The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has been designed to allow us to study in detail the formation of stars and panetary systems in the solar neighborhood, the evolution of the insterstellar medium of galaxies in the Universe and to provide images at millimeter wavelenghts with angular resolution and fidelity similar or better than the current generation of space observatories and adaptive optics fed large optical/infrared telescopes. ALMA is a global partnership between Europe, North America and East Asia to build world leading observatory at millimeter wavelengths in the coming decades; ESO is leading the European effort in this project. In this talk I will describe the scientific goals and capabilities of ALMA, the current status of the construction and the plans for Early Science and Full Science operations.