F. dos Santos, Antonio - Böcker

In September 2000 a Summer School on "Factorization and Integrable Systems" was held at the University of Algarve in Portugal. The main aim of the school was to review the modern factorization theory and its application to classical and quantum integrable systems. The program consisted of a number of short courses given by leading experts in the field. The lecture notes of the courses have been specially prepared for publication in this volume. The book consists of four contributions. I. Gohberg, M.A. Kaashoek and I.M. Spitkovsky present an extensive review of the factorization theory of matrix functions relative to a curve, with emphasis on the developments of the last 20-25 years. The group-theoretical approach to classical integrable systems is reviewed by M.A. Semenov-Tian-Shansky. P.P. Kulish surveyed the quantum inverse scattering method using the isotropic Heisenberg spin chain as the main example.

This volume contains the proceedings of the International Workshop on Operator Theory and Applications held at the University of Algarve in Faro, Portugal, September 12-15, in the year 2000. The main topics of the conference were !> Factorization Theory; !> Factorization and Integrable Systems; !> Operator Theoretical Methods in Diffraction Theory; !> Algebraic Techniques in Operator Theory; !> Applications to Mathematical Physics and Related Topics. A total of 94 colleagues from 21 countries participated in the conference. The major part of participants came from Portugal (32), Germany (17), Israel (6), Mexico (6), the Netherlands (5), USA (4) and Austria (4). The others were from Ukraine, Venezuela (3 each), Spain, Sweden (2 each), Algeria, Australia, Belorussia, France, Georgia, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Russia and Turkey (one of each country). It was the 12th meeting in the framework of the IWOTA conferences which started in 1981 on an initiative of Professors 1. Gohberg (Tel Aviv) and J. W. Helton (San Diego). Up to now, it was the largest conference in the field of Operator Theory in Portugal.

This volume is devoted to the life and work of the applied mathematician Professor Erhard Meister (1930-2001). He was a member of the editorial boards of this book series Operator The­ ory: Advances and Applications as well as of the journal Integral Equations and Operator Theory, both published by Birkhauser (now part of Springer-Verlag). Moreover he played a decisive role in the foundation of these two series by helping to establish contacts between Birkhauser and the founder and present chief editor of this book series after his emigration from Moldavia in 1974. The volume is divided into two parts. Part A contains reminiscences about the life of E. Meister including a short biography and an exposition of his professional work. Part B displays the wide range of his scientific interests through eighteen original papers contributed by authors with close scientific and personal relations to E. Meister. We hope that a great part of the numerous features of his life and work can be re-discovered from this book.

This volume is devoted to the memory of the applied mathematician Erhard Meister (1930-2001). It is divided into two parts. Part A contains reminiscences about the life of E. Meister including a short biography and an exposition of his professional work. Part B displays the wide range of his scientific interests through eighteen original papers contributed by authors with close scientific and personal relations to Erhard Meister. It covers various fields of mathematical physics and its theoretical background such as partial differential equations, singular integral and pseudodifferential equations as well as topics from operator theory and complex analysis. Altogether fifty colleagues, friends and family members contributed to honour E. Meister as a researcher and promoter of science and succeeded in drawing a real picture of his life and work.

In September 2000 a Summer School on "Factorization and Integrable Systems" was held at the University of Algarve in Portugal. The main aim of the school was to review the modern factorization theory and its application to classical and quantum integrable systems. The program consisted of a number of short courses given by leading experts in the field. The lecture notes of the courses have been specially prepared for publication in this volume. The book consists of four contributions. I. Gohberg, M.A. Kaashoek and I.M. Spitkovsky present an extensive review of the factorization theory of matrix functions relative to a curve, with emphasis on the developments of the last 20-25 years. The group-theoretical approach to classical integrable systems is reviewed by M.A. Semenov-Tian-Shansky. P.P. Kulish surveyed the quantum inverse scattering method using the isotropic Heisenberg spin chain as the main example.