Book excerpt: Nonlinear equations arise in essentially every branch of modern science, engineering, and mathematics. However, in only a very few special cases is it possible to obtain useful solutions to nonlinear equations via analytical calculations. As a result, many scientists resort to computational methods. This book contains the proceedings of the Joint AMS-SIAM Summer Seminar, ``Computational Solution of Nonlinear Systems of Equations,'' held in July 1988 at Colorado State University. The aim of the book is to give a wide-ranging survey of essentially all of the methods which comprise currently active areas of research in the computational solution of systems of nonlinear equations. A number of ``entry-level'' survey papers were solicited, and a series of test problems has been collected in an appendix. Most of the articles are accessible to students who have had a course in numerical analysis.