This book on water soluble polymers (WSP) contains contributions that deal with this extremely popular area of scientific investigation in polymer science and engineering, both in academic and industrial environments.Research and technology on WSP are of current interest not only due to the largely unstudied polymerization kinetics of WSP, but also due to the plethora of technologically innovative applications.Synthetic WSP (copolymers and terpolymers) can modify and improve aqueous solution properties in relation to gelation, thickening, emulsification, stabilization and rheology.Therefore, these polymers find many uses as flocculants and coagulants (for waste water treatment), film-formers, binders, lubricants and coatings, and in enhanced oil recovery (EOR), dewatering, oil-field product and mineral processing, pulp and paper industry (improving papers printing quality), water retention and treatment, and also as biomedical, pharmaceutical and high value cosmetic products.Hence, the invited contributions cover a wide variety of topics, starting from polymerization kinetics (emphasis on multicomponent systems), clarification of factor effects (for example, ionic strength, pH, monomer concentration, and how they influence important chain characteristics and properties), mathematical modelling, parameter estimation, and process design, and ending with applications (i.e., using the well characterized polymer molecules to deliver specific desirable properties for specific applications (hydrogels, cosmetics, drug release, flocculation, nanotechnology, enhanced oil recovery, polymer flooding, absorbents, crosslinking, and many others)).The contributions integrate experimental and theoretical/ computational studies from both academics and researchers and practitioners from related industry.This book contains 17 very high quality contributions from author groups that span the globe and represent currently active researchers in the WSP area.The topics are not only current (cutting-edge research) but also of great academic (fundamental phase) and industrial (applied phase) interest.The careful reader will observe the evolution of several common threads (traversing the wide spectrum of polymerization kinetics and modelling, all the way to properties of nano-composites and hydrogels) in the themes of these 17 contributions and the (water soluble) materials they describe.