In June 2009, a workshop was convened under the auspices of the Global Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms (GEOHAB) program to develop strategies for using observations and models to address the science questions articulated in the Open Science Meeting Reports for each of the GEOHAB Core Research Projects (Cembella et al., 2010; Gentien et al., 2008; Glibert, 2006; Pitcher et al., 2005). A total of 80 participants from 26 nations, including 20 students and postdocs met for one week at the National University of Ireland Galway (McGillicuddy et al., in preparation). This volume is comprised of a set of papers conceived at the Galway workshop. Collectively, these contributions illustrate the wide variety of approaches being brought to bear on harmful algal bloom phenomena, spanning conceptual, empirical, and numerical approaches.