This special issue is devoted to papers from the meeting on Combinatorics, Probability and Computing, held at the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut in Oberwolfach from the 23$^{\rm rd}$ to the 29$^{\rm th}$ of September 2001. As is typical of meetings at Oberwolfach, this was an exciting and stimulating conference; there was a large number of excellent talks, many of which provoked a great deal of interest and discussion among the participants.