Book excerpt: This volume contains articles based on talks given at the Robert Brooks Memorial Conference on Geometry and Spectral Theory and the Workshop on Groups, Geometry and Dynamics held at Technion - the Israel Institute of Technology (Haifa). Robert Brooks' (1952 - 2002) broad range of mathematical interests is represented in the volume, which is devoted to various aspects of global analysis, spectral theory, the theory of Riemann surfaces, Riemannian and discrete geometry, and numbertheory. A survey of Brooks' work has been written by his close colleague, Peter Buser. Also included in the volume are articles on analytic topics, such as Szego's theorem, and on geometric topics, such as isoperimetric inequalities and symmetries of manifolds. The book is suitable for graduate studentsand researchers interested in various aspects of geometry and global analysis.