As this book is intended for a wide audience, the mathematical prerequisites are kept to a low level.

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Roberto A. Capuzzo Dolcetta has been working for 40 years in the field of Physics and Theoretical Astrophysics. Presently, he is a professor at Sapienza, University of Roma, where he currently teaches Fluid Dynamics for Astrophysics and Theoretical Astrophysics. He also has long experience in teaching Gravitational Physics and Theoretical Mechanics at both undergraduate and graduate levels. In addition, he has taught in the USA, delivering, for instance, the undergraduate course on Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology at the University of Washington and Seattle and presenting lectures for graduate students at Boston University. He has several scientific and didactic collaborations with, among the others, the Universities of Heidelberg (DE), of Leiden (NL), and of Prague (CZ). Since May 2010, he has been a scientific reviewer for ISCRA (Italian Super Computing Research Allocation) at CINECA and leader of the panel of Universe Science of the Access Committee of PRACE (the European infrastructure for supercomputing). His research activity is mainly theoretical, in the field of stellar clusters, both galactic and extragalactic. He is an expert in sophisticated numerical methods to deal with large self-gravitating N-body systems also embedded in gaseous cluds. He has obtained important results concerning the evolution and dynamics of the globular cluster systems in galaxies and proposed a new explanation for mass accretion and activity of galactic nuclei, including interpretation of the peculiar dynamics of stars around the Galactic supermassive black hole. He is the author of more than 240 scientific papers in international journals.