Book excerpt: This volume contains twenty-one solicited articles by speakers at the IWOTA 2009 workshop, ranging from expository surveys to original research papers, each carefully refereed. The contributions reflect recent developments in operator theory and its applications. Consistent with the topics of recent IWOTA meetings, IWOTA 2009 was designed as a comprehensive, inclusive conference covering all aspects of theoretical and applied operator theory, ranging from classical analysis, differential and integral equations, complex and harmonic analysis to mathematical physics, mathematical systems and control theory, signal processing and numerical analysis. The conference brought together international experts for a week-long stay at Hotel Real de Minas, in an atmosphere conducive to fruitful professional interactions. These Proceedings reflect the high quality of the papers presented at the conference.