These are the proceedings of the XVII International Conference on Recent Progress in Many-Body Theories, which was held from 8–13 September 2013 in Rostock, Germany. The conference continued the triennial series initiated in Trieste in 1978 and was devoted to new developments in the field of many-body theories. The conference series encourages the exchange of ideas between physicists working in such diverse areas as nuclear physics, quantum chemistry, lattice Hamiltonians or quantum uids. Many-body theories are an integral part in different fields of theoretical physics such as condensed matter, nuclear matter and field theory. Phase transitions and macroscopic quantum effects such as magnetism, Bose-Einstein condensation, super uidity or superconductivity have been investigated within ultra-cold gases, finite systems or various nanomaterials. The conference series on Recent Progress in Many-Body Theories is devoted to foster the interaction and to cross-fertilize between different fields and to discuss future lines of research. The topics of the 17th meeting were Cluster Physics Cold Gases High Energy Density Matter and Intense Lasers Magnetism New Developments in Many-Body Techniques Nuclear Many-Body and Relativistic Theories Quantum Fluids and Solids Quantum Phase Transitions Topological Insulators and Low Dimensional Systems. 109 participants from 20 countries participated. 44 talks and 61 posters werde presented. As a particular highlight of the conference, The Eugene Feenberg Memorial Medal for outstanding results in the field of many-body theory and The Hermann Kummel Early Achievement Award in Many-Body Physics for young scientists in that field were awarded. The Feenberg Medal went jointly to Patrick Lee (MIT, USA) for his fundamental contributions to condensed-matter theory, especially in regard to the quantum Hall effect, to universal conductance uctuations, and to the Kondo effect in quantum dots, and Douglas Scalapino (UC Santa Barbara, USA) for his imaginative use and development of the Monte-Carlo approach and for his ground-breaking contributions to superconductivity. The Kummel Award went to Max Metlitski (UC Santa Barbara) for remarkable advances in the theory of quantum criticality in metals. The nominations for the Kummel Award were of such high standard that the Committee announced Honourable Mentions to Martin Eckstein (MPDS/U Hamburg, Germany) for his leading contributions in the development of non-equilibrium dynamical mean field theory, Emanuel Gull (U Michigan, USA) for the development of the Continuous-Time Auxiliary-Field Quantum Monte Carlo Method and for its use in understanding the interplay of the pseudogap and superconductivity in the Hubbard model and Kai Sun (U Michigan, USA) for seminal contributions to the theory of topological effects in strongly correlated electron systems. The Conference continues the series of conferences held before in Trieste, Italy (1979); Oaxtapec, Mexico (1981); Odenthal-Altenberg, Germany (1983); San Francisco, USA (1985); Oulu, Finland (1987); Arad, Israel (1989); Minneapolis, USA (1991); Schloe Segau, Austria (1994); Sydney, Australia (1997); Seattle, USA (1999); Manchester, UK (2001); Santa Fe, USA (2004); Buenos Aires, Argentina (2005); Barcelona, Spain (2007); Columbus, USA (2009) and Bariloche, Argentina (2011). It has been a great pleasure to prepare for the conference. We thank the IAC and in particular Susana Hernandez and David Neilson as well as the International Programme Committee for their great support and advice. Many more people have been involved locally in organizing this international meeting and thanks goes to them, in particular to the members of the LOC Sonja Lorenzen, Dieter Bauer, Niels-Uwe Bastian, Marina Hertzfeldt, Volker Mosert and Gerd Ropke. The next meeting will take place in Buffalo, USA in 2015 and we look forward to yet another exciting exchange on Recent Progress in Many-Body Theories. Heidi Reinholz and Jordi Boronat Guest editors Details of the committees are available in the PDF.