Book excerpt: Operations research uses quantitative models to analyze and predict the behavior of systems and to provide information for decision makers. Two key concepts in operations research are optimization and uncertainty. This volume consists of a collection of peer reviewed papers from the International Workshop on Recent Advances in Stochastic Operations Research (RASOR 2005), August 25OCo26, 2005, Canmore, Alberta, Canada. In particular, the book focusses on models in stochastic operations research, including queueing models, inventory models, financial engineering models, reliability models, and simulations models."