Book excerpt: World Scientific Series in Applicable Analysis (WSSIAA) aims at reporting new developments of high mathematical standard and current interest. Each volume in the series shall be devoted to the mathematical analysis that has been applied or potentially applicable to the solutions of scientific, engineering, and social problems. This volume contains 30 research articles on the theory of optimization and its applications by the leading scientists in the field. It is hoped that the material in the present volume will open new vistas in research.Contributors: B D O Anderson, M Bertaja, O J Boxma, O Burdakov, A Cantoni, D J Clements, B D Craven, J B Cruz, Jr., P Diamond, S V Drakunov, Y G Evtushenko, N M Filatov, I Galligani, J C Geromel, F Giannessi, M J Grimble, G O Guardabassi, D-W Gu, C H Houpis, D G Hull, C Itiki, X Jian, M A Johnson, R E Kalaba, J C Kalkkuhl, M R Katebi, T J Kim, P Kloeden, T Kobylarz, A J Laub, C S Lee, G Leitmann, B-G Liu, J Liu, Z-Q Luo, K A Lurie, P Maponi, J B Matson, A Mess, G Pacelli, M Pachter, I Postlethwaite, T Rapcsak, M C Recchioni, Y Sakawa, S V Savastyuk, K Schittkowski, Y Shi, M A Sikora, D D Siljak, K L Teo, C Tovey, P Tseng, F E Udwadia, H Unbehauen, A Vladimirov, B Vo, J F Whidborne, R Xu, P L Yu, V G Zhadan, F Zirilli.