Book excerpt: This book brings together papers from all spheres of mechanical engineering related to gears and transmissions, from fundamentals to advanced applications, from academic results in numerical and experimental research, to new approaches to gear design and aspects of their optimization synthesis and to the latest developments in manufacturing. Furthermore, this volume honours the work of Faydor L. Litvin on the 100th anniversary of this birth. He is acknowledged as the founder of the modern theory of gearing. An exhaustive list of his contributions and achievements and a biography are included.