Book excerpt: The First International Congress of the International Society for Analysis, its Applications and Computations (ISAAC'97) was held at the University of Delaware from 3 to 7 June 1997. As specified in the invitation of the President Professor Robert P. Gilbert of the ISAAC, we organized the session on Reproducing Kerneis and Their Applications. In our session, we presented 24 engaging talks on topics of current interest to the research community. As suggested and organized by Professor Gilbert, we hereby publish its Proceedings. Rather than restricting the papers to Congress participants, we asked the Ieading mathematicians in the field of the theory of reproducing kern eIs to submit papers. However, due to time restrietions and a compulsion to limit the Proceedings a reasonable size, we were unable to obtain a comprehensive treatment of the theory of reproducing kernels. Nevertheless, we hope this Proceedings of the First International Conference on reproducing kerneis will become a significant reference volume. Indeed, we believe that the theory of reproducing kernels will stand out as a fundamental and beautiful contribution in mathematical sciences with a broad array of applications to other areas of mathematics and science. We would like to thank Professor Robert Gilbert for his substantial contri bu tions to the Congress and to our Proceedings. We also express our sincere thanks to the staff of the University of Delaware for their manifold cooperation in organizing the Congress.