Abstract: Decoherence is the suppression of interference effects in quantum mechanics due to the effect of noise from the interaction with an environment. Decoherence is commonly described using the Lindblad equation for the time evolution of open quantum systems.  We review some joint work with E M Graefe, B Longstaff and T Plastow on the Lindblad dynamics of Gaussian states and apply it to study the onset of decoherence and its dependence on the coupling to the environment.