Book excerpt: The meeting in Birmingham, Alabama, provided a forum for the discussion of recent developments in the theory of ordinary and partial differential equations, both linear and non-linear, with particular reference to work relating to the equations of mathematical physics. The meeting was attended by about 250 mathematicians from 22 countries. The papers in this volume all involve new research material, with at least outline proofs; some papers also contain survey material. Topics covered include: Schrödinger theory, scattering and inverse scattering, fluid mechanics (including conservative systems and inertial manifold theory attractors), elasticity, non-linear waves, and feedback control theory.