Book excerpt: This volume provides an introduction to the properties of functional differential equations and their applications in diverse fields such as immunology, nuclear power generation, heat transfer, signal processing, medicine and economics. In particular, it deals with problems and methods relating to systems having a memory (hereditary systems). The book contains eight chapters. Chapter 1 explains where functional differential equations come from and what sort of problems arise in applications. Chapter 2 gives a broad introduction to the basic principle involved and deals with systems having discrete and distributed delay. Chapters 3-5 are devoted to stability problems for retarded, neutral and stochastic functional differential equations. Problems of optimal control and estimation are considered in Chapters 6-8. For applied mathematicians, engineers, and physicists whose work involves mathematical modeling of hereditary systems. This volume can also be recommended as a supplementary text for graduate students who wish to become better acquainted with the properties and applications of functional differential equations.