Sid Redner is a condensed-matter theorist whose research focuses on non-equilibrium statistical physics and its applications. Dr Redner has been on the physics faculty at Boston University since 1978 and has been a full professor since 1989. He has published 230 research articles and is the author of A Kinetic View of Statistical Physics with P. L. Krapivsky and E. Ben-Naim (Cambridge University Press, 2010). Dr Redner is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and was a visiting scientist at Schlumberger Research in 1984–1985, the Ulam Scholar at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2004–2005 and a visiting professor at the Universite Paul Sabatier (Toulouse) and Universite Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris) in 2008.

'… this is unquestionably a valuable book, written at an accessible level for graduate students while providing a nice summary of the last century's - and notably the last two decades' - developments of these methods. I do not doubt that this will be a popular book; it fills a hole in the textbook/monograph literature that's needed filling for at least ten years. Moreover, the author's style is relaxed and crystal clear while maintaining mathematical precision and power.' Charles Doering, University of Michigan

• Preface; Errata; 1. First-passage fundamentals; 2. First passage in an interval; 3. Semi-infinite system; 4. Illustrations of first passage in simple geometries; 5. Fractal and nonfractal networks; 6. Systems with spherical symmetry; 7. Wedge domains; 8. Applications to simple reactions; References; Index.

Sid Redner is a condensed-matter theorist whose research focuses on non-equilibrium statistical physics and its applications. Dr Redner has been on the physics faculty at Boston University since 1978 and has been a full professor since 1989. He has published 230 research articles and is the author of A Kinetic View of Statistical Physics with P. L. Krapivsky and E. Ben-Naim (Cambridge University Press, 2010). Dr Redner is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and was a visiting scientist at Schlumberger Research in 1984–1985, the Ulam Scholar at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2004–2005 and a visiting professor at the Universite Paul Sabatier (Toulouse) and Universite Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris) in 2008.

'… this is unquestionably a valuable book, written at an accessible level for graduate students while providing a nice summary of the last century's - and notably the last two decades' - developments of these methods. I do not doubt that this will be a popular book; it fills a hole in the textbook/monograph literature that's needed filling for at least ten years. Moreover, the author's style is relaxed and crystal clear while maintaining mathematical precision and power.' Charles Doering, University of Michigan

• Preface; Errata; 1. First-passage fundamentals; 2. First passage in an interval; 3. Semi-infinite system; 4. Illustrations of first passage in simple geometries; 5. Fractal and nonfractal networks; 6. Systems with spherical symmetry; 7. Wedge domains; 8. Applications to simple reactions; References; Index.

Sid Redner is a condensed-matter theorist whose research focuses on non-equilibrium statistical physics and its applications. Dr Redner has been on the physics faculty at Boston University since 1978 and has been a full professor since 1989. He has published 230 research articles and is the author of A Kinetic View of Statistical Physics with P. L. Krapivsky and E. Ben-Naim (Cambridge University Press, 2010). Dr Redner is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and was a visiting scientist at Schlumberger Research in 1984–1985, the Ulam Scholar at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2004–2005 and a visiting professor at the Universite Paul Sabatier (Toulouse) and Universite Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris) in 2008.

'… this is unquestionably a valuable book, written at an accessible level for graduate students while providing a nice summary of the last century's - and notably the last two decades' - developments of these methods. I do not doubt that this will be a popular book; it fills a hole in the textbook/monograph literature that's needed filling for at least ten years. Moreover, the author's style is relaxed and crystal clear while maintaining mathematical precision and power.' Charles Doering, University of Michigan

• Preface; Errata; 1. First-passage fundamentals; 2. First passage in an interval; 3. Semi-infinite system; 4. Illustrations of first passage in simple geometries; 5. Fractal and nonfractal networks; 6. Systems with spherical symmetry; 7. Wedge domains; 8. Applications to simple reactions; References; Index.