Mathematics Frontiers

A celebration of the state of mathematics at the end of the millennium. Produced under the auspices of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), the book was born as part of the activities of World Mathematical Year 2000. It consists of 28 articles written by influential mathematicians.

Tracing the development of mathematics from a biographical standpoint, Mathematics Frontiers: 1950 to the Present profiles innovators from the second half of the 20th century who made significant discoveries in both pure and applied mathematics. From John H. Conway, who helped complete the classification of all finite groups (and invented The Game of Life board game), to Stephen Hawking, who established the mathematical basis for black holes, to Fan Chung, who developed an encoding and decoding algorithm for cell phone calls, this lively survey of contemporary minds behind the math is ideal for middle and high school students seeking resources for research or general interest.

Tracing the development of mathematics from a biographical standpoint, Mathematics Frontiers, Updated Edition profiles innovators from the second half of the 20th century who made significant discoveries in both pure and applied mathematics. The 10 mathematicians in this updated edition exemplify a growing diversity within the mathematical community, drawing from the talents of individuals across all nationalities, races, and genders. From John H. Conway, who helped complete the classification of all finite groups (and invented "The Game of Life" board game), to Stephen Hawking, who established the mathematical basis for black holes, to Fan Chung, who developed an encoding and decoding algorithm for phone calls, this lively survey of contemporary minds behind the math is ideal for middle and high school students seeking resources for research or general interest.

Advances in Mathematics Education is a new and innovative book series published by Springer that builds on the success and the rich history of ZDM—The Inter- tional Journal on Mathematics Education (formerly known as Zentralblatt für - daktik der Mathematik). One characteristic of ZDM since its inception in 1969 has been the publication of themed issues that aim to bring the state-of-the-art on c- tral sub-domains within mathematics education. The published issues include a rich variety of topics and contributions that continue to be of relevance today. The newly established monograph series aims to integrate, synthesize and extend papers from previously published themed issues of importance today, by orienting these issues towards the future state of the art. The main idea is to move the ?eld forward with a book series that looks to the future by building on the past by carefully choosing viable ideas that can fruitfully mutate and inspire the next generations. Taking ins- ration from Henri Poincaré (1854–1912), who said “To create consists precisely in not making useless combinations and in making those which are useful and which are only a small minority.

This volume brings together articles on the mathematical aspects of life sciences, astrophysics, and nonlinear wave problems. It covers theoretical problems associated with the nervous system, drosophila embryos, protein folding, biopolymers, protoplanetary disks and extrasolar planets, gaseous disks, spiral galaxies, dark matter dynamics, star formation, solitary waves, photonics, and nonlinear light propagation in periodic media. The contributions are written for a general audience, and the authors have included references for further reading.

From a mathematical point of view, physiologically structured population models are an underdeveloped branch of the theory of infinite dimensional dynamical systems. We have called attention to four aspects: (i) A choice has to be made about the kind of equations one extracts from the predominantly verbal arguments about the basic assumptions, and subsequently uses as a starting point for a rigorous mathematical analysis. Though differential equations are easy to formulate (different mechanisms don't interact in infinites imal time intervals and so end up as separate terms in the equations) they may be hard to interpret rigorously as infinitesimal generators. Integral equations constitute an attractive alternative. (ii) The ability of physiologically structured population models to increase our un derstanding of the relation between mechanisms at the i-level and phenomena at the p-level will depend strongly on the development of dynamical systems lab facilities which are applicable to this class of models. (iii) Physiologically structured population models are ideally suited for the for mulation of evolutionary questions. Apart from the special case of age (see Charlesworth 1980, Yodzis 1989, Caswell 1989, and the references given there) hardly any theory exists at the moment. This will, hopefully, change rapidly in the coming years. Again the development of appropriate software may turn out to be crucial.

This volume contains a selection of papers presented at the 2008 Conference on Frontiers of Applied and Computational Mathematics (FACM'08), held at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), May 19?21, 2008. The papers reflect the conference themes of mathematical biology, mathematical fluid dynamics, applied statistics and biostatistics, and waves and electromagnetics. Some of the world's most distinguished experts in the conference focus areas provide a unique and timely perspective on leading-edge research, research trends, and important open problems in several fields, making it a ?must read? for active mathematical scientists. Included are major new contributions by a distinguished trio of plenary speakers: Frank Hoppensteadt contributes a thought-provoking paper on the evolving relationship between applied mathematics and the computer; Pranab Sen explores exciting new trends in computational biology and informatics; and Jean-Marc Vanden-Broeck describes his recent research on 3D free surface flows. There are also many innovative contributions by a prestigious group of invited mini-symposium speakers, making this an indispensable collection for professionals and graduate students in the mathematical sciences and related fields.Finally, the 75th birthday dedication to Daljit S Ahluwalia ? for his many contributions to building a world-class mathematical sciences department at NJIT ? adds to making this a one-of-a-kind volume.