The question of how alcohol alters mood states and why this may end up becoming an addiction has puzzled alcohol researchers for decades. In this volume, a group of highly distinguished experts and leaders in alcohol addiction research presents our current state of knowledge and remaining research challenges, as well as interesting viewpoints on future research directions aimed to stimulate communication and convergence between clinical and preclinical researchers, and to renew interest in the vibrant field of alcohol addiction research among a broad scientifically minded audience. Five Current Topics are discussed in this volume: Neurobiological mechanisms of alcoholism, Genetics, Clinical phenotypes and their preclinical models, Brain imaging, and Translational approaches for treatment development, both pharmacological and non-pharmacological. These areas have in our opinion substantially brought alcohol research forward and influenced our thinking about how to reach our common paramount goal, namely to offer effective treatment solutions for an extensive group of patients with largely unmet medical needs.