The Laboratoire National SATURNE (LNS) was established in Saclay through the joint efforts and funds of the CEA and the CNRS/IN2P3. The first proton beam from the new synchrotron SATURNE-2 was obtained in July 1978. The laboratory's activities stopped in December 1997.The main subjects of research concerned fundamental nuclear physics -- more precisely, the 'intermediate energy' domain. There, nucleons could be seen individually by the probe and were possibly excited in the first baryonic resonances (N* and Δ). Light mesons were produced in elementary processes or in the nuclear medium. SATURNE was also seen as a polyvalent facility for other domains of physics. The laboratory was open to both the national and the international community of physicists.The LNS was an extremely powerful laboratory for accelerators and ion source developments. The synchrotrons (MIMAS and SATURNE) could deliver the highest intensity of polarized beams (protons and deuterons) in the GeV range, and also a variety of other projectiles.This book contains the contributions to a colloquium held in Paris in May 1998. It synthesizes the various subjects of the research activities driven by SATURNE-2, and presents the progress of accelerator physics and the impact of the LNS through its various collaborations and studies. It also provides the starting point for bibliographical research on projects carried out with this accelerator.