Alan Baker's 60th birthday in August 1999 offered an ideal opportunity to organize a conference at ETH Zurich with the goal of presenting the state of the art in number theory and geometry. Many of the leaders in the subject were brought together to present an account of research in the last century as well as speculations for possible further research. The papers in this volume cover a broad spectrum of number theory including geometric, algebrao-geometric and analytic aspects. This volume will appeal to number theorists, algebraic geometers, and geometers with a number-theoretic background. However, it will also be valuable for mathematicians (in particular research students) who would like to be informed of the state of number theory at the start of the 21st century and in possible developments for the future.
