Intense Laser Interactions With Atoms and Molecules Eric Wells Department of Physics University of Virginia Intense lasers can produce electric fields that rival the electron-nuclei binding in atoms and molecules. While many phenomena involving interactions between atoms and these strong external fields are fairly well understood, the study of molecules in similar strong fields is a more difficult problem, as I will illustrate with some of our recent experimental results that have yet to be explained theoretically. Despite the limitations in understanding how molecules behave in strong external fields, intense optical pulses have found a variety of applications in molecular systems, including the use of shaped laser pulses to control complex systems and the possibility of using rescattered electrons as ultrafast probes of molecular dynamics. I will give brief progress reports of our current research in each of these areas.